Cannot perform backup using TMG 8

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Forum

 

I recently upgraded from UK Gold TMG 7 to UK Gold TMG 8. I followed the instructions to restore from a backup from TMG 7. This all went okay. However, I am unable to create a backup from TMG 8. When I attempt to perform a backup in TMG 8 it consistently reports ‘Invalid Path or File Name’. I think it has something to do with the program thinking the file is already in use and therefore cannot be backed up.

 

I have checked the paths for the project as source and the folder for the backup target and these look okay. I have closed the project in both TMG 7 and 8, and restarted the PC. Thinking this would free the file (if this is the cause), unfortunately that didn't work.

 

Any suggestions welcome...

 

Regards

 

David

[Jim Byram 0]

This sounds like a permissions issue.

 

What is your operating system?

 

What is your user account name?

 

What is the 'Backups' path on the Preferences / Advanced tab?

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim, strange I did post a reply to your questions, by can't see them in this Topic? So apologies for the delay in answering.

 

Answers below.

 

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium - 64 Bit

 

Windows User Account: 'David'

 

Path from Preferences: C:\Users\David\Documents\The Master Genealogist v8\Backups\

 

PS - I have tried running the program as Administrator and it makes no difference.

 

Regards

 

David

[Mule2303 0]

Can anybody else please assist with this issue. It seems Jim is unable to answer. Vacation maybe?

 

Regards

 

David

[Robert Jacobs 0]

Dear David,

 

In Windows 7 "Documents" is a library, not a real folder. The real folder is probably "My Documents" if you haven't altered it. Try changing your backup path on the preferences screen to c:usersDavidMy DocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8Backups and see if that works. Please post the results, as I have a further suggestion in case it fails.

 

Incidentally, I've found it useful to establish "TMG8" rather than "The Master etc." Saves some typing and makes it a little easier to see where you are in the file manager. Just remember that any change in the actual locations has to be reflected in the preferences.

 

HTH & good wishes.

 

Robert

Edited January 14, 2012 by Robert Jacobs

[Jim Byram 0]

1) Are your Preferences paths correct? They should be set to the default TMG8 paths unless you have changed them.

 

The message suggests that the path for something that you are trying to back up is incorrect, so...

 

2) What are you backing up? I would start with a project backup with just the project files, accents and filters and see if that works.

 

Since the backup file has a data time stamp in the filename, it is unlikely that a file of the same name already exists.

 

3) Do you use custom toolbars? If so, you need to edit those and make sure that the button links point to the TMG8 files.

 

%%%%%%%%%%

 

Robert... While the library is named Documents, the documents folder can be named either Documents or My Documents by default. I've seen systems with either and the user did not change the documents folder name. With WinVista, Microsoft set the folder name to Documents and with Win7 they seem to be trying to change it back to My Documents. This creates confusion, of course.

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Robert and Jim.

Thank you both for trying to help with this. I changed the path in preferences by browsing to point to My Documents, initially TMG8 did not accept this and kept referring to Documents. So I manually changed the path in preferences by inserting the 'M'y followed by 'space' in front of the word 'Documents' and then it remembers 'My Documents'. I tried the backup with only filters and accents and it still reports the same error with invalid path. Then I changed the preferences to point directly to my Desktop to eliminate any lengthy paths and this still failed.

 

What is puzzling me further is if I exit the program and then answer yes to the prompt to backup, it states the project is in use elsewhere and cannot be backed up. So either way choosing Back Up from the menu gives me an invalid path, and choosing yes to Back Up when closing the program gives me Project in Use and cannot be backed error. Any further suggestions most welcome. Should I try a new restore from TMG7 or a fresh install of TMG8. I had used the Beta version 8 before purchasing the released version. But uninstalled that prior to installing the released version. Could that have caused a problem?

 

Looking forward to your replies..

 

Kind regards

 

David

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Robert and Jim

Forgot to add I also restored the preferences to default. But this did not change the paths recorded in preferences. Not sure if it should have, but thought I had better mention it.

 

Regards

 

David

[Robert Jacobs 0]

Dear David & Jim,

 

Jim -- Thanks for the clarification. Another good idea gone west! I should have tested on my own machine to see if I could reproduce David's problem.

 

David -- I'm stumped. My earlier reserve idea was that you might have installed TMG for "this user only" under a different user account than "David." That might produce a permissions problem as Jim suggested in an earlier post. But it appears that you've been able to switch directories around, so that may be less likely. But just for fun, make sure that there's plenty of empty space on the hard drive; if there is -- also just for fun -- try to run chkdsk against the drive. You can do that by right-clicking on the drive in "My Computer," select "properties," the "tools" tab, and press the button for error-checking. Uncheck "automatically fix file system errors" and hit "start." It's unlikely that errors will appear -- but if they do, repeat the process, re-check the "fix errors" button and start again. You'll have to reboot as the repairs can't take place while the system is fully operational.

 

It might also be worthwhile to look at the properties of the backup directory (right-click on it) and see if the "read-only" box is checked. I have no idea how that could have occurred, but it did bite me once, years ago with XP, and it took me a long time to figure out.

 

I doubt that anything good will come of these suggestions, but it won't hurt to check.

 

 

Robert

[ggilbert1 0]

I changed the path in preferences by browsing to point to My Documents, initially TMG8 did not accept this and kept referring to Documents. So I manually changed the path in preferences by inserting the 'M'y followed by 'space' in front of the word 'Documents' and then it remembers 'My Documents'. I tried the backup with only filters and accents and it still reports the same error with invalid path. Then I changed the preferences to point directly to my Desktop to eliminate any lengthy paths and this still failed.

 

Typing paths into the preferences dialog is prone to errors, you should ALWAYS use the [...] button to navigate to and select the path.

When you navigate My Computer/Windows Explorer you may see "My Documents" but that is not a real folder, it's a junction point, the real folder is named Documents.

Take a look at my article about Junction Points in the Using TMG 7 on a Mac thread. Look at the screen shot in that article, it shows the command line directory listing.

The path to the default backup folder should be C:\Users\username\Documents\The Master Genealogist v8\Backups\

Edited January 16, 2012 by ggilbert1

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Guys, well I have tried everything you have suggested and no joy. Even went to the lengths of uninstalling, clearing left over TMG8 folders. Registry Clean, turn off Virus scan and reinstall and restore from TMG7. Exactly the same problem. Ran the checkdsk utility before and after. I don't know where to go from here other than to contact support. Which I already did some 10 days ago but have not received any reply from them.

 

Can someone please confirm the contact details for support - maybe I got the details wrong.

 

Kind regards

 

David

[Roich 0]

Hey Group,

 

Looks like I have the same problem. I'm using XP sp3 TMG v8. I can't do anything at the moment, because when it failed I got an error box that said "Cannot Quit Visual FoxPro". I did check the properties on the TMG 8 Backup directory and is was read only. Changed that and waiting for the error to clear so I can close TMG and then reopen and try to backup.

 

Any other ideas?

 

Thanks,

Rich

[DaHen 0]

If I may jump in this topic......

 

Unable to backup TMG8 as well. Getting the same "Cannot Quit Visual FoxPro" window. Try to use th [...] button to direct where I want to backup to go, but doesn't help.

 

Will follow this topic and the other one to see how other members get their back up working.

[Jim Byram 0]

If you get an error, you need to close the TMG8 process using the Task Manager if the program doesn't close itself. You can't backup or test anything if TMG8 is in an error state.

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

 

Many thanks - yes I see that now. And that would explain the second error message. Thank you.

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Guys, I tried the same test Roich made in another post but for the same problem when using XP. I opened the sample project and successfully made a backup into my backup folder set up in preferences. So seems to point to an issue with my project perhaps. I also tried to backup my TMG8 project to my TMG7 backup folder and that also gives the same error message.

 

I know you guys are busy trying to solve this but can someone please advise the contact details for technical support, I have sent two mails now and still no response?

 

Regards

 

David

[Roich 0]

David,

 

On my post, Jim said I was trying to backup non-project items. I followed his steps and it worked. Here is my follow post to help, I hope.

 

Jim,

 

IT WORKED!

 

Step 1 I choose the backup project

Step 2 Let it pick the project and backup file

Step 3 checked data files, accents, and filters. unchecked external exhibits, Nothing else on step 3 was "checked".

Step 4 Compression Normal

Step 5 Finish and it did

 

Now, what are "non-project items"?

 

I've run backup through a few different ways (choices), and found if I unchecked external exhibits, I can do a complete backup.

 

Thanks, now I can breathe again as I have been using the "batch" loader to fill in families and didn't want to lose them or the exhibits attached to them.

 

Thanks,

Rich

[Jim Byram 0]

There is one bug when an external exhibit is missing or has an invalid path that will be fixed in v8.01.

 

You can manage exhibits outside of TMG so this doesn't keep you from working.

 

See the Missing Exhibits help topic.

 

If you ever used the image highlighting options in the Exhibit Log / View/Edit Image screen, there could be a missing image backup file from that process.

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Roich

 

Good news well done. And well done Jim.

 

I tried the same steps, but cannot uncheck the External Exhibits flag, even when I uncheck the Project Data Files flag, External Exhibits remains checked and yet i don't have any 'Physical External Exhibits'. I just went through my entire list of Internal Exhibits in the Exhibit Log and all are viewable, IE, no frowny faces?

 

Any ideas?

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

 

Okay - I think I have a clue what might be the problem here. While using TMG7 - I had a need to restore a backup after my laptop died and was eventually replaced and I restored once again. From that point on every time I backed up I was reminded that 22 external exhibits could not be found. However, the Exhibit Log looked fine no Frownies so I sort of 'foolishly' ignored the message. I always use Internal Exhibits so was curious how this came about. It was only when the error count rose to 26 after adding new Internal Exhibits that I started to get concerned. The Backup Log for Missing Exibits contained unreadable garbage and at this point I contacted Phil at support. After plenty of dialogue he concluded that something untowards had happended during the switch from one laptop to another and the restores done at the time. I requested a fix or a workaround but the support ran dry at that point, and I was told it would be addressed in version 8. Fair enough. Here we are and I think this could be related to the same problem I reported before.

 

I just ran again the Validate File Integrity and chose not to search for Missing External Exhibits. It completed without error. However, the error log shows the following which agrees with the time the process(s) were run.

 

17-01-2012, 14:19:48 202Invalid path or file name. 21 TMGAPPOBJ.MSEARCHAD2

18-01-2012, 19:13:52 202Invalid path or file name. 21 TMGAPPOBJ.MSEARCHAD2

18-01-2012, 19:14:17 202Invalid path or file name. 21 TMGAPPOBJ.MSEARCHAD2

18-01-2012, 19:14:18 202Invalid path or file name. 21 TMGAPPOBJ.MSEARCHAD2

 

Does this help understand the problem?

 

Also if I run Validate File Integrity and say Yes to search for Missing External Exhibits and select a valid Exhibit Folder (albeit it's empty) I get an error dialogue box with the same error as above?

 

Any thoughts?

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

Should have added that I have no problems backing up TMG7 although I still get the missing external exhibits message when it completes.

 

And the validate file integrity steps listed above were all made in TMG8.

 

Thanks for your continued support...

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

 

In the TMG8 restore log I found the following, it is referring to the 26 missing external exhibits reported when I backup TMG7. Yes it only specifies 4 exhibits of PDF format. Sorry to bombard you with all this info. But hoping it will help you in someway.

 

* Exhibits *

17-01-12, 14:14:01 **************

17-01-12, 14:14:01 *.

17-01-12, 14:14:01 *(+) Use the default path for external exhibits

17-01-12, 14:14:01 *Restore exhibits to this folder :C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8Exhibits

17-01-12, 14:14:01 >Found 26 exhibits with links to external files.

17-01-12, 14:14:01 > (not found in SQZ) updated from "c:UsersDavidPicturesCensus ImagesJames Davies 1851.pdf" to "C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8ExhibitsJames Davies 1851.pdf"

17-01-12, 14:14:01 > (not found in SQZ) updated from "c:UsersDavidPicturesCensus ImagesSamuel Short 1871.pdf" to "C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8ExhibitsSamuel Short 1871.pdf"

17-01-12, 14:14:01 > (not found in SQZ) updated from "c:UsersDavidPicturesCensus ImagesSamuel 1881.pdf" to "C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8ExhibitsSamuel 1881.pdf"

17-01-12, 14:14:01 > (not found in SQZ) updated from "c:UsersDavidPicturesCensus ImagesHannah Short 1891.pdf" to "C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8ExhibitsHannah Short 1891.pdf"

17-01-12, 14:14:01 Restore finished

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

 

Here's a snapshot of the TMG7 list of external exhibits log - you can see it's unreadable. And below is a snapshot of the TMG8 backup log showing that it does not proceed past the list of Missed Exihibits.

 

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TMG8 Backup Log

18-01-2012, 19:37:34 * TMG v 8.00.0000 ********************************************************************************

18-01-2012, 19:37:34 >OS - Windows 6.01, 6

18-01-2012, 19:37:34 >Backup file - C:UsersDavidDocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8BackupsPotter_Family_Tree_Master 2012-01-18 19-37-29.sqz

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

* Missed Exhibits *

[Mule2303 0]

Hi Jim

 

I'll stop there and give you a chance to digest what I have sent to you.

 

Many thanks

 

Regards David

[nbradley 0]

David,

 

Have you tried backing up without external exhibits.

Edited January 19, 2012 by nbradley