uedit32.ini reverts to defaults

[theMuse]

Recently I keep losing the uedit32.ini file. It apparently reverts back to defaults. My macro path and other file paths, my script short cut keys, my colors, tab colors, highlight colors, toolbar, and lots of settings seem to revert back to defaults. I've resorted to making a copy of the good .ini file, and restoring it when this happens.

I'm running 13.10a+2 on Windows XP service pack 2. I have selected the option to have multiple windows opened, and almost always have at least 3 opened.

I keep my copy of the ini file in a different directory than the Program Files directory, and it is not in the Application Data\IDMComp\UltraEdit directory.

I think when this happens I also get saved copies of the advanced and basic pfg, tfg, and mfg files. They show up, and I didn't do any thing to intentially do this. These could be happening when my PC crashes.

I think this may be happening when I modify some setting in one of the sessions, but don't know for sure. It doesn't always happen, just enough to cause me problems.

[mik0001]

I have this behaviour sometimes, too (1-2times in a month at the moment).

But I can't say, when it happens.

Greetings,
mik0001

[Mofi]

Since I use UltraEdit I work with multiple instances and have had never a problem like that. Are you sure your computer hardware is 100% OK. For example 1 faulty RAM cell could result in such strange things. I know that because my home computer has had such a faulty RAM cell.

Just for your info, UltraEdit reads the INI only on startup (except a few settings which is a bug) and completely rewrites it also on startup. Even when you change settings, the data are written back only on exit and never during run.

What could be problematic is when you use multiple instances and the instances are started or exited nearly at the same time. This was never a problem for me because I never start more than 1 instance at the same time and I close all running applications always manually before shutting done my computers.

If you have multiple instances of UltraEdit open and simply shutdown Windows then Windows sends the command to the UE instances to close and that could be now problematic when they do it more or less at the same time.

But I have never analyzed deeply enough what happens when starting or closing multiple instances of UE simultaneously. Maybe UE uses a file lock during the read and write operations on the INI file to prevent such problems. But I don't know.

[mik0001]

I use multiple instances, too, and I think it was something like using
"...multiple instances and the instances are started or exited nearly at the same time"...

I sent a message to IDM about this behaviour months ago, but they could not help here at the moment, because they could not reproduce it.
UE 13.20 will be released soon, maybe the error disappers then...

I have a PC, which is 6 months old, and I don't think it is a memory problem, but I can't be sure.


Greetings,
Stefan

[theMuse]

This is my work PC and it is passes diags, so I don't believe I have a memory problem.

I can say that when I am shutting down I do shut down the UEDIT windows in rapid succession. Also, recently, because of some really sucky software I have to use for work, my PC has crashed more often. I suppose that amounts to a simultaneous shutdown of all the UEDIT windows.

You'd think that if there were a locking problem that last one down would win, and I might simply lose a setting update or two, but instead, it wipes out all the settings. It is almost like: 'problem? - go to known state'.

I wondered if maybe it was getting confused and finding a wrong version somewhere on my PC. I searched the drive and didn't find any. I erased the version found in the Program Files directory when I moved the ini file to my own directory, just to prevent being fooled if there were a problem.

I also wondered if it got confused and pulled settings out of the registery. I've never set the option to use the registery.

[freeloadr]

I just experienced the same problem. Right click on a file, choose UltraEdit and surprise, all the setting have been reset to defaults. Tool bar changes, ftp accounts, tool configurations, favorite files - all reset.

The system had heavy disk and memory I/O at the time (from an other application, not UltraEdit).

UltraEdit 13.10a+2
Windows XP sp2

[DigitalSorceress]

The right-click menu could be pointing to

a: an older version of UE that you installed to a different location?

or b: maybe the right-click shell command is specifying a different .ini file?

[freeloadr]

How do I about check which ini the right click call is using? I only have one UltraEdit installation and I've confirmed I only have one IDMComp/UltraEdit directory under Documents and settings/username/Application data.

Fortunately it looks like my tool bars were saved before the reset so was able to restore them, but all the other settings were lost.

When I tell UltraEdit to read my list of ftp accounts from a file (the file does contain the accounts) I get nothing. I know that is a separate issue but I mention it because all this happened at the same time.

[Mofi]

This problem occurs definitely when starting or closing multiple instances of UltraEdit practically at the same time. I today looked in the morning into this issue and found a simple and most important reproducible test scenario. IDM support could reproduce this problem with my steps and it is forwarded to the developers.

I suppose that this problem exists since UE v13.00+5 where first time the re-writing of all settings in speed optimized order was implemented. A workaround for you could be to use the registry instead of the INI or you simply avoid closing and starting multiple instances at the same time.

The same test with UE v11.20a resulted never in a loss of settings in uedit32.ini.

When using the shell extension for UltraEdit (right click), the extension just calls uedit32.exe (without path) with the selected file as parameter. So the default uedit32.ini is used as you can see since UE v12.20 at Configuration - Application Layout - Advanced. Only when opening a file by double click via a file association a different INI or uedit32.exe from a previous and still existing installation could be used. But this is not the problem here.

The menu and toolbar profiles are stored since UE v11.00 in separate files and not the INI. Those files are only changed after an update of UltraEdit when you allow to update it your immediatelly after pressing the OK button of the customization dialog for the menus or toolbars. So the menu and toolbar configuration files are not part of this problem.

I can't help you with the problem of FTP accounts in a separate file because I don't use FTP.

[Mofi]

Maybe good news for all of you. After my email with the test scenario the IDM developers looked into it and fixed the problem in UltraEdit v13.20 Beta III. So with UE v13.20 (coming soon) that problem will not occur anymore.

[freeloadr]

That's great news. Thanks for the follow up.

I had mentioned my system was under heavy load at the time, so it is very possible I double clicked on a file to open it and when nothing happened right away I double clicked again, attempting to launch a second instance. My UltraEdit installation isn't configured to run multiple instances, but when under load Windows can do some interesting things.

[DJ_Dyspeptic]

Could this possibly be an object lesson: lots of replies saying, in effect, "you must be doing something to cause this, Buckie" and then IDM acknowledges that it is, low and behold, something that needs to be fixed in the code?

I've experienced this also -- just yesterday, as a matter of fact -- and I do not have (1) multiple instances, (2) heavy usage of available memory resources, or (3) any older versions of UE installed on my machine.

[theMuse]

I've upleveled to 13.20+1 and things seem to be fine. No hits recently.

[solex16]

I've got some bad news for you guys:
I have been using UE since V8 and it's never happened to me before

Couple of weeks ago I upgraded to 13.20+1 (from 12.*)

All my settings were retained seamlessly..

Just switched on this morning and loads have been reset,
ie
config settings
toolbar layout
ftp accounts
even my default font style (this was always retained through many upgrades)

I DO have
Project Settings
Favourites
Recents, etc..

Again, I do not have (1) multiple instances, (2) heavy usage of available memory resources, or (3) any older versions of UE installed on my machine.

I use Vista and I have the .ini file, etc.. stored in
C:\Users\Rob\AppData\Roaming\IDMComp\UltraEdit\

I tried renaming auto-saved older versions of *.mfg, *.pfg, *.tfg with no joy.

The only thing I did differenetly last night was install Opera browser which set itself as default browser...I re-associated Firefox before loading UE this morning...irrelevant, eh?..

Can I get back my settings?

Will IDM fix this?

[Mofi]

Your issue is an upgrade problem and has nothing to do with the problem described here causing damaged uedit32.ini in previous versions (exactly v13.00+5 to v13.10a+2) in special situations.

An upgrade from v12 of UE to v13.20 should be done without any loss of config settings. I tried it and it worked well. Well, I don't have any FTP accounts set and so don't know how they are converted after first run after installing the new version.

Menus and toolbars could be automtically re-created. If you have customized a default menu or toolbar profile (Advanced or Basic) then you always must take care at first start after an upgrade. UltraEdit has 2 versions entries in the uedit32.ini for the standard menu and toolbar profiles and when it detects on start, that they doesn't match with the internal version for the profiles in the EXE, UltraEdit asks you if you want to update the menu and/or toolbar profiles and if so create backups. I use the standard Advanced menus without modification, but customized toolbars which I have created using "manage toolbars" and saved with different names. So I always can agree to update the 2 standard menu and toolbar profiles without a backup and without having the fear to loose my customized toolbars. At How to update the menus and toolbars? I have explained step by step how to setup such a configuration.

Look in the folder with uedit32.ini if there are backups of your previous menu and toolbar profiles which you could restore using manage menus/toolbars.

Other configuration settings like the font used should not be changed by an upgrade. A possible reason for a font change could be Configuration - File Handling - Code Page Detection.

It's also possible that you specified in the previous version to use the registry for settings and now you use the INI. Then you would need to set again to use the registry. That setting should not change automatically, but I have never stored settings in the registry, so I don't know how this configuration is handled.

To your last question: Can I get back my settings?

Yes, if you have made backups of the configuration files before upgrade which I always do, not only for IDM products, for all programs I use (mainly because I want to know what's new after an upgrade and first run and not because it is dangerous to upgrade).