Error opening file; cannot be found in archive

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Ga Bowen
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:05 pm

Error opening file; cannot be found in archive

Unread post by Ga Bowen »

I get the following opening a project:

Image

It is my most recently saved one. I was recently messing around linking snippets from a .hmxp file (which I've never done before).

I have installed a big Windows update since the last save.

I have no idea what the file project.hmxp is.

Any ideas?
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Tim Green
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Re: Error opening file; cannot be found in archive

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ga,

This message normally means that your HMXZ project file is damaged or corrupted. This is quite rare, and when it does happen it is usually the result of network errors while saving on a network drive or a drive error when saving on an unreliable drive, for example a USB thumb drive. Unfortunately, this can happen to any file on Windows if you experience a Windows problem or network error (on a network drive) while the save process is actually in progress.

You can check to see if there is anything inside the damaged file that you can save by changing its extension from .hmxz to .zip (it is actually a normal zip archive). You can then try to unpack it with a normal zip program or a zip repair tool. Frequently, however, anything more than minimal damage to a compressed archive will make the entire contents unreadable. If you can't access the contents in this way you will have to return to your most recent backup.

However, if you are using the current version of Help+Manual (7.3.5 Build 4434) any save failure like this should activate the automatic rescue copy, and you would then be prompted to restore from the rescue copy the next time you try to open the project. Check with Help > About to see if your version is up to date. If it's not you should get the current update right away to protect yourself from problems like this in the future:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html?upd

However, if your big Windows update was just on Windows 10 there is also a small possibility that that might have something to do with it. The current Windows 10 update (April Update Build 1803) has been causing serious problems on computers all over the world and if you can possibly avoid it it's advisable to wait for a while before installing it. We haven't had any reports on problems with Help+Manual as a result of this yet, so it may be OK, but it is theoretically a possibility.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Ga Bowen
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:05 pm

Re: Error opening file; cannot be found in archive

Unread post by Ga Bowen »

I unzipped it, opened the HMXP, re-saved as an HMXZ and now all seems fine. :)

Never got the backup option though.

Thanks for your help, Tim, appreciated as always.
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Tim Green
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Location: Bruehl, Germany
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Re: Error opening file; cannot be found in archive

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ga,

It sounds as though there was some minor damage to the .hmxz that got fixed automatically when you unzipped and rezipped. Generally, we would recommend using the uncompressed HMXP format for ongoing work for everything except very small, quick projects. In addition to supporting things like multi-user and version control, the uncompressed format is much more robust in the face of Windows and network errors, since every topic and every project component is a separate, plain-text XML file. Even if individual files do get damaged it will only affect those files, and you can generally recover the data from all the undamaged parts of the file.

To convert a project to HMXP just select Save As... in the File menu, select the uncompressed format and then choose an empty folder to save in. You can then add any image folders etc. to the new project folder. If your images don't show up in the editor you just need to adjust your project search path settings (Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path) for the new locations of the images folders. Note that the search paths can also be used for snippet files.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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