Paratext Update 33 - Overwrites My Project Location

Question

I moved my “My Paratext Projects 8” to my Z drive, and PT8 was working fine.

I applied the xxx33.msp file and when I opened PT8 it said I was missing some projects. I found that it had recreated the C:\My Paratext Projects 8 folder.

I looked in the registry and it was changed back to C: from Z:

I am in a Windows VM, I will test Windows later today.

Answer 1

Thank you for the responses!

The first 2 times I tried this I just moved the directory and the PT8 application asked me to browse to the new location the next time I opened it. I believe this is the prescribed method that I found in the documentation. Unfortunately when the Settings directory is not found, the PT8 application (the same as in PT7) doesn’t always ask and instead fails to open. The only recourse is to edit the registry or uninstall/reinstall. Because the majority of our PT8 migration was done at a workshop of ~60 people, most people installed their own PT8 and many of them inadvertently took the default settings location. I haven’t tested this issue on very many systems because I stopped trying to fix it, out of fear of messing up an installation for a user. I have seen it on every system I have tried to correct. I have not tried an uninstall/reinstall as the registry always worked in PT7, but I will try uninstall/install next time.

FR: Editing the registry to D drive worked fine every time on PT7, and I have done it many times on PT7 for Drive D. So I doubt that it is old code that doesn’t like D drive. Also I tried Z drive in the past with PT8 with the same failure.

MJ:While it is certainly possible to enter a typo in the registry, it is unlikely that I have typed the letter ‘D’ incorrectly 4 times in a row on 4 separate systems. I was a Windows Application and Device Driver Developer for a long time, and I am aware of the caution you need when editing the registry.

I have two theories, and they are not mutually exclusive.

1. I had to find the PT8 registry location myself, so it is possible is that there is an additional location that needs to be changed.
2. Currently the alternative location is only preserved during upgrade, if you select the alternative location at install.

These are the locations I have used on PT7 and PT8 for a x64 system.
PT7:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Paratext\8\Settings_Directory
PT8:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ScrChecks\1.0\Settings_Directory

Thanks

Comments

listentwice:

so it is possible is that there is an additional location that needs to be changed.

I am on a Windows 64bit machine and have just been helped by your post, so thank you. I took your first theory seriously and did a full search through my entire registry: seems that the location you quote for Settings_Directory is the only one and the one that my PT8 cares about. Greetings.

Answer 2

I’ll just note that I keep my projects in a non-standard location, and haven’t had any problem with the upgrade. So this wasn’t an across the board problem with update 33…

Answer 3

I just tested Windows 10 Pro. It had PT 8.0.100.10 installed.

I changed C: to D: for PT8 project location, restarted PT8 and it worked fine.

I ran the ***33.msp update file and then started PT8. It complained about missing projects and had recreated the PT8 project folder on C drive.

Not sure why others have not seen it.

Answer 4

I saw this problem again today.

I manually moved the project folder from the default location to D drive. I ran the 38 updated and opened PT8 and it complained about missing projects. It had recreated the project folder in the default location.

This is a real problem for us. We put all data folders on D drive because the users often get overcome by viruses and have the C drive overwritten by a local tech shop.

Any ideas?

Comments

I concur. It is also common now to have the OS on a small, fast C: drive
and data on a larger, slower D: drive. For typesetters, our Projects folder
gets REALLY big. We really do need a way for the My Paratext Projects 8
folder to be physically located on D: instead of C:

Blessings,

Shegnada J.

Language Technology & Publishing Coordinator, SIL Nigeria

Complex Script Layout Specialist, GPS Dallas

Skype: Shegnada..

([Phone Removed]

Answer 5

Unfortunately, most people are out for the holidays (including the “installer guy”), but if I had to guess, it would be that you are using the “D:” drive as your drive, which is typically the CDROM/DVD/BLU-RAY drive. There might be some old code in the installer that might disallow that drive to be chosen for that reason.

In other words, if you had mapped the drive to be “E:” or something else, it would probably work.

Comments

I’ll chime in once again and say that I’ve been storing Paratext data on the D: drive for a few years with no problems. Both under PT7 and now under PT8. So I’m still guessing that there is something causing problems beyond just the location.

You mention moving data. Are you 100% sure you’re updating the new location correctly? Doing so requires editing the Windows registry and is fairly complicated. It might be that Paratext is able to compensate for a bad move until an update, but that it then reads the registry (if you never corrected that) and reverts.