* Copy Project Failed

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Chrisv
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Copy Project Failed

Post by Chrisv »

I am trying to copy a project, per the instructions on the Split Tree Helper and it is returning a Copy Failed window and claiming the System cannot find the path specified. The path specified is where I have been running the program from, so I don't know how that can be wrong, however, I did notice an oddity with the file structure. Is this how the files should be set up?
Any idea what I am doing wrong? I'm sure it's something simple/stupid!
Please see below for details...
Thanks for any assistance!
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mjashby
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by mjashby »

"Chrisv,

Have just tried the actions as you described and got the same message initially, but when pressing OK the required Folder was created and the copy inserted inside.

Creating a 'copy folder' first and selecting that allowed the copy process to proceed normally.

The warning/error message could be clearer, but I suspect the programming does not anticipate users wishing to store multiple identical project copies in 'Family Historian Projects' and therefore expects either an additional folder layer, or a completely separate folder to created, either of which would prevents the copies from automatically appearing in the launch menu which might, of course, easily lead to a wrong project being launched for future editing.

Could, of course, be described as a 'bug' without a more informative warning. Personally I see no point in the process at all because it can be easily and reliably performed in File Manager.

Mervyn
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Chrisv
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Chrisv »

It seemed to go through with the process, but I think it only copied a portion of the file before it stopped (even though it still created the file). I suspect this because when I went to delete the file using the Delete Project command in the Project Window by right clicking on the file - it shows that the file I am deleting only has 27 Picture/Multimedia Files and 12 Document/Text files (see below). That can't be right!?!

That is a good point as to why not simply make a copy in File Manager?
Thanks for your input!
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Chrisv
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Chrisv »

I just did the same process of right clicking on the original file and selecting Delete (this was scary), and the following window popped up showing my original file with 4524 total files. So something is stopping the process before it finishes.
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Jane
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Jane »

I suspect your paths are getting too long.

Try using a much shorter title for the Project name.

Remember your total path and file name must be less that 256 characters if you are on a standard windows install.
Jane
My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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mjashby
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by mjashby »

Chris,

This sounds like a really curious problem! A couple of tests you could perform just to try to identify whether this exclusive to the FH7 application, which I would expect to be simply hooking the Windows File Manager "Copy to Folder" command. I am, of course, presuming that there aren't any very long combined File Paths + File Names in the project that would exceed the maximum allowed (256 characters) when copied to the newly named Copy Folder. EDIT: Jane beat me in already raising this possibility)

A couple of suggestions:

1. Try to copy the whole project folder to your required location using File Manager's built in "Copy To" Command/Icon. Does this succeed fully in copying all files, or produce any errors/warnings?

2. Try a 'full' backup, i.e. "Project Backup (full)" from the Projects Window > More Tasks... Does that complete successfully? If you change the name from filename.fhbak to filename.zip, File Manager should allow you to view the contents without having to use the backup to create a new project

If both of these work, then that should narrow down the problem to something within FH; but those processes might also produce more informative error/warning messages if there are other issues.

Mervyn
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tatewise
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by tatewise »

I agree that it is probably the file path length exceeding 255 characters.
C:\Users\Chris22\Documents\Family Historian Projects\Stamboom Veenstra FH Project 4-1-22 (COPY 01)\Stamboom Veenstra FH Project 4-1-22 (COPY 01).fh_data\Media\
That is already 160 characters before any media folders and filenames are added.
If your Media folder structure has names as long as your Project name then that is the cause.

Try copying to a Project name such as Stamboom Veenstra Copy 1 that is shorter than your master Project name.

BTW: I would also advise shortening your master Project name to perhaps Stamboom Veenstra 4-1-22.
Otherwise, some long Media filename may still exceed the length limit.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Little.auk
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Little.auk »

I concur with Jane and Mike - it is almost certainly a case of exceeding the 255 character file path length limit. In my experience most people are not aware of this limit.

I try to keep my folder names short, but meaningful, so "Family Historian" (16 characters) I shorten to "FH" (2 characters). The more characters saved on folder names the more you have for your file names - where more descriptive names may be needed!

My FH projects are all stored in the "FH Projects" folder, so I don't see any need to repeat this in the project name. Especially as the project name appears in the names of two folders, the "Project" folder and the "Project Data" folder, as shown in Mikes message. So, every character of the project name adds two characters to the total file path length.

Going off on a slight tangent - I presume that the 4-1-22 is a date. (4 Jan 2022?). If this is the case, have you considered using the YYYY-MM-DD format i.e. 2022-01-04. OK, it adds four extra characters, but it does mean that dates in this format can be sorted chronologically.
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Gowermick
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Gowermick »

Little.auk wrote: 14 May 2022 13:05 Going off on a slight tangent - I presume that the 4-1-22 is a date. (4 Jan 2022?). If this is the case, have you considered using the YYYY-MM-DD format i.e. 2022-01-04. OK, it adds four extra characters, but it does mean that dates in this format can be sorted chronologically.
Even better would be 220104 i.e YYMMDD You don't need the hyphens nor 20 for the century! Saves another 4 digits :D
In saying that, I just noticed my Project is called Loney 2nd Aug 2021 - duh
Mike Loney

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Chrisv
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by Chrisv »

Shortening the filenames fixed the problem! I must have been right on the cusp of exceeding the limit because my full backups have been working without any problem. I use rather descriptive filenames for my media, so I definitely needed to do as y'all suggested by shortening my Project name, master Project name and my FH Filenames. I used the following instead:
C:\Users\Chris22\Documents\FamHist\Veenstra220514
BTW, Peter R. and Mike L., the 4-1-22 was actually the Incorrect way of saying (1 April 2022) that I have been taught since Kindergarten, here in the USA. I constantly have to catch myself from entering the incorrect EU and UK dates in genealogy programs. It's a hard habit to break!

Thank you everyone for your assistance!
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David2416
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by David2416 »

Is there a utility that could check file names for their full path length?
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LornaCraig
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Re: Copy Project Failed

Post by LornaCraig »

Yes, if you google "How to check file path lengths" a number of suggestions come up. I haven't used any of them so can't comment on which to choose.
Lorna
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