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T
Tripecac2
Inspiring
July 29, 2025
Question

Dreamweaver 21.5 sometimes shows the wrong file's contents!

  • July 29, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 308 views

I do all my work in coding view (PHP, HTML, CSS, JS), and usually have 10-20 tabs open.  I'm constantly switching between them.

 

Sometimes when I switch to a tab, the wrong file's contents are visible.  For example, yesterday I switched to a .php file's tab, but Dreamweaver shows me the contents of an HTML file instead.   I switched to other tabs, and they looked fine, but when I switched back to the "bad" PHP tab, it still showed me HTML.  I then closed and restarted Dreamweaver, and this time that PHP tab showed the correct contents.

 

So, it seems like Dreamweaver 21.5 got "confused" and associated the wrong file's contents with a tab.

 

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

And is there a way to prevent it from happening?

 

Thanks!

    2 replies

    B i r n o u
    B i r n o u
    Legend
    July 31, 2025

    Like you, I often use DW as an application manager, which means I have quite a few files open, and sometimes files that don't belong to the same project. I don't usually encounter any problems, and DW always knows where to place the file I'm working on using the correct FTP account. This is very convenient and works well.

     

    However, sometimes, for no apparent reason, it starts to go haywire. When you select a tab, or even a related document, DW does not display the appropriate code content. This does not happen systematically on the same type or family of documents.

     

    Unfortunately, the only solution I've found is to restart DW. Sometimes I also have to restart the OS... but then again, I have a really ancient machine... I think the office bought it more than 13 or 14 years ago... so although I can work with it properly, there are compromises, and DW is one of them. .. 

     

    you're not alone to face it, just remember to keep "documents reopen when launching DW" and don't have any unsaved documents, unless you also have a third-party code editor open 🙂

      T
      Tripecac2Author
      Inspiring
      July 31, 2025

      So it sounds like it's a memory error.  I often have dozens of files open (a mix of PHP, HTML, CSS, and JS for multiple pages which I'm editing as a group).  Macromedia's Dreamweaver 8 could handle them (and made it easy to reorder tabs by having a completely and easily scrollable tab bar), but Dreamweaver 21.5's tab bar doesn't even scroll, implying that Adobe did't expect "normal" users to have more than a few tabs open at a given time.  So I'm not surprised if other parts of Adobe's code aren't designed to robustly handle more than a few files open at once.

       

      Out of curiosity, have you tried any other IDEs?  If so, have you found any which seem like a good candidate for a Dreamweaver replacement, specifically when editing [many] files in Code View and then uploading them individually to a server?

      Nancy OShea
      Community Expert
      Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 30, 2025

      When working with PHP files, toggle from LIVE to DESIGN with Ctrl + Shift + F11. 

       

      Document Toolbar:

      LIVE view has quirks with PHP files. Most notably, having to Save after every edit. 

      DESIGN is quicker for coding & editing. 

      LIVE is more accurate at rendering CSS layouts.

       

      Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
      T
      Tripecac2Author
      Inspiring
      July 30, 2025

      What does that have to do with my question?

       

      Are you an AI?  Your answers are awful!!!

      BenPleysier
      Community Expert
      BenPleysierCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 30, 2025

      @Tripecac2 , FYI this is a reply from AI

       

       

      I get the frustration when a reply doesn’t feel directly helpful — especially when you’re knee-deep in tabs and debugging. That said, @Nancy OShea was the only one who responded initially, and she’s consistently generous with her time here. Her tip might not have addressed your issue head-on, but it often helps others facing quirks with PHP tabs in Dreamweaver.

      There’s probably more nuance to this bug than meets the eye, and it might take a few of us pooling notes to trace a pattern. I’m curious — does this only happen after extended sessions? Or after switching between files that share similar filenames or extensions?

       

      I would have worded it differently.

       

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