Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
June 2, 2017
Question

Disappearing Files

  • June 2, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 232 views

My colleague just lost a file she's been working on for two days (compounded by Windows 10 File History not having been working correctly but that would be drifting OT). This also happened to me at the end of last year. Your first reaction is to assume you've done something stupid, but I think there's more to it than that and I wonder if this is under-reported because nobody wants to look stupid in public: I've only found a few references to this in the forum over the past few years, and mostly on much older versions.

The exact sequence of events isn't clear, because you tend to be in a bit of a flap and don't remember everything you've clicked on, but the problem seems to start with Captivate saving the file in the wrong place. You realise the mistake and then go to Save As... and attempt to save the file to the correct place and something goes wrong at that point, and all instances of the file in all locations disappear. I know what you're thinking, but this is all happening on local drives, although the file may have originally been copied from a network location.

Setup is Captivate 9 on Windows 10.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    June 2, 2017

    Are you using the latest version of Captivate 9 which is 9.0.2.437?

    Can you please turn on the Backup in Preferences, General Settings? For a weird reason it is not turned on by default. At the same time, can you check both paths for 'Publish at' (normally also the default location of the CP-files) and cache-files? You confirm that they are bot on a local drive, but just to be certain. Personally I find this 'stupid' from the Captivate team, not to turn on backup by default. If you turn it on in Preferences before opening any file, it will be the case for all future files.

    Why all files are lost when you repeat the save action with Save as to another location is a mystery to me, I don't see why this happens, but am ready to believe you. I prefer to make a copy on a Win system, Save as causes issues also in other applications.

    As a former professor, where I did teach a lot of software applications, I insisted for every student to use the shortcut key CTRL_S at least once every 20 minutes, for applications where an automatic save cannot be turned on, which is the case for Captivate (there are logical reasons for it, you don't want the save action to happen when you are recording a software simulation).

    It is always painful to lose hours of work, but it happens and has happened to (almost?) everyone. Try to learn from that experience.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 2, 2017

    Thanks for that. Odd that it's never happened to either of us in any other applications despite us having both worked in IT since IT was invented.  When I talk to other E-learning developers who use Storyline or other tools, their attitude to Captivate seems to be that they perceive it as far too flaky and unreliable. I can't help thinking that Adobe should be looking less at adding new features and more at fixing this (valid) perception.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices