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Project in use elsewhere - Data tables problem - Visual FoxPro locking project?

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I can’t open my project in TMG 9.05 UK Gold (Windows 7). I'm a member of the TMG-L message group and it's been suggested there that I join the forum and post here.

 

Here is what happened.

 

Yesterday morning Visual FoxPro stopped working and TMG was automatically closed down. This happens every now and then so I wasn’t concerned. Usually I just reopen TMG, run Optimise, VFI, Optimise and everything seems to run as normal. However, this time is different.

 

Now when I try to open my project I can't. I seem to have two problems and don’t know whether they’re connected: the 1st is that there is a problem with the data tables in my project and the 2nd is that TMG thinks my project is already open, when it most definitely isn’t. Robin Lamacraft has suggested I post here as he thinks this might be a VFP problem, that VPF has locked my project because of an unfinished process perhaps.

 

Basics are that usually TMG Repair mode has been activated. Initially “Last” (my project) was greyed out so I could only open Sample. Now “Last” = Sample. Have tried opening my project from within the Sample Project (both with sample closed or left open). Have also tried Select from the splash screen. TMG goes to the right folder and I click on my PJC file (I only have two files – Sample and mine – but with 80,000+ in mine.) Then I get a message that indexes and name values are being created. Click OK when it appears.

 

Then one of two things happens

 

a) Message is “project is in use elsewhere. Please select another project”. But I have nothing else at all open. Have done this multiple times, closed absolutely everything down before trying to open my project, and checked Windows Task Manager which shows nothing except one instance of TMG.

OR

B) I get a message that an error happened when opening the data tables. Click OK. Nothing opens and I just get a blank TMG screen, or sometimes TMG just closes down. I *think* this message comes when I try to Select the project from the Windows splash screen, rather than when I try to open it from within the Sample Project, but am not 100% sure

 

Things I’ve tried so far with no success:

*Rebooted my computer (not just a restart) x 3

*Copied my project file to another folder then tried to open that (Lee’s suggestion as the copy should close everything down)

*Deleted CDX files from my project folder

*Disabled my anti-virus (Kaspersky)

 

I’d be very grateful for any advice or help at all. (Am in the midst of a major project creating a book, a large journal for Second Site DVD and planning a reunion and about to go overseas so this is a big set-back. I do have a back-up but would lose 15 or so hours of intensive work if I have to restore it, and importantly am not 100% sure that I should try to restore when I don't know what's going wrong.)

 

Regards and thanks

 

Ann

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Did you clear the temp folder?

C:\Users\your user account name\AppData\Local\Temp

Repair shouldn't be invoked unless the project is actually damaged. I'll do an analysis of your project and repair it if possible if you give me a download link. You can make a zip archive of the projects folder. You can contact me using email by clicking on the link below.

Jim Byram

You can make the ZIP smaller by copying the projects folder and deleting the .CDX files and the Sample project files. Then make a zip of the folder.

I'd suggest using subfolders under the projects folder for each project. That makes each project easier to deal with when an issue like this comes up.

You can test your backup by making a subfolder under the projects folder and restoring to that new folder.

If you have no site to upload the project to, you can use Help / Message Manager / Outgoing tab to send the ZIP file to the Wholly Genes server. You don't need to select the compress option since the ZIP file is compressed. Once the file is uploaded, tell me the file name and I'll retrieve it.

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Jim, thanks very much for this. It’s very much appreciated.

 

I'll prepare my projects folder now. It does have subfolders - just one for my project and two for sample (?) ... I didn't realise that there were two for sample until yesterday, but will delete them from the copy I prepare.

 

I can’t find the AppData/Temp folder you mention.

I have Windows 7 Pro, partitioned into C and D drives. In the C drive under Ann there is CD95F661A5C444F5A6AAECDD91C240B7.TMP but no AppData folder.

In the d drive I have Users/Ann/Documents/The Master Genealogist v9

 

Regards

Ann

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The appdata folder is hidden. From Windows Explorer, you need to find the folder options and, on the view tab, enable show hidden files. You can do a Google search on how to 'show hidden files' to get a step-by-step procedure.

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Thanks Jim. Have found it. There are 15,000+ files and 1,000+ folders in it! Have deleted them now. (I thought these files would normally be deleted when defragmenting the drive but will check my settings for that now.)

Have also uploaded the Projects folder

Ann

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The Windows system tool Disk Cleanup will clean the temp folder. You really want to run Disk Cleanup on a regular basis. The free utility CCleaner will do so as well. And, as you found, you can do it manually.

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Thanks for this Jim. Have been busily cleaning up both drives. And I did try again to open my project after the temp folder was cleaned out but still get the message "an error happened when opening the the data tables ...". I can't expand the dialogue box to see whether anything comes after the "...".

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Just happened to me. Last night as I was closing down a day of work, and as I always do I re-indexed and optimized. Then when I clicked Validate File Integrity, the first warning dialogue box opened (warning about the time it will take to validate), clicked okay, but the second dialogue box which usually opens asking about checking external exhibits did not open and the Validate process did not begin. So I tried to start Validate again and received the "Project in use elsewhere warning." I would get this warning when trying any file activity, even backing up, so I exited and restarted the program. Now I receive an error message that the "XXXX_P.dbf file is not found." I can open the sample project or restore a backup (though the program now opens in repair mode). There is about ten hours of work since my last backup - not a disaster but of course I don't remember all the items I worked on since then.

The "missing" dbf file is right there in the project folder, but with a date stamp about 24 hours earlier than the other files (when I had backed up and closed down the night before). I tried emptying the Temp folder but no change. The project is in its own folder and all exhibits are external. Thanks for any ideas on this.

Vince Hartnett

 

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If you send me the project, I'll check it for damage and see if it can be recovered. You should make a ZIP archive of the project folder and send that. If the ZIP file is too large to email, you'll need to put it on a server where I can download it. Deleting the .CDX files before making the ZIP file will reduce the ZIP file size considerably.

 

You can contact me by email by clicking of the link above in post #2.

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This happened to me for the 2nd time today. In both cases I had done a Reindex, Optimise & then tried to do a backup - which fell over. ("The project is in use elsewhere. Please select another project.")

In each case I've tried the usual Shut down - reboot (to check that the project wasn't in fact still open) but the problem continued.

Repair mode couldn't fix the problem because it said the file <project)_F.dbf not found. (In fact that file *was* there, but it had a date of a day or 2 earlier than other files.) I tried the TMG Utility - which said "Open the dataset to build the index files, then close TMG & try again". I couldn't open the project within TMG.

After I had tried all the things I could think of, I created a new folder under Projects and restored a backup there.

I've been doing "bitsy" data entry, over a number of days since the last backup, from a number of different places, so I'll probably never know exactly what I've lost. Any suggestions of a way to recover the locked project would be much appreciated.

Kerry Farmer

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Thank you so much, for offering to help me (and others) like this.

I don't remember having sent you this problem before - but it's possible some years ago. The time it occurred for me (before this time) I restored from a backup of a week earlier.

I've zipped the Project folder & sent it to you via Dropbox. These days I put more recent new projects into their own sub-folders, but this was my original project, over many many years (since the UK version of TMG became available).

If I can do *anything* at all to help you, to say thank you, please ask.

Kerry

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Actually Robin Lamacraft suggested copying the _F.DBF from my backup to the corrupted project. Then I could open & close the corrupted project. I then produced a list of "Last edited" people & checked their parent-child relationships. Some of the people showed children in the Children window but not in the Details window. I went to each of the children in turn & their parents' names were showing but when I clicked on the Father- or Mother- tag, the names weren't there. So I re-added the parent-child relationships & now things are working again. 

In future I'll do the backup *before* the Optimise, rather than the other way around, as on 2 occasions that Optimise was the last thing I'd done before having a problem.

Thank you for your help.

Kerry

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