error message: file doesn't exist...

[jessicap64741243]

My coworker is experiencing a problem that I haven't seen any solutions to online:

She is trying to save a captivate file from the network to her local drive. I tried the same and am getting the same error:

"File doesn't exist C:\users\powersj\documents\adobecaptivate\cachedprojects [it goes on]. The saved zip file might get corrupted. You should try creating the zip again."

There error message showed for a moment, but when I clicked elsewhere on the screen the "compressing file" box stayed on in captivate and wouldn't go away. I ended up having to close captivate altogether.

I've opened other versions of this same project from the network drive before, saved them locally, and then reposted them to the network with no issue. any ideas on what's going on here?

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

It looks like two things are going on here.

One is that you're working on project files over a network connection.  And that's the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette with Captivate project corruption and losing all your work.  NEVER open CPTX files over a network connection with Captivate. Copy the files to your hard drive using Windows Explorer and then open them in Captivate from there.

The second thing is that you seem to be trying to save files to your Project Cache folder.  And that's the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette with bullets in every chamber.

The project cache folder is NOT for saving CPTX files.  NEVER save your project files there.  That's the folder that Captivate uses to store working files as you are editing the project.  From time to time you need to hit the Clear Cache button in Preferences to get rid of old files in that folder.  When you do Captivate will delete EVERYTHING in there, including any CPTX files you may have left lying around.

Never use the Project Cache folder for storing any important files.

[jessicap64741243]

See, that's why we're confused, because we're not saving anything to the cache file. The file is being saved in a folder we created on each of our local drives, not in a cache folder. I know captivate automatically saves files there, but that's not something we ever touch.

[jessicap64741243]

she cleared the cache and that seems to have solved it. thanks!

[RodWard]

I'm also finding with Captivate 9 that it certainly DOES seem more sensitive to the size of the Project Cache than previously.  It might be my imagination but after working several client files this week that are over 100 megabytes in size, I was having Cp9 crash regularly unless I cleared out the cache at least twice a day.

[BDuckWorks]

RodWard‌ has offered some good details about project setup and file storage.

I thought I'd chime in on what to do now:

1) I would save and close the Cp file, exit captivate and use windows explorer to move the files from the network store to a local folder on your C: (boot) drive.

Ensure, as RodWard mentioned above, the file is NOT stored in your project Cache.

2) Open the file, and save as from the new location. Once you open the file in Captivate again, and saved, the Cp installation will see where it is now located.

A key point to note is now that you have moved this file off your network, it is likely NOT backed up.

3) Enable backup file option in Captivate

Beware: this will put a duplicate file on your LOCAL drive, right next to the other file.

4) Create a backup strategy, automate as best as possible, and TEST the backup files by restoring.

YOU MUST BACKUP these files to protect your project from data loss, as it can still happen. It IS far less likely to happen from Captivate that keeping the files on the network. If I'm making heavy edits, I'll copy and version my Cp files at lunchtime and at the end of day. Once the file is published, I'd make a backup only when I return to a file for edits, and then after each work session.

When it comes to installing a new version of Cp, moving from Cp8 to Cp9, I'd archive ALL my Cp8 files before opening any in Cp9. And, I'm ensuring Cp9 files are stored separate from earlier versions.

hth

[RabidSquirrelNinja]

This just happened to me.  I am NOT saving over a network and I am NOT saving the project file in the Cache folder.

While saving today, I got this:

I clicked "Retry" but Cp froze and I had to kill the program.  The file would not open after that. I had to do a system restore of the file and lost 3 days of development work. 

I am f u r i o u s

The file is (was?) larger than 100MB and the cache folder was large.  I can only guess that this may have been the issue.  I just cannot get over losing that much work over this!!

[RodWard]

Had you saved this file at all during the time you were working on it?

[RabidSquirrelNinja]

I had indeed.  I save every 30 min or so.  Because the way our infrastructure is set up, I have to shut my computer completely down in order to undock my computer so, I'm always saving.

The local IT person restored the file by using the right-click "previous version" type of restore.  After throwing the error box shown above, the file didn't open at all. My computer didn't even recognize it as a Captivate file.  Three days prior was the most recent version of the file that my computer was able to restore.

If there is another way of recovering previous version, I am unaware.  I just happen to sit right next to IT and they came over before I looked into it any further.  Is it too late to use a different method to get a more recent version?

[Lilybiri]

If you didn't turn on Backup (Preferences), you could still recover from its cache folder (if you can identify it) by zipping that folder and renaming the extension 'zip' to 'cptx'.

[RabidSquirrelNinja]

Well, I didn't have back up turned on.  It's default for other Adobe programs and I know I used to have backup files with previous versions of Cp.  Maybe I forgot this setting when moving to a new computer?

And based on this thread, I cleared out the cache already in case that was the reason my project failed to save properly.  When it said it would clear out everything "except the project you are working on" it means that it will clear out all files except only the current version of the project you are working on.  Or maybe I was not reading thoroughly enough.

I guess I'm stuck redoing everything?  I guess that's good practice for me?  Lessons learnt the hard way are always the lessons that you remember most!

[Lilybiri]

If you clear the cache, while projects are open, the cache for the open projects will not be deleted. That is it, sorry about what happened.

Do not forget to turn backup on. I don't understand why it is not the default setting, but always start any training by turning it on.

[Adrian @ Storyboard]

Same error, always opened local, file is over 100mb due to some videos.

Strange thing is project seams to be working fine, I just have to hit retry about 30 times. And this is the first step in getting a corrupted file. I've worked yesterday on one file and today I could not open it. We moved the file from one computer to another a few times, and something happened. Both computer run the same version of captivate (9.0.1.320).

I've tried save as but nothing fixes the file. It's a persistent annoyance now until it will crash and I will not be able to open it again.

What I've manage to do, is copy all slides in a new document, and that removed the errors.

Unfortunately I do no trust Captivate and I will need to go trough each slide and check all the Actions.

EDIT:

Nevermind... it F___ up all the responsive data for the entire project. ... hate... much hate.

[RodWard]

@Adrian:

Probably too late now but...How long since YOU cleared your Project Cache?

[Adrian @ Storyboard]

@RodWard

Cleaning project cache is / was not in my habits. But in any case I found out it's just a lot of junk since Captivate make a new cache folder each time for the same cptx file.

Today, I've tried restore from cache, manually delete the entire cache and temp folder. Nothing helped.

I suspect that any error inside the Captivate will result in this missing file error thing. I was trying to make two objects rotate from action, with "Apply Effect" of "RotateTo". Apparently the second rotate can't be set to anything else than 45°, and if you try and insist on it, eventually Captivate will crash, and result in this kind of error.

[RodWard]

Yes Captivate recreates the cache for each launch of a given CPTX, but that doesn't mean it has no value.  It's just sensible maintenance practice, like sweeping your driveway every so often.

If you don't clean out the cache every so often it can build up to a point where the sheer amount of files in that folder will cause your operating system to say "No MORE!" and then the next time Captivate tries to create a cache or save something to cache it will fail.

To you the user it looks like everything was working perfectly with that particular project and then one day it goes haywire.

If the rotate effect is causing Captivate to crash I suggest you log a bug report about that.