disappearing sites

[KevinB9]

It's always something with me and Dreamweaver.

Yesterday my sites disappeared from the Manage Sites dialog box and the Files panel. Does anyone know why this would happen? I am running DW 21.2 on a Mac wtih Monterrey 12.2.1.

Thanks,

Kevin Burke

[Ben M]

Could be a permissions issue that sites are not saving, but it's been awhile since I've come across this personally.  Have you tried running First Aid from the Mac Disk Utility?  If not, depending on how long you have had this system and how many upgrades your profile has been through it might be easier to just create a new OS user account and migrate over to fix permissions.

[KevinB9]

it might be easier to just create a new OS user account and migrate over to fix permissions.

Ben, thanks for your suggestion, but this is way over my head.

Kevin

[Ben M · Accepted solution]

If sites are not saving on a Mac this may end up being your only option. Just go to the settings, click on Users, and then the little plus sign to add a user. Try logging into that account and start up Dreamweaver and create a site. If the site stays on that account when you close/re-open DW then this is definitely a corrupt user profile. At that point, the simplest transfer is just going into your hard drive and moving the documents/pictures/etc folders from the old account to the new. In some cases you may have bookmarks or other program settings in your user library (~\Library from the Go To Folder command), but you should try to avoid this as this is the area that would be affecting Dreamweaver. So you might need to re-configure preferences in some programs but overall your Applications will already be installed and working.

[KevinB9]

Ben, thanks. I will give it a try.

Kevin

[KevinB9]

Hi, Ben

When you say, "go to the settings", what do you mean? How do I find "settings"?

Thanks

Kevin

[Ben M]

System preferences --> User and Group settings.  You can add a new user there.

[Nancy OShea]

Do you have a local site folder on your primary hard drive?

If you previously exported STE files & kept them in a safe place, you can re-import them. 

[KevinB9]

Do you have a local site folder on your primary hard drive?

Hi, Nancy. Thanks for trying to help. Yes, I have a local sites folder and my files (sites) are still in there but Dreamweaver is not recognizing them. In the Manage Sites dialog box the "import site" button is dimmed (can't import). The "new site" button is active and I can recreate a site by giving the "new" site the same name as the old site. Weird.

Best wishes,

Kevin

[Paul-M]

Are you saving sites on a network drive or in a cloud storage location; OneDrive, Dropbox, Google One etc ?

[KevinB9]

Are you saving sites on a network drive or in a cloud storage location; OneDrive, Dropbox, Google One etc ?

========

No. My files are all saved on my hard drive. They are all still there in my local site folder, but DW is not recognizing them. In the Manage Sites dialog box the "import site" button is dimmed. (Can't import.) The "new site" button is active and I can create a "new" site with the old name. Thanks for replying - Kevin

[Nancy OShea]

In the Manage Sites dialog box the "import site" button is dimmed. (Can't import.)

By @KevinB9

==========

Try Restoring Preferences.

https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/kb/restore-preferences-dreamweaver.html

[KevinB9]

Hi, Nancy

Thanks again for your help. I restored the preferences as you suggested, but it didn't help. I can open .html files in DW but they (the sites) are not being recognized in the files panel and the Manage Sites dialog box. I have also lost contact with my host (GoDaddy) so something has gone haywire. I should explain – I use DW only a couple of weeks a year when I want to put my writing and photos on the web. I've never had a chance to learn DW through repetition. I use Photoshop every day so I don't have any problems there. I will try to diagnose the problem a little better tomorrow after i talk to GoDaddy.

Kevin

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

What happens when you create a new site definition manually?  Go to Site > New Site and point it to your local site folder.  Then click on Servers and enter your web hosting credentials and Root Directory.

[KevinB9]

Yes. I was able to create a new site and it showed up in Files panel and in Manage Sites dialog box. Then I created a "new" site using the name and local folder of one of my old (missing) sites and that worked too. But, when I uploaded it to my hosting site (GoDaddy) GoDaddy seemed to think that I was uploading it for the first time. I should have mentioned – the first sympton of stange behavior was when my code view background changed from white to black without me doing anything, so clearly preferences were changed. Also, I def did not delete any sites with the minus sign next to the pencil. That kind of thing is protected with a confirmation button.

Thanks again, Kevin

[AmySykes]

https://youtu.be/s-gYGbTmCvI

[Nancy OShea]

@AmySykes,

Based on your video, you're suggesting that the OP inadvertently deleted his site definition from the Manage Sites panel.  It could happen but I've had entire site profiles just vanish for no reason. I don't know why but it was nothing I did.  They just went poof!  -- now you see them, now you don't.  

In any case, I always EXPORT newly defined sites to STE files and keep them in a safe place.  It saves a lot of recovery time.