PDF-XChange Editor crashed. Where are my annotations?

[Daniel1234]

Hi,

I opened a PDF file from an Email attachment and did a lot of annotations. Unfortunately, my computer ran out of battery and when I resumed Windows, PDF-XChange Editor crashed. I hope PDF-XChange Editor does automatically save documents in case of crashes. However, when I restarted the program, it did not ask me whether I want to re-open the file. I really hope my annotations are not lost! Where could I look for it?

All the best,
Daniel

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the email - If you open the attachment directly from the email, then it's not actually saved to disk but you are instead working with a temporary copy. When temp copies of a file (PDF or otherwise) are closed, the temporary file is/should be deleted and therefore any changes made would be lost, I'm afraid.

Thanks,

[Daniel1234]

Hi Will,

That is very bad.

I think the PDF XChange Editor should be improved. It's not uncommon these days to just open an email attachment, I suppose.

Why not just make a backup in the temp directory (or wherever the email attachment is temporarily saved) every couple of minutes (or even better on crash) and let the editor remember that the backup was made but the file not saved. Then when opening up the editor, I can just keep editing this file.

Doesn't that sound like a good idea?

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Daniel,

Any time any attachment from an email is opened by any application, it is opened as a temporary file. Depending on the size of the file and the file type, it will either be stored in memory only, or stored as a tmp file on disk. This is standard practice unless the mail application can natively edit the attachment (something I've never personally seen). I'm not actually sure it is possible for us to save the changes directly back to the file and I don't know of any other apps that can do this.

We can certainly store a copy, but trying to 'remember' what it's a copy of is another story entirely, programmatically speaking (it may not even be possible, as it requires very specific information that usually changes every time the file is opened), and isn't something that we'd likely investigate implementing at this time.

Thanks,

[Daniel1234]

We can certainly store a copy, but trying to 'remember' what it's a copy of is another story entirely, programmatically speaking (it may not even be possible, as it requires very specific information that usually changes every time the file is opened), and isn't something that we'd likely investigate implementing at this time.

Thanks for the reply Will. I think there is a misunderstanding. I don't think that it should be remembered what the backup copy is of. Just that a backup copy was made. And then, when the application starts the next time, to tell me that there is an unsaved backup copy that wants my attention.

Daniel

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Most probably you are looking for the "AutoRecover"-feature in PDF-XChange Editor.

This feature is already there since a while (via File/Edit > Preferences > Documents).

It should help during a crash. I am not sure what it is going to do when the battery goes down.

In case you always like to have a copy when something goes wrong, then mark the three check-boxes
(and please run a few tests to make sure that it works like expected):
- Save AutoRecover information every: x minutes
- Keep recovery information when closing and discarding changes
- Show the Recovery Panel if there is any recoverable data available

More info: https://help.pdf-xchange.com/pdfxe ... ts_ed.html

Best regards.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Willy Van Nuffel,

Many thanks for the help!

Kind regards,
Stefan