Robohelp 9.0.1.232 crashes when moving folders

[eneego_2011]

The problem:

• RH9 has started to crash after i move about the 2nd folder of topics. it can be 1 or more topics in the folder and it still crashes.
• Upon restart the old location contains the original topics but with broken links; the new location contains just the moved and empty folder.
• In Windows (on disk) the new location contains the correct files, but requires me to "import" the files or use "tools-->resolve broken links" to fix
• random folders have been removed from RH9 - but exist on disk

Steps taken:

1. uninstalled RH7, RH8 & RH9 completely (as RH9 has no "repair" feature which is disheartenting)
2. Re-installed RH9
3. Updated to latest version available on Adobe's site
4. Running correct Service Pack

Questions:

• Is there a Preferences file I could trash and replace?
• Has anyone else had this problem?
• Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

--bill

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community

Can you please click File > Rename Project and take a screen capture of the dialog you see? Please post the screen capture into this thread using the forum interface.

Don't actually follow through with the renaming. Just get the dialog open so you can grab it. Then cancel.

Cheers... Rick

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[eneego_2011]

screen capture of rename screen:

here you go rick!

thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

Well frapdoodle!

I say that because I was fully expecting to see a drive letter other than C in that dialog. (RoboHelp projects are notorious for causing bad things to happen when you store them on the network)

The only other thing that comes to mind is that perhaps you might try creating a folder closer to the root of the C drive. Perhaps C:\Projects. Then copy your folder to this folder and see how it goes.

Do any of the files involved use characters other than a-z, A-Z, 0-9 or an underscore? If so, that could cause problems too.

Cheers... Rick

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[eneego_2011]

aw man, i'm crushed! i was ready to call you *my hero* 😃

the files all use the normal set of characters... and these were all working fine the last time i updated the doc'n... but in looking through some of the other posts, it may be an upgrade problem. i upgraded from 7 to 9 this year and perhaps there's some latent conflict going on... but it's gonna kill me if RH crashes and deletes files everytime i move a folder...

but thank you very much for trying to help!

(i'm sure you've been a hero to many, just not me today - smile)

[Peter Grainge]

How are you moving the topics?

Are you doing so via Project Manager (correct) or in Windows Explorer (will cause exactly this problem)?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[eneego_2011]

Hi Peter, thanks for your input.

I'm moving them within Project Manager, which is why it's all the more maddening.

If I move one folder, it may work. Maybe even 2 folders, but by the third RH9 crashes and loses the links to all 3 - which I can repair, but it's when I found out that it was randomly deleting other folders that I began to lose my mind. Fortunately, my TOC showed me which files were affected...

A related task I've been doing lately has been trying to tweak the "printed output using adobe robohelp 9" in your very helpful guide. I can only wonder if they're somehow related (extreme I know, but I have been trying to come up with plausible answers any way I can!).

Thanks again.

--bill

[eneego_2011]

Also, wanted to mention that I noticed several of the folders/topics have "Map ID" problems (see attachement). I do not use this as part of my help creation, but wonder if it's somehow related. Additionally, I don't even have the bandwith to quickly grasp what's being asked of me here (as I rush to fix the bleeding in RH9 and meet tomorrow's deadline!)

Any help would be certainly appreciated.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

A thought popped into my mind about this. I'm wondering if you could avoid the issue by working as follows:

Instead of wholesale moving folders, try creating new folders in the desired locations. Then move topics from folder to folder. Once the old folder is empty, delete it.

Might be worth trying.

Cheers... Rick

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[RoboAsh]

Hi ,

        Please try moving the folders with the filters (Show/Hide files) of the Project manager view unchecked.

The Show/Hide files can be found in the Project manager pod (a funnel shape icon), just leave the "Show topics" checked.

after every complete move of folder please Save the project, and do not start another move folder until the first move is shown completed.

But by the symptoms of your problem it seems the .cpd file of your project is not correctly updated.

Please confirm few things

1. .fpj file (inside folder) which can be opened in notepad is correctly updated in such inconsistent project.

2. After fresh upgrade from RH 7 project to RH 9 project delete the .cpd file and reopen project and check that all the folders show up proper content. (there is a possibility that the folder level information (.fpj) are not in sync with project level information (.cpd)) -- oucome of a corrupt project.

3. Lastly please check the same action on RH 7 itself (assuming the project was upgraded from version RH 7), if the same is crashing in RH 7 itself then the problem is in the project.

Regards

Ashish

[RoboWizard]

Hi Ashish

Question here. Would the same be achieved by toggling the view from Global to Classic and working only within the HTML Files (Topics) pseudo folder?

Thanks... Rick

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[RoboAsh]

Hi Rick,

     My guess was that the update of Project manager was causing the problem and even in the Classic the refresh will be done for all the files if the filter is not on.

but it seems there is some other problem.

Will require the project to diagnose the issue

Regards

Ashish

[eneego_2011]

Hi,

Thanks for your help.

• Unfortunatley, my set up was already configured like that (it may be the default).
• I also rotated between clicking "save" and "save all" after each move - and it seemed to complete its process before I did the next one
• My .fpj file is updated with yesterday's date (current)
• My .xpj file hasn't been changed since September (hmmm)
• My .cpd file has today's date (presumably since I opened it fresh today)
• I blew away RH7 & RH8, but this is an upgrade from RH7 (RH8 was for another project)

After today's delivery, I will try starting without the .cpd file and provide a status.

Lastly, thanks RoboWizard/Captiv8r, the creation of new folders and moving the topics there sounds like a great workaround. Because all of these problems occurred when I was moving entire folders at one time.

Thanks all.

--bill

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

Keep in mind that I've been using RoboHelp for about 20 years. So with that in mind, it's self evident that I'm very fond of working a different way. When RoboHelp 7 was introduced, it shipped with a new "view" of things that was unfamiliar. This was called "Global view". Fortunately, the development team provided a "Classic" view. That's the view I prefer.

Call me a stodgy old c00t if you want, but I find this view vastly simpler to use than the "new and improved" globall view.

Additionally, I believe the default setting for the dialog you see when clicking the funnel icon is to have all options enabled.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[RoboAsh]

Hi Bill,

     can you please share your project so that I can understand the issue and even find a workaround for you.

Please share the project via senditnow.com or acrobat.com if it large or send a zipped project directly to ashishchandra.gupta@gmail.com.

If you are able to recreate the issue with a smaller version of the same project with even dummy content then do share it if you cant share the whole project.

regards

Ashish