FrameMaker not recognizing FrameMaker files

[monrocks12]

Lately, I've been having an intermittent issue with files in FrameMaker books. FrameMaker will just suddenly stop recognizing a file in a book, throwing a message that it is not a FrameMaker file when I try to open the file or update the book. Does anyone know why this might be happenning and how I can stop it?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What version of FM? Structured or Unstructured? Where are the files located?

[lourieh]

We've experienced similar issues with our FrameMaker books. The error message says the file was saved to a temporary file, but FrameMaker can't rename it to the correct name, and that the newer version has an odd suffix. We have also had FrameMaker files deleted when updating book files. We have experienced this with both the 2019 and 2020 versions, and it seems to happen when working with files on our company's network servers. When we work with files on our desktops, we don't seem to run into these issues. We have worked with our IT department but have not been able to resolve the issue. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

I had also issues with deleted files:

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-6187

Luckily I did not encounter this within the last year. As I cannot reproduce this issue, I do not know, if this was a network issue or something within FrameMaker which was changed.

Best regards

Winfried

[Barb Binder]

Hi @monrocks12:

Two thoughts:

1. All files in a book need to be updated to the current version. If you migrate up to 2020 from 2019, open the book, and then hold the Shift key as you choose: File > Open all Files in Book, File > Save all Files in Book and finally, File > Close all Files in Book. Release the Shift key and try updating the book. 
2. I had a similar issue when I tried to work directly on dropbox. There's some background saving with tmp files that goes on and it was a problem. While I can work directly on cloud drives in InDesign, in FrameMaker I work locally and back up to dropbox every few hours. 

~Barb 

[lourieh]

All of our files in a book are in the same version (either 2019 or 2020). Most of our books are still in 2019. The issue of missing files isn't something we've encountered before and we've worked with FrameMaker files on our network server for years. We are assuming that the background saving with tmp files that FrameMaker goes through is part of the issue, but we don't know what it is conflicting with on the server to cause the files to be deleted. We were thinking that it might have something to do with the security software updates that our company is making but we haven't been able to pinpoint that as the issue with the troubleshooting we have done.