XYplorer crashed, how do I reactivate software and tags?

[MrB]

Hi there,

I have been using xyplorer for a couple of weeks now after having purchased the licence. I am using the portable version on an external harddrive.
During the last weeks of usage I have accumulated quite a number of tags. I am automatically saving tags when exiting the software.

Today the software crashed while I used it with a computer that had asked for an encryption password.

When trying to restart the software from my original computer, it started as the trial version and my tags were not showing.

I can see in the folders "Data" and "Autobackup", that there is a file called "tag.dat" which has been last modified 09 May. This is in line with my last tag edits.

Could somebody please guide me in getting the software back up an running with my tags showing.

Your help is much appreciated!

[kunkel321]

Did you get this resolved, MrB?
I'm surprised that no one has answered you yet. Probably Don (Admin) is away for a few days.

I'm afraid to suggest anything because I don't want you to mess up your backup ....
NO doubt you've tried File > Settings Special > Load Configuration... (?) It seems to only see .ini files though, not .dat files.

[admin]

I was here but thought somebody else would reply.

The restore process is simple:
- Copy tag.dat from Autobackup to b<xydata>
- Restart app *without* saving.

The interesting question is: Why/When did it crash? XY usually does not do that.

[MrB]

Thank you Kunkel and Don.

Sorry, for the late reply but I was away.

I am not very tech savvy, so can I please check with you to be absolutely sure I am not messing anything up:

My current path to tag.dat in AutoBackup is:
D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall\Data\AutoBackup\tag.dat (this is a file modified last at 09 May which is in line with when I believe I did my last edits)

There is another tag.dat file in the Data folder with the following path:

D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall\Data\tag.dat (this one is modified 10 May which is when I tried to reopen XYplorer last and when the software reopened in the trial version).

Both tag.dat have the same file size, which is 149KB

Questions:
1. Is my assumption correct that you would like me to copy the tag.dat file from the "AutoBackup" and replace it with the "tag.dat file in the "Data" folder?
2. Does this copy/ replace process lead to the software reopening in the full version again, or do I need to reactivate it with my licence key?
3. Could you please explain what you mean by *without* saving?

Thank you very much in advance.

[bdeshi]

If there's an XYplorer.ini file in Autobackup you have to move that to the data folder (D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall\Data\) , agreeing to overwrite if asked, to restore your license, and along with backed up settings.

You say the active tag.dat file has the same size as backup, which is a strong suggestion that tags must've been saved before XY crashed. But restoring the backup will, uh, restore the backup.

btw, are you sure you always run XYplorer from "D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall", and not from "D:\XYplorer\"?

[admin]

Thank you Kunkel and Don.

Sorry, for the late reply but I was away.

I am not very tech savvy, so can I please check with you to be absolutely sure I am not messing anything up:

My current path to tag.dat in AutoBackup is:
D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall\Data\AutoBackup\tag.dat (this is a file modified last at 09 May which is in line with when I believe I did my last edits)

There is another tag.dat file in the Data folder with the following path:

D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noninstall\Data\tag.dat (this one is modified 10 May which is when I tried to reopen XYplorer last and when the software reopened in the trial version).

Both tag.dat have the same file size, which is 149KB

Questions:
1. Is my assumption correct that you would like me to copy the tag.dat file from the "AutoBackup" and replace it with the "tag.dat file in the "Data" folder?
2. Does this copy/ replace process lead to the software reopening in the full version again, or do I need to reactivate it with my licence key?
3. Could you please explain what you mean by *without* saving?

Thank you very much in advance.

0. Do NOT start your main XYplorer now else your 09 May tag.dat will probably be overwritten by the 10 May one (those safety copies are kept only 24 hours behind the originals). So you should do the following with Explorer!
1. Yes, correct. Do it with Explorer. Also I'd recommend you create an extra backup of the 09 May tag.dat in some other folder -- just in case.
2. No, your license is not touched.
3. Irrelevant if you did the copy with Explorer as I suggested.
4. Now, if the copy was successful, start XYplorer. Your tags should be restored to the 09 May state.

[TheQwerty]

0. Do NOT start your main XYplorer now else your 09 May tag.dat will probably be overwritten by the 10 May one (those safety copies are kept only 24 hours behind the originals). So you should do the following with Explorer!
1. Yes, correct. Do it with Explorer. Also I'd recommend you create an extra backup of the 09 May tag.dat in some other folder -- just in case.

I'd suggest saving more than just tag.dat - create an extra backup of the entire Data folder (with the possible exception of the Thumbnail cache folder).

[kunkel321]

I'd suggest saving more than just tag.dat - create an extra backup of the entire Data folder (with the possible exception of the Thumbnail cache folder).

Yup. When I'm looking at importing some important "system" file I always try to make an extra copy. My own convention is to append "BUmm-dd-yyy," which is pretty funny, now that I see it spells "Bumm." In practice, tag.dat would become tagBU5-14-2015. Then if you need to use it, just remove the "BUmm-dd-yyy" part and it will be back to the correct name.
====

To answer the question about "exit without saving," at least as I understand it...
In the File menu is "Exit without Saving."
XYplorer's default behavior is to always save its own current state to its primary data files when it closes. This is important, otherwise you'd lose all your customizations every time you closed the app. It saves the settings, then "reloads" them again when you start XY the next time. So it saves whatever state it is/was in when it was closed. If you use the XY app (rather than Windows Explorer) to manually put your old (i.e. back up) version into the location of that primary data file, then this saving effect happens, it, again, saves the state that XY is currently in. You don't want it to do that... You want it to "forget" it's current state, then when it's reopened, it will "remember" that old backup state. That's why you have to tell it to skip the saving part when you close it just this once...
Others can correct me if I'm wrong.

[MrB]

Thank you very much for the quick responses.

@SammySarkar
- There is no XYplorer.ini in my Autobackup folder
- Yes, I start XYplorer fom D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noinstall” folder, this is where the zipped folder and the XYplorer item got extracted to

@Don @TheQwerty
- Did a back up of the 09 May tag.dat (actually of the entire Data folder as @TheQwerty suggested) in some other folder
- Copied the 09 May tag.dat file to D:\XYplorer\XYplorer_full_noinstall\Data
- Copy/ replaced successfully with 10 May tag.dat file
- Restarted XYplorer
- Still getting the trial version window. What shall I do , “continue evaluation” and reenter licence key or “Quit” and do something else?

As said before, your help is much appreciated.

[admin]

Continue evaluation” and reenter licence key.

What about the tags? Are they back?

[MrB]

Ok, figured it out. Thank you everyone!
Thank you @Kunkel for the elaborate explanation on the “saving” question. That helped.
@SammySarkar: I did find the ini file, eventually
Solution:
1. Dropped both tag.dat and XYplorer.ini file from autobackup folder into data folder
2. Restarted app *without* saving
3. Tags reinstated.
Many thanks.
@Don regarding your original question about the crashing - I tried to use the external harddrive on a computer which uses Norten Endpoint encryption. For some reason this crashed xyplorer and when I reopened the software from the original computer, it had lost all settings with tags, licence info etc.

[admin]

Thanks for the info.