* Help with Dropbox

[AnneEast]

I hope this is in the right place .... not really a FH question but I know there are lots of Dropbox users on here

I have noticed in the last couple of weeks (11, 16 and 21 Jan) some .tmp files appearing in my Dropbox folder. They have 0 bytes in them so is it safe to delete them? Have I done something to make them appear?

Anne

[tatewise]

Anne, what are their filenames, and what sub-folder are they in.

What Date modified do they have?

Which of your programs that use Dropbox, uses that sub-folder?

[AnneEast]

They are all three similar to this but with different combinations of letters and numbers. They are not in a sub folder. They are dated 11th, 16th and 21st of January 2015.

768B99F0-AD54-0C16-C50C-F2C75E68D22E.tmp [TMP file; 0 bytes; modified on 16 Jan 2015]

They are meaningless to me! I can't open them because Windows doesn't know what to use to open them, so I don't know what program might use them. My thought was if they are "0 bytes" I could delete them anyway??

The only program I use that automatically saves to Dropbox is my home accounts program (YNAB), which I have used for 18 months now. Otherwise I save things to Dropbox when I want to by dragging and dropping. Not conventional, I know, but I'm a control freak! (Guess that's why I want rid of them to 'make it tidy'!!)

I tried Googling for an answer but not found anything really relevant. Thanks for replying, Mike, I see you have not been well. Hope you are feeling better.
Anne

[tatewise]

That format of hexadecimal digits is a Class Id used by installed programs.
Hexadecimal digits are 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F.
Class Id are always a sequence of 8 digits - 4 digits - 4 digits - 4 digits - 12 digits.
They are often enclosed in { }.

For example {D75C1D0B-99EE-47C9-A5DE-0ED0595FD3CF} is a Class Id associated with the FH Nova PDF printer.

So my guess is that yours are temporary files associated with the YNAB program that have perhaps been left behind when the program did not close normally, i.e. crashed or was forcibly terminated. Does that ring a bell for those dates?

I suspect they can be deleted, as temp files usually can, especially as they have no contents (0 bytes), because they are only supposed to exist temporarily, and should be cleaned up by the program that created them.

Does the YNAB program have a support forum, or can you ask the vendor, to confirm my guess?

[AnneEast]

Thanks, I think there is a forum so I'll ask on there. I don't recall having any problems with YNAB but your explanation makes a bit of sense for me ... a numpty!
Very grateful for your time.
Anne

[AnneEast]

You were correct, Mike. The temporary files were left over by a glitch in YNAB. I got in touch with them and they were excellent at sorting out quickly for me.
Anne