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Cannot perform backup using TMG 8

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Thanks for the suggestion, but that's part of the problem as i cannot uncheck the external exhibit backup flag?

 

Same here, its grayed out........

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Hi Supporters

 

I installed 8.01 today, hoping this might fix my problem with the backup showing Invalid Path or File Name. Unfortunately, it did not. I still receive the same error message.

 

Furthermore, I still cannot uncheck the Project Data - External Exhibits Flag when performing the Backup.

 

And running the File Validation Routine makes no difference.

 

Please assist as I am unable to use this program until I can reliably make a backup!

 

Regards

 

David

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Try checking "save as new configuration" on the opening backup screen before you reach the exhibits check box.

 

There is a known problem with backing up external exhibits in some cases; the large fact is that TMG is working for almost everyone.

 

 

Robert

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Hi Robert, I have already tried that possibility and it doesn't work, but thanks for the suggestion. I can understand the reaction from DaHen but I'll be frank here. I want this fixed. I asked for this to be fixed under TMG7 but the response from Phil (who has taken over from Dorothy Turner it would seem) was less then acceptable in that I had to wait for TMG8. I was told the problem in TMG7 was understood by technical development and would be solved in TMG8. Clearly not!

 

I want to continue with TMG8 as it suits my needs. But I need this fixed, and remarks from Phil only this week, in a response to my technical support request - stating I should pursue the problem with the TMG Forum is just not good enough.

 

I have a great deal of database experience myself, but not with Visual Fox Pro and I am fairly confident there is a 'work around' to this problem - a simple Fox Pro script to reset certain flags or clear offending data areas is surely possible. I just need someone in development to help with this.

 

Can we please get this on the radar and sorted now, even it involves a private patch for me alone.

 

Regards

 

David Potter

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Hi Robert, apologies for venting my frustration on your post. It was not my intention to upset you in anyway. I just want support to recognise this problem and help me to solve it as they said they would when I first reported it months ago with TMG7.

 

I want to continue to use TMG as I have invested a lot of time in it by the way of custom flags and the like.

 

Would someone from support please pick this up and work with me to solve it. I can't be the only person using TMG8 with this problem so it would make sense to have it solved for the wider benefit of those upgrading from 7 to 8.

 

Many thanks..

 

David

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Dear David,

 

I'm not troubled at all by your response. Nothing is more frustrating than to have the real work interrupted by equipment or software problems.

 

Do I understand correctly that TMG7 won't allow you to back up without the exhibits?

 

Robert

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Hi Robert - thanks for understanding.

The problem is I cannot backup in TMG! I can backup in TMG7 but it continually reports missing external exhibits when it displays the backup completion dialogue. I think the problem with TMG8 it is due to a problem I first reported in TMG7 and to do with External Exhibits that TMG believes is missing, but I don't have any so it is stuck in this perception of missing exhibits. If you would kindly follow the threads of this post you will see in more detail what I think is wrong.

 

When backing up in either version - I cannot uncheck the Project Data - External Exhibits flag, if we could somehow fix that - I could then create a fresh backup without external exhibits which the program believes is missing, to be restored into TMG8 and hopefully resolve the backup problem in TMG8.

 

Regards

 

David

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Hi Robert

 

Slight typo error on the first line of my last post.

 

The problem is I cannot backup in TMG8. I can backup in TMG7 but it continually...

 

 

 

Regards

 

David

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Dear David,

 

Unfortunately I have already uninstalled my copy of John Cardinal's TMG Utility in anticipation of the new version which will work with TMG8. If I recollect correctly, TMG Utility has several functions for exhibits, including, I think, a way of exporting internal exhibits. You could run the present TMG Utility against your version 7 files.

 

There is also a program called Pathwiz (I've never seen it) which also is supposed to deal with external exhibits. There may be helpful functions which at least allow you to track down erroneous entries.

 

Are all your external exhibits reported as missing? Are your external exhibits in one directory or in multiple directories? Are you able to look at them outside TMG -- e.g., with Windows Photo Viewer, Adobe reader (for the PDFs), etc.?

 

R.

Edited by Robert Jacobs

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Hi Robert

 

Thanks for the continued support...

 

I do have the TMG7 version of this utility and will investigate what capabilities it has for identifying issues with external exhibits. Will advise how I get on. Failing that I will try to track down pathwiz and see what that can do.

 

Re your last point. I no longer have any external exhibits, all my exhibits were re-input as internal exhibits within TMG7. But it is possible there was some issues in this conversion process when I lost my last laptop (disk crashed) and when I restored TMG7 to a new laptop it suddenly started to report missing external exhibits when completing the TMG7 backup. And the VFI report still gives unreadable text in the Missing Exhibits Section so I could not follow what it thought was missing as I couldn't read it. This was all reported to Phil in support, and he even looked into my TMG7 file and gave an explanation as to what had gone wrong. Followed by assurances it will be solved in TMG8. Problem with TMG8 is it doesn't even complete the Backup so I'm stuck completely until this is solved. Perhaps you could ask Phil can he backtrack to that incident and recall the technical reasons behind the problem which might take us somewhere. Just a thought.

 

Will be back later with the results of the utility test to see what it can do.

 

Many thanks

 

David

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I have no special relationship with WG or it's tech support. I'm just a user like yourself, and so my appeals to Phil will surely have no greater weight than yours.

 

I would guess that the reason the external exhibits check box in the backup wizard is grayed out because there are no external exhibits. I opened the sanmple project, which also has no external exhibits and found that box grayed out in the backup wizard. So that's probably not the source of your problem.

 

I'd try to establish a new, clean backup directory somewhere on the machine; then carefully point the backup preferences to that new directory and try the backup again, being sure that the backup wizard also points to the new directory.

 

If that doesn't work, I'd be tempted to export all the exhibits in v7, using TMG utility, and the remove the ones that started out as PDFs. Then try the backup, restore into v8 and see if it's now OK. If not, try removing the rest of the internal exhibits and repeat.

 

 

Robert

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Hi Robert

 

Here is the result of the TMG7 utility for Exhibits (see below). You will see it does not find any External Exhibits or problems with the Paths to 261 Internal Exhibits. I have also looked into the Pathwiz but it a) it does not describe any abilities in the way to fix things, and B) it costs $25 and not sure if it would help at all.

 

I noticed the TMG7 utility allows Internal Exhibits to be exported as External Exhibits. But I'm not sure I want to do this as I would have to delete 261 Internal Exhibits so as to reference the new created External Exhibits and lot of time required to do this which sort of defeats the benefits behind using the Internal method. But please let me know if you have other ideas in this area that might solve the underlying problem.

 

TMG Utility v7.1.2

Copyright © 1999-2011 by John Cardinal. All Rights Reserved. Do not redistribute.

Function=Verify Exhibit Paths

Project=Potter_Family_Tree_Master_ (C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v7ProjectsPotter_Family_Tree_Master_)

Dataset=Tmg_full_24102009 imported on 27/10/2009 08:14:10

Log Only=True

Started at 16:32:32

Options:

Missing Only: Unchecked

Create Folder Report: Unchecked

TMG Exhibit Folder: C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v7Exhibits

 

Finished at 16:32:32

Elapsed Time=0 seconds

Exhibits=261

External Exhibits=0

External Exhibits Found=0

External Exhibits Missing=0

 

 

Kind Regards

 

David

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Hi Robert

 

You just beat me to it with your post. You can see I was not keen to export internals as externals but let's pursue your thoughts here. By the way I have aready tried the new folder approach, created a folder on my desktop and made the neccessary setup adjustments and it did not solve the problem.

 

Back soon with some questions of the use of the utility to export internals as externals

 

Regards

 

David

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Hi Robert, I ran the export Internals to Externals with Convert to External switched on and in log mode only. So no real update made yet. Looked at the log and can see 258 out of 261 files processed. No External Exhibits found. No evidence of PDF's (I had already checked for that some days ago). No strange messages in the output.

 

But nothing to explain the difference between 261 and 258?

 

Before I do this for real, I am guessing if this works to solve my problem in TMG8 I will have to use External Exhibits and not Internal Exhibits is that correct?

 

Regards

 

David.

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Hi Robert

 

I ran the TMG utility for real over the TMG7 data set and it converted and copied 258 internal exhibits to external exhibits. I still can't explain the difference between Exhibit Log showing 261 entries and the conversion utility only reporting 258 records? Anyway checked the result in TMG7 and all looked okay. Ran a file validation, followed by optimize and the VFI reports no problems and 258 exhibits checked - all looked good. Backed up the TMG7 Project Data and as you say now the External Exhibits flag is now maintainable. Left this checked on. Backup completed but as per usual reported that 22 exhibits not found. Details can be found in Last Backup Log. Viewed the log and the following is an extract. You can see it's unreadable after 'Missed Exhibits' - so no change in TMG7.

 

 

23-01-2012, 18:25:11 * TMG7 ********************************************************************************

23-01-2012, 18:25:11 >OS - Windows 6.01, 6

23-01-2012, 18:25:12 >Backup file - C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v7BackupsPotter_Family_Tree_Master 2012-01-23 TEST ONLY.sqz

*********************

* Missed Exhibits *

*********************

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} !1AQa"q2‘¡#B±ÁRÑð$3br‚

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Now for TMG8

I deleted the existing TMG8 project and restored afresh from the last TMG7 backup (the one that consistently reports 22 exhibits missing even though 258 correct and accounted for, chose the Project Data only and set external exhibits flag on. Restored and ran the VFI and it reports 280 external exhibits checked, 22 not found (258 + 22), Interesting result. The VFI log contains similar garbage as that shown above. Now for the real test. Ran the Backup and it fails once again with Invalid Path or File name. I have double checked the paths in preferences and these are correct so it must be data causing this. If I run the backup again and uncheck the external exhibits it works okay?

 

Will wait until you have had time to investigate what I reported...

 

Many thanks.

 

David

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Dear David,

 

Is there any way of identifying the three missing internal exhibits? They could be the source of the problem.

 

I use external exhibits exclusively -- there's more control over them and I don't see any advantage to internal exhibits at all in terms of my use of TMG. That said, I can't see any reason why you can't continue to use internal exhibits once the problem is cleared up.

 

Now that it's clearer that there are no external exhibits, the warning about invalid file path may have to be taken to be about the path to the backup directory rather than the path to exhibits. It's probably worth rechecking that vy carefully.

 

Robert

Edited by Robert Jacobs

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Hi Robert, I agree. I'm thinking now that I should have remained with External Exhibits. I think I tried the Internal in an attempt to solve the 22 missing exhibit error in TMG7 - but not really knowing the cause so just trying my luck. That was hours of work as you can imagine. I'll stick with External if we can make it work.

 

I wish we could talk as it would be much quicker. But I ran thye TMG7 utility once again. Knowing that it had moved physically the 258 to be external. And it still finds 3 Internal Exhibits, but it won't tell me what or where they are. So it's as though TMG7 is place holding 3 Internal Exhibits that don't really exist. Tried exporting them but an empty result is generated. Then I looked at the 258 exhibits now made external and placed in my exhibit folder - there is nothing in there to suggest if 3 of them should behave differently to the rest. They are all valid. It's Interesting how 3 remaining Internal Exhibits expands to be 22 when the Backup is run assuming there is a connection.

 

 

This next test may blow your mind. I backed up TMG7 with no External Exhibit Flag checked. It completed and did not report any missing Exhibits. Correct as we did not back them up right. Then used this Backup in TMG8 and unchecked the flag to use the default path for External Exhibits (because we should not have any). Then unchecked the Project Data - External Exhibits because I don't want these brought in from the Restore. But guess what it creates them anyway and when running VFI states 280 exhibits checked, 22 missing. I'm loosing my mind with this so did it again and it is repeatable. I can't even create a new TMG8 project without exhibits? That way I could leave them in TMG7 and go through the total pain of re-introducing the exhibits into TMG8 using TMG7 as the reference to the person or event. But can't do that either as much as that would be a last resort.

 

Kind regards

 

David

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Dear David,

 

 

Now that it's clearer that there are no external exhibits, the warning about invalid file path may have to be taken to be about the path to the backup directory rather than the path to exhibits. It's probably worth rechecking that vy carefully.

 

Robert

 

Hi Robert I will double check this now.

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Dear David,

 

 

Now that it's clearer that there are no external exhibits, the warning about invalid file path may have to be taken to be about the path to the backup directory rather than the path to exhibits. It's probably worth rechecking that vy carefully.

 

Robert

 

Hi Robert I will double check this now.

 

Hi Robert, TMG8 Paths are definately correct. I reran the last test and TMG8 surely does inherit exhibits from the TMG7 restore - even though I did not ask for it. I can see 261 exhibits in the TMG8 exhibit log, and they are all marked external and yet there are no exhibits in the TMG8 exhibit folder. Here's the good bit - if i check the properties for the 'inherited' exhibits it states the TMG7 folder? I think I'm finding more problems then solving them:-)

 

Where to go from here?

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Dear David,

 

Wow. This has gone way beyond me. It may be there's some deep damnation in your data file, although I can't imagine how it would escape the VFI function.

 

Perhaps you might try to export it as a GEDCOM from the v7 file, accepting all the GEDCOM defaults. The resulting GED file can be opened in Notepad. Just scroll through it quickly to see if it there are any obvious signs of corruption. GEDCOMs are text files, so you should not see any non-text characters.

 

It might also be worth running file/project summary on the two files to see how many exhibits are in each. And I would start thinking about some work-around. For example, if you have not used the witnesses function a clean GEDCOM export followed by an import into a new project might not cost too much in terms of manual restoration. How many people do you have? How many witnesses?

 

There are people far better qualified than I to look at the file, but if you e-mailed me a copy of the v7 backup I could convert it myself and see if I can back it up in 8.01. That's about all I can think of. If you'd like to try it I've put my e-mail in a personal message to you.

 

Robert

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Hi Robert

 

Yes getting a bit heavy now. Yes i did try the GEDCOM route but lost too much data as you say Witnesses, and I have a lot of custom flags which i lost also. But it was worth a try.

 

As I can restore from backup for TMG7 I took the difficult decision to delete all my Exhibits 1 by 1 through the Exhibit log. And then ran the VFI - no problems found. So backed up and restored into TMG8 and no problems carried over and the backup works so good news there. Bad news is I would need to re-introduce all my 261 (258) exhibits manually. But could use a restored TMG7 to assist with that to guide me what went where. Long job though. I would be very greatful if you would try to play around with my file, you may see something I missed, or overlooked the significance of. I will send the TMG7 backup file to your email address as agreed.

 

Many thanks once again for spending the time with me on this... Will log off after I have sent you the file, getting tired now.

 

Kind regards

 

David

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