I have just been using the latest PL5.1.0 build and when I came to export to disk all my DxP5 export options have vanished. They made it over from PL4, through PL5.0.1 and PL5.0.2 .
I do not remember if I did any exports in the first build of PL5.1.0 but the latest build only has 4 options ‘Standard output’, ‘JPEG for tablet or HDTV’. ‘TIFF’ and ‘DNG’. My PL4 export has 12 options and some of these would have been converted from my _DxP4 and _DxP4R convention to _DxP5 and DxP5R.
In recent discussions in the “Database hell between PL4 and PL5” topic I suggested that along with the database, preset folders should also be backed up regularly. It now strikes me that there are more items for consideration in a thorough backup strategy.
@sgospodarenko could you please produce a list of all the various files that should be secured to ensure that nothing critical is lost in the event of a machine or software or operator malfunction! Or point me to the location of the list in the PL5 documentation or Forum posts
Frank @Franky I apologise for not attaching my post to yours. I did a quick check but didn’t manage to turn up your post sorry! I don’t know where they (and anything else that we haven’t tripped over yet) are kept and until this release it hasn’t been a problem.
However, like some (certainly not too many) users I lost the database in the PL4 to PL5 upgrade. In my case it didn’t manner and I managed to find a copy and recovered the database but others lost data that was important and represented an investment in time and energy that they were reluctant/sorry to lose. Hence, my rant about taking backups over on Database hell between PL4 and PL5.
I added my presets to that list because although they were being backed up the schedule was not rigorous, i.e. I was being lazy = careless = disaster waiting to happen = (the first icon is ‘sleepy’!?).
I think that I have found the settings they are in the User.config but there is such a difference between the User.config of 5.0.2 and 5.1.0 that there is no simple way to recover them from one file to another! Beyond Compare would allow me to copy the lines across but …
There is no way of protecting the settings when they are buried in the middle of a file like this one so it is a bug and it might be nice if there was a way of saving the options so that they can be recovered in the event that this happens again @sgospodarenko.
Sorry for the second time @Franky, you were right with your guess about the settings possibly being in the User.config file. I was concerned that I had jumped to the wrong conclusion above so I added 20 ‘New option’ entries to the ‘Export to disk - Options’ and did the compare again and then searched the file in HippoEdit and that showed all the items in the “single line” entry that is the ‘Output Settings’.
Interestingly, I lost the customised export settings in the first update (4681) from PL5.0 to PL5.1, but when the 4690 update was installed they came back.
Shane (@scastle) and Erhard (@ebartl) in fact inspection of the User.config files shows that mine went between the upgrade from 5.02 to 5.1.0 but I didn’t do any exports so I hadn’t noticed, sorry for the misleading heading!
Shane the “mysterious” (fortuitous) return is a little strange because the “old” ‘Export settings’ would have been in the User.config for 5.0.0.4639 (assuming you went straight from 5.0.0 to 5.1.0) not in 5.1.0.4681!
Looking at the attached photo, in my case you can see the dip in size from 5.0.2.4676 to 5.1.0.4681 (please ignore the size of 5.1.0.4690, it contains a backup before I created the 20 new export settings and the oversized User.config with the 20 new export settings, as shown in the second snapshot).
Assuming that the size is an automatic indicator of the loss of something important may also be a mistake (though not on this case) because there are quite a few changes to the User.config between 5.0.2.4676 and 5.1.0.4690. However, comparing the original (saved) 5.1.0.4690 file with the new 5.1.0.4690 with 20 additional export settings shows how much those settings add to the size of User.config!
Changed the names of the config directories for “5.1.0.4681” and “5.1.0.4690” and opened PL5.
New config created but the export config is “empty” i.e. it has the default settings only.
Your test suggestion would imply that PL5 will look for a previous config file if it does not have one and create a new one using the last one it could find as a “template”. The alternative would be that PL5 installation process creates the config from a previous config ready for the first opening of a newly installed PL5 and should “inherit” the old settings at that time
If the config is lost (as mine is - temporarily I hope) what other user defined config settings are also lost?
Yes, when the new version is installed it first looks for the previous version config to have the settings migrated.
If it does not find it or finds it corrupted for example - the default config is created then.
Position and size of the windows, repair tool custom settings, LC last tool selected, visibility of the help, last selected folder and other custom settings.
Sadly that means that the test I actually did would not really work. I would need to re-install 5.1.0.4690 afresh without 5.1.0.4681 (any 5.1…) config in place to see if it would successfully pick up the 5.0.2.4676 config and keep the export settings intact or even remove (hide) all 5… config folders to see if it would successfully pick up the 4.3.3.12 settings!
I am sorry but either of those is an install too many. I am currently deleting the database almost daily while testing this and that but I don’t really want to remove PL5 and re-install unless absolutely necessary!
I am going to reinstate 5.1.0.4690 config and proceed as “normal”. I am prepared to supply any further diagnostics but it does appear that I am not the only one to have “suffered” this problem and wonder if during the changes made to the User.config file for 5.1… the code to copy over the ‘Export settings’ was somehow omitted or didn’t work as intended?
It is possible that the issue was with 5.1.0.4681 and going from any prior 5.0. release to 5.1.0.4690 might work.
We need a user who is going to update (or who has updated) from 5.0.0., 5.0.1. or 5.0.2. to 5.1.0.4690 to report if their export settings remain (remained) intact and similarly updated from 5.0.? to 5.1.? and also retained their custom export settings.
That will indicate if this is a problem for only some users or for all making the jump(s).
I just did a test by installing 5.1.0.4690 after removing the 5.1.0.4681 and 5.1.0.4690 folders from the user.config files of the 5.1.x versions. the last directory was 5.0.2.4676 and I cannot find my export presets after install.
However, the last user.config file in the 5.0.2.4676 directory did have my old export presets.
Frank (@Frankly) thank you for doing the test that I wasn’t prepared to do although the results are what I guessed they might be it now remains to be seen if this issue is across the entire population of users or only a “select” few.
There definitely needs to be a mechanism for securing the export settings (a dump and restore facility) or by “externalising” them from the User.config, e.g. as a variant of the current mechanism for the editing pre-sets.
If that is done then it needs to be in a way that allows users to re-order the Export Settings as others have requested.
That can be done with pre-sets either by changing their name in PL(5) or externally via a file manager product, albeit the order is then governed by the name. These same capabilities would then become available for the ‘Export options’.
(the first icon is ‘sleepy’!?).
