losing all newly added data after exiting

I recently installed the BeerSmith trial, and I am considering registering. However, I am having a problem where any new data I add (e.g. recipes, equipment, inventory) disappears when I exit and re-open BeerSmith. The only way I have been able to get around this is by "Save Selected Items..." (under"Actions" menu) and saving each group of newly added data, then importing the saved files after every time I re-open BeerSmith.

I should mention that I am running it under a "Limited User" account in WinXP (i.e. not with Adiministrative privileges).

Is this problem a) a limitation of the trial version, b) a limitation of BeerSmith not supported under "Limited User" XP accounts, c) User error (very possible), d) a bug in my particular installation, or e) a combination of the above?

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers!

Hmmm,
  A few ideas:
  - Are you entering your recipes under the "My Recipes" folder?  If you place them on the scratch pad they will not be retained from session to session.
  - Did you install BeerSmith to a location where you have write permissions?  The data is stored under the C:\Program Files\BeerSmith directory by default, but if you don't have write access to that directory as a limited user, you won't be able to save to it.  To get around this, try reinstalling the program to a location in your own personal space that you have write access to.

  Please feel free to write back if those two items don't work!

Cheers!
Brad Smith
beersmith.com

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and sorry for my late response. I tried both of these options you listed and neither worked.

When I ran BeerSmith as an Administrator account things worked fine. Then when I switched back to "Limited User" account I ran into the problem of not retaining any new data I added.  I tried re-installing to a folder near my root directory and that didn't work either. Originally it was installed in the default location: C:\Program Files\BeerSmith. I experienced the same problem in both locations even though I have write access to both locations in limited user account.

Any other suggestions? I find it to be quite a hassle to switch back to Administrator mode everytime I want to make any changes to my recipes or inventory.

Thanks.

  I'm at a bit of a loss - did you uninstall it first, and then reinstall it using the limited user account to a location you have permissions to?  I don't see why it would not work assuming you are linked to the correct version since it runs from the local directory it is installed to.  Also - make sure you have permissions to the files in the directory.  For example installing it to your "My Documents" directory for the limited user should work if you do this from the limited user account.

Cheers!
Brad

llama,
What kind of limited user are you?
If you are a standard user (also called poweruser in XP) you would probably be fine but if you are a restricted user (also called just "user" you might have trouble.
Jase

Since by default Beersmith user data is stored in the XP "Program Files" directory where limited users do not have permission to write, the program will fail unless run with "administrator" privileges. This leads to three options: (1) install the program somewhere else, (2) run the program as "administrator", or (3) change the permissions for the entire "Program Files\Beersmith" directory and all of its "child objects" to allow "full control" to limited users. By far, the easiest choice is to run as "administrator", but this is quite unsafe if one actually log-in as administrator and then puts Beersmith in the background while doing something else like checking something on the web. Roaming the web as "administrator" leaves you wide open to a "rogue website" that downloads malware and runs it without your knowledge. The simple solution is to use the XP "Run As" function to run Beersmith while logged-in as a limited user. To do this, right-click on the Beersmith shortcut icon on the desktop and select "Properties". This will take you directly to the "Shortcut" tab where you can select "Advanced" near the bottom of the pane. Then check the box for "Run with different credentials" and click "OK". While you're in the "Properties -> Shortcut" pane, you might also want to select "Maximized" in the "Run" box. Exit the "Properties -> Shortcut" pane by clicking "OK". Now when you run Beersmith as a limited user, you will be given the opportunity to enter credentials for "The Following user", which is "Administrator" by default. Enter the "Administrator" password and click "OK", and you're off and running.

I am also having this issue now. I've noticed a lot of threads regarding this...and many of them are recent, seems like a big problem. Mine worked for months before this started today...

The other workaround (not hard to do) is to install BeerSmith into a directory under your Documents directory - that way you will not run into a permissions issue writing files.  If you have an existing installation, you can use the Import command to import your recipes from the old directory and then copy/paste them into your My Recipes folder.

BeerSmith 2.0 has a different approach - all of your data will be stored under your Documents directory by default which should alleviate the problem.

Brad