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Cannot delete a book

Posted: 27 Nov 2021 19:35
by BakerJL75
I've been experimenting with Publish, Books & Booklets. I have to books that I cannot view or delete. I have run File, Validate, but it reported no problems. If I delete I get the message: "A roblem occurred. Task may not have completed correctly." If I view I get "Unable to open book". View book does not work either. It's not a huge problem as I don't want either book, but if I get one I like, I don't want it to have this problem. Any suggestions before I put in an error report to FH?

Thanks,
Jackie

Re: Cannot delete a book-update

Posted: 27 Nov 2021 19:49
by BakerJL75
I have the same problem if I try to delete a book with the sample data. Should I back up and then uninstall/reinstall?

Thanks

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 27 Nov 2021 21:44
by tatewise
Firstly File > Validate... only checks the Project GEDCOM database file and not any other file structures.

Books are held in the same Project folder as the GEDCOM file but inside a Books subfolder.
It sounds like the contents of that subfolder has been upset in some way.

As an experiment, try using File > Project Window > More Tasks > Sample > Reset Sample Project to reset Sample Project.
Then open the Family Historian Sample Project and use Publish > Books & Booklets...
Can you View Book... and subsequently Delete... the Book 'The Munros in the 20th Century'?
(It can always be restored via the Reset Sample Project command above.)

If that all works correctly, then I wonder what has happened to upset the Books folder in two of your Projects.
Are your Projects in OneDrive or GoogleDrive or some other cloud store?
Can you think of any other explanation?

I cannot think of any way a 'corrupted' Book can be recovered.

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 28 Nov 2021 15:54
by BakerJL75
Resetting the project did not help.

But I do have my files on google drive. And interestingly, and thankfully, if I copy my project to a local drive, it works fine there. It must be something in syncing or how drive handles file permissions or something. Which is a bit of a dilemma. I occasionally use my laptop and it's nice having them sync'd. I also use directory junctions to sync configuration and other data. https://fhug.org.uk/kb/kb-article/synch ... -and-data/

I don't mind copying the project between computers as it's not that often. Do you have any idea if I can keep the project on a local drive and leave the rest of the sync going? I may also play around and see if I have different results with dropbox or Onedrive.

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 28 Nov 2021 16:04
by ColeValleyGirl
FWIW I use OneDrive, and can delete the Book in the sample project without difficulty,

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 28 Nov 2021 16:33
by BakerJL75
Upon further reading, I think I will move my project folder back to a local drive, and carefully undo the junction points and keep everything local. Then if I want to use my laptop, which is infrequent I'll copy the project folder and use Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings when I want to use the laptop. I keep my media on Google Drive which works fine from both computers so it shouldn't take that long. And I will backup, backup, backup everything I can think of before I do the switchover. I'm aware the real data is on Google which I literally just backed up to a backup drive.

Thanks again,
Jackie

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 28 Nov 2021 17:19
by tatewise
If this is a genuine problem with syncing FH Projects via Google Drive then it needs further investigation.
The Books subfolder and files are only a tiny part of the whole Project folder structure.
There are other sibling folders such as Cache, Charts, Packages, Plugin Data, Settings & Snapshots.
The GEDCOM file is saved there too.
Then in the parent folder, there is the Public folder and the FH Project File.

Why is Google Drive posing a problem with Books and none of the other components?

Can you save and view and delete FH Saved Charts?
Do Plugins remember their settings from one run to the next?
Does the File > Backup/Restore > Reveret to Snapshot... dialogue work correctly and let you delete old ones?
Can you save, review and delete files to the Public folder?

Re: Cannot delete a book

Posted: 28 Nov 2021 18:11
by BakerJL75
I thought when I moved a test project from Google Drive to local, it fixed the problem. It did not. But I didn't reallize that until I moved everything off of Google Drive, and still had the problem. Then I uninstalled/reinstalled FH7. That worked. So I think something in the program may have gotten corrupted. Which means I need to check my hard drive.

Thanks you.