Paratext doesn't start after installing latest patch (for 9.5.101.2)

Question

I am trying to support a user who calls me every few days to let me know that Paratext has "stopped working again". Initially I wondered if an over-zealous virus checker might be the culprit, but having eliminated that as a possibility, I'm now left scratching my head for answers.

Here's the series of events:

a) Uninstall Paratext (both the main installer and the earlier installed update get removed successfully)

b) Install Paratext 9.5.101.1 - and Paratext opens up fine and works well. (But it also tells me that there's an update waiting to be installed, which will happen the next time Paratext starts up).

c) The next time Paratext is closed, and re-opened, it asks if it should go ahead and download the update - I answer yes. I don't recall whether there's a progress dialog, or not; but at the end of that process NOTHING happens. Paratext doesn't start up by itself.

d) If I now click on the Paratext icon, it spins the blue spinner for a couple of seconds (as if it is loading) and then NOTHING happens.

e) Rinse and repeat steps above - but nothing changes.

I have tried resetting (holding shift while starting Paratext) but we can't even get to that dialog when it is broken. So for the moment, I have instructed this user NOT to update when it suggests to do so. What else can we try? Just wait for 9.5.101.3 to be released and hope it suddenly starts working?

Has anyone else faced this? and if so, what did you do? Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

The immediate fix might be to download the update from the PT website and install it manually.
I have have problems with the in-program updater often, because PT tries to access an unsecure (http without s) address, which gets blocked by my network security. This may be the root cause of your problems, too.

Answer 2

I have received a report from one other user that was having trouble after installing the Paratext 9.5.101.2 patch. In their case, the problem was with this file:

C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Paratext95\LocData\newToOldLocKeys.xml

I haven't received a copy of the bad file to have an idea about what happened.

Deleting this file may fix the problem, but it could be that the file in C:\Program Files\Paratext 9\LocData is also bad on their machine.

Comments

Thanks for this tip, John. After downloading and installing the update (as suggested by lichtl) it still didn't work, so I ferreted around and found 3 different versions of "newToOldLocKeys.xml" in the locations you mentioned and deleted all of them. It finally got going again and seems to be back to "normal" now.

Answer 3

I had the same problem (Windows 11 Pro, Dutch). I now keep telling PT not to install the update and so far it is working fine. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling from a clean download, but every time it stopped working after installing the update - whether PT uses the patch it downloads automatically, or whether I download the patch from the PT website. Resetting or repairing PT does not help.

After I submitted a Windows Event log, PT support reported back that "The error is happening when trying to read a localization file."

For now, I just click "No" every time PT starts up and asks if it should install the update. 

Paulus

Comments

Follow-up: I deleted the file "newToOldLocKeys.xml" file in both locations as suggested by John Wickberg above, and now 9.5.101.2 is running fine.