Disappearing FM 2015 File

[HelpAngel]

I am an experienced FrameMaker user who works with unstructured FrameMaker 2015 (using Windows 7) and keep it up-to-date. The issue is that my FM files frequently disappear so that I have to copy the .backup file and create a new .fm file in order to continue working. I'm not doing anything weird, it just happens every once in a while when I try to save a file. For example, I may have been working on a file for several days, or weeks, and it saves fine. Then it decides to disappear. I get the following save error message:

"File C:\Users\....\[name of file].fm has changed on the disk since you last opened or saved it. Someone else has probably modified the file. Do you want to save it anyway?" [I am the sole owner of this file, no one else has access to it. I click OK to save it.]

Then the file disappears. My working folder in Window's Explorer shows the .backup file. Plus 4 new files:

[name of file].fm.DD2

[name of file].fm.EEC

[name of file].fmF28

[name of file].fm.lck

Why does this keep happening?

Thanks!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I seem to recall seeing this happen to someone else a while ago - but I don't remember what the issue was - maybe an over-zealous antivirus system. Since you're a solo author, do you have the file locking flag enabled in your Prefs?

[HelpAngel]

Yes, that flag is selected.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You probably don’t need it on if you’re the only one accessing the files.

[HelpAngel]

Okay, thanks. I'll turn that off. Do you think that's the culprit?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It shouldn’t be – has anything changed in your environment? Rights? New virus scanner? Has this always been happening or just started?

[HelpAngel]

Nothing has changed in my environment. It's been happening -- albeit intermittently -- since I've had the software (~9 mos).

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Was it installed with Admin rights? Did you tell your antivirus to not scan the location where the files are stored? Were you doing something in FM each time that seems to impact the save operation? I saw a thread that was causing crashes like yours when Conditional tags were toggled on/off.

[HelpAngel]

It was installed with Admin right.

I have not told my antivirus to not scan the location where the files are (I'll try to do that)

I haven't been able to detect anything different that I've been doing to impact the save operation.

I haven't touched Conditional tags whatsoever.

[HelpAngel]

IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN (where the FM file disappeared). This time, all I did was to open the FM file and made a couple words bolded. One thing I noticed that I did was to attempt to Save the file probably a little too quickly (I'm a very fast typist).

The error message says:

"An internal error occurred while writing imported graphics in this document. The file has been saved, but has lost some image data. Please report this error to Adobe Technical Support."

What's now in Windows Explorer:

[name].backup

[name].fm.E81

[name].fm.8D3

[name].fm.7EF

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Did it throw a hard error or just the message? Do all your docs have imported graphics (btw, not best practices) & what format were they?

[HelpAngel]

Not sure what a 'hard' message is; however, it just displayed on the page as a FrameMaker message box (so probably a soft msg).

My files do have a lot of graphics; however, I import them by reference rather than copy them into the document. Most are .gifs; a few are .jpgs.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

That message was saying that you had copied something into the doc – you might want to try a MIF wash of your files & contact FM Support - TechComm@adobe.com<mailto:TechComm@adobe.com>

[HelpAngel]

Doing a MIF wash is sound advice. Thanks for sticking with me as long as you did. Much appreciated.

[Winfried Reng]

I noticed something similar half a year ago.

In my case I had applied the Windows feature "Always available offline" to those files which I edit. If I encounter any issues with the network, I can still continue with my work. When I applied "Always available offline" to a folder, I got a Windows message that this is going to be applied now. However, I can continue working. After I opened a single file and did a small edit, I tried to save the file. FrameMaker showed an error message that the file will be saved under another name. I clicked Cancel and closed the file to do the Edit later again. However, then the file had been deleted from the network! (I had reported this as bug 4103788.)

I do not know, if this is related to your issue.

Another question (as your issue seems to be related to graphics handling): Do you have set this preference: Save FrameImage with Imported Graphics?