Cannot save RoboHelp file (Version 2022.5.28)

[ToilingInObscurity]

I am deeply frustrated with RoboHelp (Version 2022.5.28). For an entire week, I have been reformatting files thinking that my changes were being saved. Just today, I revisited a file that I worked on yesterday, and I noticed that my changes were gone. I don’t know how many days of work I have lost. These are the step to reproduce my problem.

1. Use RoboHelp to open a topic (htm file).
2. Edit the file.
3. To save the document, select File > Save.
4. Close the topic.
5. Re-open the topic

The result is that edits in step 2 are gone. My current workaround is to edit the htm files in Notepad++, which saves htm files reliably. I am tempted to cancel my RoboHelp subscription and just use NotePad++.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'm not entirely sure what you're doing - wouldn't you launch RH, open the project you want to work on, make your changes, save it, then generate output?
Do you have any source control system at play? Do you have rights to the location where the RH project files are located?

[ToilingInObscurity]

Yes, the project is open in RH. It did not occur to me that I should list "open project in RH" as step 1. Forgive the omission. As for source control, I don't think that is a problem because NotePad++ does not have a problem saving these htm files. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are you editing the output files or the RH project source files?

[ToilingInObscurity]

RH project source files. See screen capture below. 

I open the topics by double clicking topics  in the contents pane. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Cool - can you answer the other questions too? 

[ToilingInObscurity]

Are you referring to Peter Grainge’s questions? I will answer whatever questions you have and appreciate your taking the time to help me troubleshoot.

[Peter Grainge]

You can edit the htm files but how will you compile without RoboHelp? Threatening to cancel your subscription is meaningless here as the forum is mostly supported by other RoboHelp users. So let's see if we can find the cause.

1. Was RoboHelp installed with admin rights?
2. Was it installed to the default folder?
3. Are you using Windows or a Mac?
4. Where is your project located? If it is not on your local drive, move it there and try again.
5. File > Save should work but try the Save icon.
6. Do you have the same problem with the About RoboHelp sample project You can access it from the bottom left corner of the opening dialog box.

Answer those and let's see where that takes us.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ToilingInObscurity]

Peter, I appreciate your help and please excuse my venting frustration by saying that I want to cancel my subscription. I do want to cancel, but I did not intend it as any kind of threat. Here are your questions with my answers in bold:

1. Was RoboHelp installed with admin rights? Yes, and RoboHelp 2022 was saving files as expected for the first few days of my formatting work.
2. Was it installed to the default folder? Yes. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe TCS 2022\Adobe RoboHelp
3. Are you using Windows or a Mac? Windows.
4. Where is your project located? If it is not on your local drive, move it there and try again. The project is in the following local directory: C:\test CP Help\Help Source_rh2022\SDX Help.rhpj
5. File > Save should work but try the Save icon. Yes, I have tried the Save icon and File > Save All.
6. Do you have the same problem with the About RoboHelp sample project You can access it from the bottom left corner of the opening dialog box. Interesting, I can save edits to the sample project. What conclusions can we draw from that? Does RH want me to save projects to My RoboHelp Projects? That would mess things up with our source control. 

[Peter Grainge]

1. Close the project.
2. Delete the .rh folder.
3. Reopen the project and try again.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ToilingInObscurity]

That was a good suggestion, but it did not work. I do appreciate your help. Unless you have more ideas, I will continue to save my work using NotePad++. Next week, I have a deadline for this project so I will continue to muddle along. Take care and thank you! 

[Peter Grainge]

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.

5 minute task to give some comfort. Create a new project and make some changes to the default topic. Same problem? If that's OK we can look to rebuild things next week.

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ToilingInObscurity]

Peter, you are kind to want to help, but RH is allowing me to save my work now, so I need to make progress until this problem reappears. Intermittent problems are my favorite! Anyway, my company would never allow me to share the project. If I find a solution, I will post it here. Thank you!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Hang on - you mentioned source control - what are you using and how is it working? Also, did you verify that you have rights to that C:\test CP Help\Help Source_rh2022\ folder?

[ToilingInObscurity]

Source control? I am supposed to commit my work to SVN (my client is TortoiseSVN https://tortoisesvn.net/.) In this particular project, I have been working exclusively on my local hard drive, so SVN is not a factor. If I have a catastrophic PC failure, I might live to regret it.

As for rights to the C:\test CP Help\Help Source_rh2022\ folder, my only verification is that I am using NotePad++ to save files that are already in that folder. NotePad++ doesn’t seem to have any trouble saving these files. Is that a good test? My guess is yes, but you might know more about this issue. If I move this project to the My RoboHelp Projects folder, MS OneDrive might be a factor.

[Peter Grainge]

Next week try installing RoboHelp on another machine if you can to see if that works better.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ToilingInObscurity]

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll try it next week after I hit some deadlines.

[Peter Grainge]

Did someone mention OneDrive? GoogleDrive and Dropbox are fine. OneDrive is a known nightmare with RoboHelp. Others have reported OneDrive issues and I have seen it. It just doesn't play nicely with RoboHelp.

Perhaps if you saved and didn't open the topic for five minutes or so it might be better. 

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ToilingInObscurity]

Source control is not an issue for the current location of the project files. If I were to move it to the My RoboHelp Projects folder, OneDrive would be an issue. Now that you have alerted me, I will never put a project in that folder. Thanks! 

[Peter Grainge]

To be clear, My RoboHelp Projects in the default location in Documents is not an issue. Anything in OneDrive is an issue.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

The danger comes when you run Win11 or your corporate IT maps your local C:\My Documents folder to OneDrive or SharePoint.

[ToilingInObscurity]

You are right Jeff. My company configures the Documents folder (which includes My RoboHelp Projects) to be covered by OneDrive. So the default RH folder is backed up by OneDrive.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Have you set up any integration with TortoiseSVN inside RH? If so, I wonder if RH is somehow thinking that it's dealing with the project inside SVN and that it's not committing the changes made but restoring them the next time you open up the project.
As for rights to a folder, just right-clicking and checking the Properties is good enough. Some corporate environment restrict access to the root C:\ on their machines.

[ToilingInObscurity]

I have not setup integration between RH and SVN. After this experience, I don't expect to set it up anytime soon.

As for rights to a folder, you might be onto something. Here’s a screenshot of the properties folder:

I cleared the Read-only checkbox and suspended indexing.

Let’s see how it goes.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'd also take a look at the Security tab and your user rights in there.