Could not open project file

HM5 served us well, now its time has come and it has been replaced... If you have HM5 questions, please post them here.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Donna,

This issue has been corrected in the current version (5.1.1 Build 790), if you haven't already updated just download the current installer and install on top of your current version to update:

http://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
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.
slimboywynn
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:16 pm

Unread post by slimboywynn »

Hi Tim,

I am having the same error appear. I am running the standard version of H&M5 and have updated to the very latest version. I'm running this on a Microsoft Virtual drive with XP installed.

The following error has appeared before but i just restored my virtual drive to the last restore point and carried on but as it's appeared again, i fell i need to bring it to your attention.

The error is :-
Cannot load C:\......\*.hmxz! Please check you have sufficient rights to open the project.
ProjectOpen: The project file project.hmxp can not be found in archive! (C:\Delphi2007\ECS\EC\HMDAL.pas, line 5059).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Slim,

I've posted a question to the developers. In the meantime, please try moving the file off the virtual drive and onto a drive in your own Documents folder (to make sure you have full read and write permissions). Can you open the project there?
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.
slimboywynn
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:16 pm

Unread post by slimboywynn »

Hi Tim,

Thank you for replying, I did try this but with no luck :(

I did try a few things, I copied it from my virtual drive to my local dirve which is running Vista but i still get the same error. I Also tried restoring my virtual drive to a previous working date and copied the files back, but again still no luck.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Slim,

Please mail the .hmxz file to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we'll check it for you.
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.
ontoprise
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:18 pm

Unread post by ontoprise »

Hi,

I got the same problem when I try to open an already created H&M5 project
“Cannot load <project_path_xxx.hmxz!>. Please check you have sufficient rights to open the peoject.

Show details gives me:
“ProjectOpen: The poject file project.hmxp can not found in the archive! (C:\Delphi2007\ECS\EC\HMDAL.pas, line 5060”

Is there any workaround or solution in the meantime?

Kind regrads,
Rob
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

The error message is a little misleading (this is going to be fixed) but basically this means that your .hmxz project file has been damaged by some external factor, for example a brief power dip or a network problem while it was being saved. You can check this by changing the extension of your .hmxz file to .zip, then try to unpack it with a zip utility. If the file is damaged the utility will inform you of this (an .hmxz file is actually a zip archive).

Note that the uncompressed .hmxp format is more robust in the event of external damage like this than the compressed .hmxz format. Since .hmxp is a folder of plain-text XML files it is almost impossible to damage the entire project. The .hmxz archive format is a binary zip archive, and so if it becomes damaged it is often difficult or impossible to recover its contents.

If this has happened you may have to return to your last backup. If you have turned on the automatic backup option in View > Program Options > General you will find your backup file in your project folder with two ~~ characters in the file extension, you just need change the extension to .hmxz to be able to open the backup in Help & Manual.
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.
ray.heavents
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:43 am

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by ray.heavents »

Hi Tim,

I got the same problem when I try to open an already created H&M5 project

Show details gives me:
"“Cannot load d:\log\my_study.hmxz! Please check you have sufficient rights to open the peoject. "

And I chose "Show Details"
"ProjectOpen: Hashed list of file names is invalid -Native error: 00059".

My OS is Windows XP sp3
H&M version is 5.4.0 Build 1173.
And I have tried some older versions H&M 5.x.x, the situations are the same.

my documents was stored in local drive and I encountered this problem this morning.
Is there any workaround or solution to help me with it?

It is very important for me and I did not have any backups before.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Ray,

You can easily check if the file is damaged: change the extension from .hmxz to .zip and then try to open it with WinZip or any zip utility. The .hmxz files are actually normal zip files (the same as Word's .docx files, which are also just zips), so you can check their contents easily by unzipping them.

The most common cause of corrupted files are computer or network errors (if you are saving on a network drive) while you are saving. Working on a Windows machine without backups is about as safe as playing Russian Roulette, by the way... :?
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.
ray.heavents
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:43 am

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by ray.heavents »

Hi Tim,

Thank your for your reply.

I have tried as you said and found that my file was damaged. :frustration: :frustration:
“error [D:\temp\my_study.zip]: start of central directory not found; Zip file corrupt.
Possible cause: file transfer error

Is there any way to fix this issue?
ray.heavents
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:43 am

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by ray.heavents »

Hi Tim,

I think I have saved some topics from the damaged file based on your previous information.

Just write my steps and hope it will be helpful if anyone else have the same question...

step 1>rename the broken_filename.hmxz to broken_filename.zip
step 2>find a zip files repair software try to repair the file from internet..
step 3>I have found some ones(e.g. winrar, zipmagic 2000, zip repair,etc), but only one seems recovered my broken file.
step 4>after repair broken_filename.zip using zipmagic 2000, I got a broken_filename_fixed.zip
step 5>rename the broken_filename_fixed.zip to filename.hmxz
step 6>I can open the file by H&M 5 now...

Thank you very much ,Tim.

:lol:

In addition, if Official can provide a repair tool will be appreciated and very helpful.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by Tim Green »

In addition, if Official can provide a repair tool will be appreciated and very helpful.
There are lots of tools already available -- try Googling for "zip repair tool". :)
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.
User avatar
Steffen Heller
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:35 pm
Location: Austria

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by Steffen Heller »

I am having the same problem now.

When I try to open Help & Manual it displays the error message:
"Cannot load ... ! Please ensure that you have sufficient rights to open the project."

Show details says:
"ProjectOpen: unexprected tag topicref"

I sent the file to our senior technical expert for the repair of corrupted zip files :D but he answered that it was not possible to repair the file ;-(


In this case, the error is not so dramatic as it only concerns a local test copy.
But it tells me I should better have a closer look at how I can secure my main installation.

Is there anything I can do to protect against a scenario like this, corrupted files that prevent access to the installation as a whole?
So far, I simply made a copy of my .hmxp file every now and then (simple copy+paste in the Explorer). Unfortunately, these "backup files" don't help, they yield the same error message although I was not working with them and didn't change them in any way.


I had a look at the documentation but only found information about

* the "automatic backups function"
=> which sounded interesting but has been removed and replaced with the automatic rescue copy
https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_r ... sub=backup

* automatic rescue copy
=> which (only) reads like a protection tool against the loss of the latest changes in case of a crash
https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... encies.htm
Thanks for helping
Steffen
My current Version: 7.4.0 Build 4590
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Steffen,
Show details says:
"ProjectOpen: unexprected tag topicref"
This is a known issue and is actually easy to correct. What is happening is that some TOC entries have been inserted in the wrong place in a TOC file. You can also see this in uncompressed projects. What happens is that in some rare cases a copy of some TOC entries is inserted incorrectly after the closing </map> tag in the main TOC file when you do copy and paste operations with the mouse between multiple TOCs. Unfortunately we have never been able to reproduce it ourselves, so it hasn't been possible to debug it yet.

Here is how to fix it:
  1. If the project isn't saved in uncompressed HMXP format select Save As... in the File menu and save it uncompressed in an empty folder.
  2. Open the main TOC file (the one without a number) in the \Maps folder in a code editor like Notepad++ and search for the FIRST closing </map> tag.
  3. If there are any lines of code after that tag DELETE them all and save.
  4. Repeat 2 and 3 for all other TOC files just to be sure.
  5. Open the repaired project and check through the TOCs
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.
User avatar
Steffen Heller
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:35 pm
Location: Austria

Re: Could not open project file

Unread post by Steffen Heller »

Tim Green wrote: Here is how to fix it:
  1. If the project isn't saved in uncompressed HMXP format select Save As... in the File menu and save it uncompressed in an empty folder.
  2. Open the main TOC file (the one without a number) in the \Maps folder in a code editor like Notepad++ and search for the FIRST closing </map> tag.
  3. If there are any lines of code after that tag DELETE them all and save.
  4. Repeat 2 and 3 for all other TOC files just to be sure.
  5. Open the repaired project and check through the TOCs
I found and erased some code from the main TOC file. After that I was able to open the project again.

In the project there are seven additional TOCs and one of them was "broken" (no down arrow sign, not possible to open the TOC).
The TOC file for this one looked different. It contained almost no code at all (only two tags, but no <topicref...> at all).

Since I have another project that includes the same additional TOCs structure I copied the right TOC file from there.
After that, the project opened and all the additional TOCs look good.

All the time, there have been four error messages, though:
"The ID ..... has been used multiple times. It has been renewed to ......."

Do you think that the project is now repaired and working again?
Or is there anything else I need to check now?
Thanks for helping
Steffen
My current Version: 7.4.0 Build 4590
Post Reply