PT tricked me during installation about project folder and now is nasty about that

Question

We are moving to new computers. I did install PT from a fresh download.

Before installation I had copied my projects folder over to my new computer to mycustompath\PT8

During installation, I used the box to tell the installer about my existing projects folder.

Without informing me, the installer did not accept my existing folder, but quietly created a new folder in mycustompath\PARATEXT and populated it.

I then did send receive and all looked not bad.

But since we have custom styles and lots of notes in shared folders, a lot was missing of course.

So I dedice to uninstall and reinstall and double-check the box about the project folder. I did uninstall with remove all settings.

Now during the fresh install PT is really annoying me with this: “Since this is an upgrade of an existing Paratext 8 installation, you can’t change the location of the project folder.”

So in summary: PT did not accept my folder when I first installed and never informed me about creating its own incomplete folder, then it did not properly uninstall when I wanted that, and now it does not let me create a proper fresh installation with corrected path to project folder.

So now what? Buy another new Dell?

There must be a registry key or something to get rid of PT8 for good, so that I can have a second attempt. Please help. Need to finalize this new machine and - for security reasons format the old one - so we can travel back to Africa soon. I reserved all day today and now am stuck.

Answer 1

Managed to fix it myself mostly with this data:

Paratext Update 33 - Overwrites My Project Location Questions

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 migra…

On my machine I did a full search for “paratext” through my entire registry (and was amazed) and did not find any more entries for the project folder.

So I only edited the entry about Settings_Directory and then did a fresh install.

In my case, I am only using PT8, not 7 but the registry path I found and edited was this (this is mainly a note to myself for later reference):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Paratext\8\Settings_Directory

On my machine I do not have an entry for “ScrChecks” in the registry, which maybe just means that I am not an authorized Translation Consultant or have missed another interesting tool. Or @listentwice just has a different setup for other reasons.

This question could be marked as “solved”. But from what I see in this forum from other users, the way that PT is creative about the project folder during installation or updates and also not giving information or edit-options about the folder, it will get many happy first time users and a good many frustrated people moving or needing to change for different reasons. Needs consideration, I propose.

I had spent a lot of time on the inbuilt-help of PT8, trying to find the path for my projects, once I realized that something was not working. I believe in former versions there was even a field in the GUI. If “normal users” are not meant to go and look, it might be even good to write a short paragraph to that effect in the help, rather than let people search and waste time.

Comments

Glad you were able to solve the issue. Your personification of Paratext and its “tricking” you is going to weigh heavy on any of the developers who had their hand in the code.

As a Paratext supporter, I would estimate that only one in 300 users customize the location of the project data directory and I’m sure the devs are wishing they never allowed this since figuring out how to manage this on upgrade always presents a conundrum.

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dhigby, I customise Paratext’s installations by changing the projects folder on all of our laptops (for security reasons) and have not had this problem before. So perhaps it is an issue with one of the more recent patches.

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I would expect this to be a common action for power users who keep the OS and Data stored on separate drives. I’ve done this for many years with no issues. On the contrary, when OS’s fail to upgrade or I change computers for various reasons, all my data stays safe. You might say that that is unnecessary for Paratext files, but as a typesetter, all the publishing files are necessarily found in the My Paratext Projects folder but never sync with send/receive.

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I deeply respect all developers and do not want to cause any trouble for them. I keep saying that PT is one of the better made tools in my work and I love most of it.

My reason for a custom path for projects folder was simple: I could not afford a 3TB SSD for my computer. So I am running a humble 240 GB SSD and a 2TB HDD in my new Dell notebook. There are 4TB HDDs available but the space inside my Dell does not allow it.

The HDD is holding all data.

So please do not change the option to store projects where users need their data. Maybe give a warning, that users should double and triple check their entry, because they will not easily get a second chance to correct a typo or to protest, if the installer got creative.

Answer 2

There are many good reasons to NOT accept the default Paratext data location or to need to move it. It should be a little easier than editing the registry and manually moving files to do that. The default location for Paratext data on Windows is a rather interesting one in that backing up a personal documents folder will not back up Paratext data.

Comments

, I would suggest that not backing up Paratext data as a part of the personal documents folder is case in point why it should NOT be stored there. In the Paratext environment, “backup” is a dangerous notion. The send/receive system with its preservation of the entire project’s incremental history is the only backup most people should be thinking about. Mess with the data files and folders, and you’re asking for trouble. Even the backup and restore tool within the Paratext menu items are only meant for very specific unique situations.

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I find it extremely problematic that the typesetting files which are not and should not be included in Paratext Send/Receive are nevertheless required to be in the Paratext project folders and thus cannot be automatically backed up by any system I am aware of because of the exclusive nature of the Send/Receive process. I am not complaining of that process in itself, only that it blocks me from saving my data.

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In other words, most Paratext users are not knowledgeable enough to understand how Paratext works, and how files in general should be backed up and restored. They also always have a reliable and safe Internet connection. Therefore, we should hide the data files from them as much as possible and resist all attempts by them to control their location. You know, that might be right, but it is sure annoying at times.

Answer 3

Even without a reliable and safe internet connection, temporarily completing send/receive to local media is still the best if not the only way anyone should be regularly backing up their Paratext data so that the history is preserved. In the most recent versions, this includes settings files that weren’t previously included in the send/receive. Now I’m sure there may be a few exceptions to this for power users, but I would think power users would also be powerful enough to deal with the default data storage location.