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Help! My recipies are gone

M

MyloFiore

My PC crashed and I lost all of my recipies.

OK, after much freaking out... They are only "half gone". When I open any of them, the grain and hop bill is empty. Nada. However, when I click on them at a higher level the preview pane shows all the ingredients. I have tried to re-enter the ingredients (I was able to print out the higher level view).

Where are the recipies stored? Is the XML corrupt? can I fix it? Right now I cannot add any ingredients to my exisiting recipies.

Please help.


Mylo
 
Hi Mylo,
  Here are a few suggestions:
    1) Go to the C:\Program Files\BeerSmith directory
    2) Make a backup copy of the entire directory somewhere (so you don't lose anything)
    3) Remove the Options.bsm file as well as the backup Options files (Options_1.bak, Options_2.bak, etc...)
    4) Restart BeerSmith - this will likely solve your problem as it appears the options file may have been corrupted in the crash
   
  If that does not work - one other option is the Recover command on the File menu - but I recommend trying removing the options files first.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Well, I tried that, but still no luck. All the ingredients are missing from the "Ingredients" section of the recipie view. I have also tried the Recover option - no dice. I am going to export the recipies and look at the XML... In the meantime, do you have any further options/procedures to try?


Mylo
 
Mylo,
  Looking at the XML should tell you if the recipe is corrupt or if it is not displaying properly.  If the recipe itself has been corrupted, the recover command should be able to pull up an old version.  If the display is corrupt, removing ALL of the options files should force the program to reset itself to the default display options.

  Let me know what you find...

Brad
 
There was only one Options.bsm file. I deleted it - but it never came back. It looks like a display issue. The export to XML looks complete. Do I need to completely uninstall/reinstall and import the recipies back?

Keith
 
Keith,
  Here's my recommendation:
    1) Make a backup of the entire C:\Program Files\BeerSmith folder - so you don't lose anything
    2) Uninstall, and then manually delete the folder C:\Program Files\BeerSmith  -- so nothing is left
    3) Install the latest version and run it to make sure everything is OK
    4) Once you have it up and running you can use BeerSmith to open up the files you backed up (Recipes.bsm and so on) to copy over anything you want to keep...

That should do it!

Brad
 
Brad, there has to be something more to it. Here is the process I followed, and here is what is happening now.

1) Backup BeerSmith directory.
2) Uninstall.
3) Delete installation folder.
4) Reinstall
5) Open BeerSmith, everthing looks good - sample recipies open fine - none of my custom folders exist (expected)
6) Close BeerSmith - immediately reopen BeerSmith

All of my folders and recipies magically appeared - with the same blank ingredients. So then I deleted all of them and repeated the process. The first time the program runs after the reinstall it works fine. As soon as I close and reopen - BANG. Nothing. Even the samples are gone.

Hopefully this helps us get closer to a resolution?

Keith
 
Keith,
  I'm quite confused on step 6 - it appears all of your recipes reappeared without you reinstalling them or moving them over??

  Is there any possibly way you could be opening two separate copies of BeerSmith that are actually in two separate locations??  Do you have two BeerSmith shortcuts that might point to different places?

Thanks for your patience...

Brad
 
Yup. Weird, huh? No, I have not installed in more than one directory, and I do not have shortcuts that point anywhere else. Almost as if there is some other configuration item located in the registry that points to cached data. I know - I did a double take myself.

Unfortunately, I can no longer reproduce that, because I deleted everthing out of the Views. But I still consistently get the behavior where everthing works fine on the first run after the install - then upon going in a second time - I get my "blank view" (ie. the Sample folder and recipies disappear...

I still have a little bit of patience. I think your brewing software is superior. I really need to get this working ASAP now - it's bugging me. I would look at the databinding routine of the ingredients grid. (Sorry, I am a programmer, too).


Keith
 
Keith,
  The recipes display columns are stored in the Options.bsm file (and associated Options_1.bak backup files if it can't open the main Options.bsm file).  I've actually looked at this code several times to verify it.  It is possible the program somehow is corrupting this file the first time it writes it out after a reinstall, but I have no idea why it would do so...

  At this point, I'm thinking about putting a whole bunch of error checking code into the part that reads these columns back in so it can recover if there is a read error.  I still don't understand how its getting corrupted in the first place, however, since lots of people are running with no problems.  I'll see if I can hack this out over the weekend.  Drop me an email and I will send a patch to you to try out.

  I'm also interested - which operating system are you running??

Thanks,
Brad
 
I know this is an old topic, but I've had the same issue.  I deleted the options files, that had no impact.  I don't want to re-install until I know what's going on.

I'm running Vista (don't blame me, it came with the laptop for Christmas), and the problem started after the battery went dead while I had Beersmith open.  Now none of my "ingredients" show up.
 
Have you checked the compatability directory?
 
Under Vista you may also have a "Compatibility files" directory that shows up on the toolbar when you go to the BeerSmith directory.  This is where your data and the opts file likely lives.  The full path to the compatibility diectory is:  C:\Users\{USERNAME}\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\BeerSmith

  where {USERNAME} is your login name for Vista.

  If you delete the newopts14.opts directory there you should be in business. 
 
I couldn't find anything that resembled a compatability directory (even looking at hidden files), but I did find the newopts14.opts file in the Beersmith folder.  I deleted that and that seemed to take care of it.
 
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