Captivate 9 - Unused items - Bug?

[JonasKlier]

Hello,

my name is Jonas and I have a problem with the "Select Unused Items" function.

There, multiple items are shown as unused although they are actually used in my slides.

If I check one of these "unused" pictures in my slide and right-click "Find in the Library", the location in the library is correctly shown, but from there the right-click "Usage" says "Item is not currently in use".

[Lilybiri]

Can you check the exact version number, please? Most recent version is 9.0.2.437, first release was pretty buggy.

Did you already clean the Preferences? It is possible that CP got corrupted

[JonasKlier]

Of course, it's Version 9.0.0.223.

I closed Captivate and renamed the Captivate folder. Are my preferences now cleaned?

[Lilybiri]

? Which folder Captivate? Please first upgrade ASAP to the most recent version. If my memory is correct there were that type of isseus with Library in the first version.

Cleaning Preferences is easiest with the file suited for your OS in the subfolder 'utils' under the installation folder of Captivate. You can do it manually, which is probably what you meant. Don't forget to clear the cache regularly as well.

[JonasKlier]

I renamed the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Captivate 9 Folder

In this thread Deleting preferences  RodWard said "Just close down Captivate, delete or rename this folder, then restart Captivate. It will re-initialise your Preferences (including any custom Workspaces you set up) so that they are now reset to what they were when Captivate was first installed."

I dont have any updates:

So I just double-clicked "CleanPreferencesWin.bat" in the "utils"-folder. I think that worked so far.

I also cleared the cache now.

Maybe the problem with my used images is, that I removed a placeholder on the master slide, becuase I didn't need it anymore. So does this automatically delete the link of the pictures to the library?

[Lilybiri]

Oh NO, that is the installation folder, I never recommended doing that. You can clear the Preferences by deleting or renaming a folder in YOUR user profile, that is the manual workflow which is needed when you don't have adminisntrator privileges.

No, I always delete placeholders or edit master slides. The placeholder for images is pretty useless IMO.

Did you upgrade, because that is proably what is causing problems.

[JonasKlier]

No we used version 9 throughout the whole project.

Here is a screenshot for a quick example how my library looks like at the moment if i use "Select unused items".

Most of them are actually used in my project.

If I delete the marked images, these images in my project-slides become black.

If you can see my file contains many images and I need to find and delete the real unused items to reduce file size.

[Lilybiri]

Please, upgrade to 9.0.2.437, which is still version 9 but without those bugs that you have in your version. Those patches (you miseed 3) are free.

BTW deledting unused files in Library has no effect on the file size of the published project.

[JonasKlier]

So I finally updated to 9.0.2.437, but the problem remains...

[Lilybiri]

When you updated, did you refresh the Preferences again using the utils file?

[RodWard]

Something doesn't make sense here.  I'm wondering if either your project is corrupted or you are actually just seeing copies of the objects listed in the Library.

I suggest you take a copy of your project file and then do some experimenting.  Select all objects in the library that have zero usage and delete them.  Then publish and play your project output to see whether you notice any difference.

[JonasKlier]

@Lilybiri I refreshed the preferences with "CleanPreferencesWin.bat"

This error occurs at my other projects, too. In one, nearly everything is marked as "unused":

This is the message I get, whenever i start one of my projects:

So @RodWard I deleted all unused items in a copied project and published it. All images are lost in the published version.

In my project in Captivate these images are still in the Timeline (correctly named and in the right lenght). I also still can see these deleted pictures in the Filmstrip view, but not in my project window itself. There, images look like empty placeholders (the grey colour is from my masterslide):

[JonasKlier]

I deleted all "unused items", saved and reopened the copied file in Captivate now.

The pictures are still in the Filmstrip view, but in the Timeline they are like this:

[RodWard]

OK. That's really weird.

I think your project must be corrupted.

Create a new project CPTX of the same dimensions but with only a single blank slide.  Copy and paste all slides from your current problem project into this new shell project to see if that strips out the corruption.

[JonasKlier]

I just copied one slide to the new shell project and it takes the "unused"/used picture with it.

If i right-click the picture and press "Find in the library" (Ctrl+Alt+F) it shows me this item:

From there, if I check the "Usage":

It IS really weird...

[JonasKlier]

The only way to get things right is by deleting the corrupted item and drag&drop the unused item from the library to the slide. Then the item is shown as "used".

But the question why this happened still remains.

I still suspect, that after I removed the placeholder from the masterslide (which I used to place the images on the slides), the link between library and project slide got removed.

[Lilybiri]

I'm almost 100% sure that the deleting that placeholder cannot be linked to your problem, but I'm repeating this comment. Why would it happen to you and not to me, I delete those placehodlers all the time. But you have done strange things like renaming the installation folder of Captivate (where yoyu wrongly understood another thread). Since Rod took over, will step away. No need for duplicate work.

[JonasKlier]

Okay, thanks for help @Lilybiri

The problem existed before I renamed the folder and remained unchanged afterwards. So that isn't something to consider.

I also re-installed Captivate afterwards, so there shouldn't be a problem.

[Lilybiri]

Are you on 9.0.2.437?  Did you clean the preferences when reinstalling?

[JonasKlier]

Yes

I cleaned preferences with utils -> CleanPreferencesWin

and by deleting the C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Adobe\Captivate 9.0 folder

[Lilybiri]

I am out of ideas. Could you find an opportunity to open one of your projects on another system with the same ersion?

If not, I still have that version installed, you could send me a link, can test it. Beware: I normally never accept files to debug, but this is such a weird issue.

BTW: the two ways of clearing the Preferences have the same result. The manual way doesn't need adiminstrator rights, while running the file from 'utils' requires those rights.

[JonasKlier]

I analyzed the problem a little bit more.

It seems that these "unused items" were linked to a placeholder on the masterslide.

So if I delete that placeholder, all items loose their link to the library and the usage count goes to 0.