Inspiring

Question

Previous Versions Becoming Corrupt

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 31, 2024
9 replies
2105 views

I'm at a loss and I don't know what to do at this point. I will try my best to be succinct in what I'm dealing with. I am using Robohelp 2019 and have a large project I've been trying to build for the last several months. Almost all of the topics are imported HTML files. At first things were working fine but then I started to encounter the issue of the program not completing the publishing step and getting stuck when it's Indexing References. When this happens the wheel keeps spinning and the publishing process never ends. The manual actually gets fully published and I can open it by accessing the Outputs folder. However, the search feature doesn't work since the program gets stuck indexing. It's important that the search feature works for this project.

I've gone through previous discussions on the topic and most of the time have able to successfully pinpoint the corrupted files, delete them, and fix the problem. Sometimes, however, deleting all the corrupted components doesn't work. What I have been doing is saving off Safety versions that I know do work. That way if a current version is corrupt beyond fixing I can delete it then go back to a safe version and rebuild from there.

BUT, now what's happening is when I go back to a safety version that had published just fine, that version is now corrupt and won't publish. It's as if the program itself, not the source files, has something in the cache that corrupts previously functioning projects.

Has anyone delt with this and knows what's happening?

Thanks

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

This thread is continued here

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yatani

Participating Frequently

Hi,

I frequently experience similar issues in my environment (RH 2019.0.14 Japanese version).

If the publishing process gets stuck, I can solve it by moving all images from the source folder to the desktop or somewhere else, republishing, and then moving the images back to the source and published folders.

The search function also seems to work fine, so please give that a try.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

@yatani Are you using the same version as @mariaw46098905 by which I mean 2019 Classic or New UI?

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Y

yatani

Participating Frequently

I'm using RH2019 New UI Version 2019.0.14
My Output preset is Responsive HTML5

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I doubt an upgrade will fix this. Come back when you are ready and try what has been suggested then.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

1145 topics is well within the capabilities of RoboHelp, I have had much larger projects.

I'm recalling that getting stuck on Indexing References but I can't recall the exact version it was fixed in.

I think that your issue is

The fix was after 2019.0.14
Something in your content.
Another possibility is I did ask earlier whether both the project and locally generated output on the same drive but you didn't answer that.

If it is 3, then please try with both the project and the output being on the same drive.

To establish if it is 1, can you share the project? If you can, then see the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct. I will generate it in a later version to see if I get the same problem.

I can also take a look in source view to see if 2 could be an issue.

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mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

Thank you both for your help on this. We still haven't found a solution and my boss wants us to table it for now. We'll be upgrading to the newest RH version and I'm hoping there won't be bugs.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Are you not rebooting each day but allowing the machine to run for days? Someone else reported an issue that was fixed by rebooting for the first time in days.

Just try rebooting each day.

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mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

Unfortunately rebooting doesn't solve it. I've tried to rebuild the manual multiple times over the last few months and the issues happen when I'm nearly done, no matter what order I add the topics. The project is 1,145 pages, is it possible it's too big for the program to handle?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Place a copy of a project that is giving the issue on your C drive with a short path, say C:\MyProject. Generate to C:\MyOutput.

Does that change anything?

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mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

Unfortunately, no. Here's another odd thing that is happening. Sometimes the project will stall on 'indexing references' then I will close and reopen the project, try to generate an output again and it works. That is only on occassion. I have also simply rebooted the computer and it worked. The frustration is the immense use time it takes to go through all of these steps. The manual is very large and even the successful output generation takes several minutes.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

You might also try searching in the older version for what caused the problem in the new one. I know it seems illogical but I would still give it a shot. Try in a copy of the older version.

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mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

Here's the head scratcher, the files that caused the problem in the current one do not exist in the safety version. Example: on a Monday I add topics 1,2,3 in the manual and it will generate just fine. So I made a copy of those source files in case I need to revert to a safe copy. On Tuesday I add topics 4,5,6 and one of them throws an error. Deleting them and their accomanying images don't fix the problem so I deleted the source files altogether and go back to building on Mondays version BUT when I do a test to generate an output before even adding any new files, it is now stuck like the new version. As far as things went on Monday, there were no offending files in the project but now there is an issue.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

How are you backing up the source files?

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Does the locally generated output work OK, particularly the search?
Are both the project and locally generated output on the same drive?

If the answer to both is Yes, then the publish setup seems to be the issue. Have you tried uploading the generated output to the server by some other means such as FileZilla. Your developers should be able to help on that.

Create a new TOC with just the default topic in it. If that too fails to publish that further confirms the issue is likely with the Publish Profile rather than any content. If you feel content is the issue, gradually add more topics to this new TOC until it fails. That will tell you where the issue is.

________________________________________________________

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mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

The locally generated outputs do not complete the process. I can view the manuals by opening up the index file in the outputs folder but the search doesn't work. Through your process of elimination I can pinpoint the offending topic(s). BUT if I revisit a previously saved Safety version that is prior to those offending topics even being added, those safety versions don't complete the output process, even though they were fine the day before.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Ok, so it's generating that's failing - does the sample project work fine?
If so, then another thing you might have a look at is https://www.grainge.org/RoboHelp/Opening_Projects/Opening_Projects.htm about deleting the .rh folder? Sounds like something is corrupted or problematic in your project.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Let's get some details - exactly what version of RH2019 are you using - New UI or Classic; what point version?
What output are you creating?
What source of HTML are you using/did you use to be imported?
Are you using any source control system? Where are the project files located?
Was RH installed as an Admin on your machine?

M

mariaw46098905Author

Inspiring

I'll answer as best I can:

I'm using RH2019 New UI Version 2019.0.14

My Output preset is Responsive HTML5

I am building it from PDFs that were created from Word docs. We are converting those to HTML then importing them. Part of the time I've been able to create a topic from scratch and import the graphics but sometimes it seems to be the actual graphics that cause the errors because when I removed them from the project it published successfully.

I am saving off my own safety versions of the source files on my agency's drives.

Not sure the answer to the last question. Our IT people installed it and I don't have Admin rights.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Ok, pretty sure that's the last patch in RH2019 - any reason why you didn't update to RH2022 (since you were already using the New UI version?)

I've not heard of using PDFs as a source of HTML, but it sounds like it must be fairly clean if you're able to generate without any images. Extracting images out of PDFs may not be ideal - do you have the source Word docs kicking around that you could use to get images out of? If so, I'd suggest trying that via the .docx unzipping method trick (can elaborate on that later if needed). What image format are you getting out of the PDFs?

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