Sessions disappearing after restart & system specified error

[MedBooster]

I always exit pdf xce before restarting.
I restarted my PC (windows 11 HP spectre)
and all my sessions from today disappeared... weird....
I still have my sessions from 2 days ago, but now today's and yesterday's
So maybe I lost all sessions from this session (since the last time I restarted my PC -- I usually hibernate my PC, not sleep nor shut down), I'm not quite sure

Anyone else with any similar issues?
Running version 366

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Medbooster,

you say you always close the Editor before restarting (good), but that when you lost your session data it was not closed? The PC went into hibernate but the Editor was left open?

[MedBooster]

It happened again....
I saved a new session.
Saved all files and closed pdf xce
restarted my PC
The session was gone

I just mentioned hibernation, in case that has something to do with it, but it is probably not relevant

[Willy Van Nuffel]

What happens when you save a session and then close and restart PDF-XChange Editor ?
- If the session disappears, then it could be caused by PDF-XChange Editor.
- If the session is still there, then it must be something else (but what ?).

To work-around the problem you can consider to save your sessions to files.

Kind regards.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Medbooster,

Saved all files and closed pdf xce

So the files were saved but left open when you closed the Editor?

Sorry to keep on you like this but these details are important.

Can you reliably reproduce this at will?

[MedBooster]

Thanks Medbooster,

Saved all files and closed pdf xce

So the files were saved but left open when you closed the Editor?

Sorry to keep on you like this but these details are important.

Can you reliably reproduce this at will?

It seemed to happen the 1st and 2nd time, but not the 3rd and 4th time. So if I find something consistent about this error I will let you know... Though as of now I'm not sure what is going on .

What do you mean by the files being left open? If you close the editor, the files can't be "left open", right?

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for this Medbooster,

What do you mean by the files being left open? If you close the editor, the files can't be "left open", right?

Just that when you close the Editor, having saved all the currently open files, I expect them to still be open and viewable in tabs. I probably am being pedantic, because on reading this again I realize you explicitly save the session and that should be restored regardless of what you do to the files after saving the session.

Intermittent issues are the hardest to resolve, if something can be reliably reproduced it gives us a place to start looking, but when the same action results in differing behaviour it is a lot harder to identify the cause.

Does Willy's suggestion to save these to file help?

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi Medbooster.

Let me clarify one moment for the following steps:

1. Open the Editor, create and save new session(not to file, but to Editor's settings)
2. Close the Editor
3. Open the Editor again and check if the session is still there
4. Close the Editor
5. Restart PC
6. Open the Editor again and check if the session is still there

So the question is, when did the session disappear, on #3 or #6 step?

Cheers.

[MedBooster]

Hi Medbooster.

Let me clarify one moment for the following steps:

1. Open the Editor, create and save new session(not to file, but to Editor's settings)
2. Close the Editor
3. Open the Editor again and check if the session is still there
4. Close the Editor
5. Restart PC
6. Open the Editor again and check if the session is still there

So the question is, when did the session disappear, on #3 or #6 step?

Cheers.

at the 6th step after having restarted (before restarting the sessions are all there). and after the restart they only disappear about 50% of the time. I'm not sure what makes it happen, or makes it not happen though...

[MedBooster]

An important detail to mention is that when the sessions from the last windows-session disappeared, the document that opened was one I had not used for 2 days, instead of the 4 documents I were in before I closed, saved and restarted my PC.
So maybe it has something to do with the cache of the program or something. That it somehow forgets what it had been doing the last windows-session before the restart

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Just one idea: have you used something like 'Registry Cleaner' utility? In the past we had reports from users that such utilities may cause losing pieces of data from the system's Registry. For example, it may periodically remove keys/values that are too deep (in the cleaner's opinion) in the registry's tree-structure...

[MedBooster]

Just one idea: have you used something like 'Registry Cleaner' utility? In the past we had reports from users that such utilities may cause losing pieces of data from the system's Registry. For example, it may periodically remove keys/values that are too deep (in the cleaner's opinion) in the registry's tree-structure...

the pc is brand new (less than 2 weeks old), so it is pretty "clean"

anyway, I have not been able to reproduce the error yet, at least not systematically,
so maybe we can shelve this thus far
maybe just leave the thread up in case anyone else experiences any similar issue....

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, MedBooster

No worries, do keep it in mind and if you happen to reproduce it, let us know.

Kind regards,

[MedBooster]

oh no , it happened again... No sessions since January 4th are there anymore...
So weird... I just downloaded a new keyboard layout and restarted my PC, and boom they were gone.

[MedBooster]

same thing happened. all these sessions from after january 4th disappeared again...
this was now, when I restarted my PC 10 minutes ago (windows 11 HP spectre) at about 10:20 AM
good thing I had a feeling it would happen and I took a backup of the sessions. BUt it sucks having to do that before every time you want to restart....
Before and after screenshots ↓

[MedBooster]

I took a backup of my settings and sessions, and got this error, now when I reopened PDF xce (without even having restarted the PC) all the sessions after january 4th disappeared again!

This is the error I got after I closed pdf xce.... before I reopened it again

[MedBooster]

well this just went from , a nuance stopping me from restarting so often, to sessions disappearing every time I close and reopen pdf xce.

For reference, if this is important, I did have "close to system tray" enabled, and this seems to be happening more often after having disabled it (it was enabled previously)

[MedBooster]

actually , not only did the sessions disappear, but also these shortcut buttons I added. (to the very right; import/export settings)

[MedBooster]

I tried

• uninstalling and reinstalling
  repair through the uninstall menu in windows 11
  reparir through the pdf xce setup menu

nothing worked, the same error persists.. so I am able to import my settings /shortcut buttons / sessions, and use them, but as soon as I close and reopen pdf xce I get the system unspecified error .

[MedBooster]

I took a backup of my settings and sessions, and got this error, now when I reopened PDF xce (without even having restarted the PC) all the sessions after january 4th disappeared again!

This is the error I got after I closed pdf xce.... before I reopened it again
image.png

I actually just got this error again, without even opening pdf xce after closing it... it appeared like 10 seconds after closing the program.
So I guess the program isn't able to save the session changes I loaded in ... (although I am able to use everything as usual when having loaded it before I close the program....

Will I be able to import settings exported in version 366 to version 364 for example? I'm getting tired of these bugs and issues.

[MedBooster]

even continuing from the point where it loads (january 4th, with all the settings from then)
I am unable to add more sessions or change anything, it still only loads that state

So I am kind of stuck in a vicious cycle

[MedBooster]

it also seems I am not able to NOT import sessions from an export that has sessions included

[MedBooster]

I deleted all my sessions, and restarted my PC, and I am no longer getting the system specified error that reverts everything to the last stable version it seems (my guess on what was happening)

so maybe some sessions were triggering this behaviour

edit:
and I tried adding a new session, which did not disappear after restarting the PC

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello MedBooster,

So lets consider this now solved unless it happens again!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi MedBooster.

This is the error I got after I closed pdf xce.... before I reopened it again:
"Failed to save the application settings: Error[System] Unspecified error."

I am pretty sure that this strange symptom is the main reason for your trouble (disappearing saved sessions after restarting the app).
Something breaks the savе-settings procedure on your computer. We must investigate this more deeply to get the proper and reliable solution.

Soon my colleague will prepare for you a fixed module to try on your side to see if that fix works...

Cheers.

[Roman - Tracker Supp]

Hi MedBooster,
I have replied by e-mail with further instructions to debug this issue.

[MedBooster]

Hi MedBooster,
I have replied by e-mail with further instructions to debug this issue.

I appreciate it, but since deleting all my sessions I have not encountered any similar issue

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello MedBooster,

If the issue is gone - then let's consider this resolved!

Kind regards,
Stefan