Robohelp 2017 missing images

[dash1138]

We have a webhelp project where many images were added by saving them to the project folder through Windows Explorer (outside of robohelp). The images are then added to the topic from within robohelp. These pictures will show up in the topic correctly but do not show up in the project manager pod. The project publishes correctly at first, but at some point, the image files have a tendency of completely disappearing and erasing from the project folder. I understand that adding pictures from Windows Explorer is not the correct way of importing images into the project, but this tends to keep happening on the project.

My question is why do the images appear in the topic and publish correctly? And what could be causing them to completely vanish from the project? (I checked the project folder from Windows Explorer and the files are completely gone).

Any help is greatly appreciate. Thanks.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Interesting situation. The fact you save the images to the project folder as a first step shouldn't matter. Sounds like you are doing things correctly by adding them using the RoboHelp UI to do it. That action alone should be good enough to make it all work.

Can you share a screen shot of your Project Manager pod?

Cheers... Rick

[dash1138]

Hello Rick,

Thank you for the quick response.

I should clarify that a folder for the images is created within the project folder using Windows Explorer outside of Robohelp, then the images are added to the topic.

I recreated the issue below. The project seems to save and publish without a problem with the exception of the image folder and images not showing up in the project manager. But then a few months down the road, the images tend to disappear from the images folder.

[Captiv8r]

Okay, I *THINK* I am following here.

The first issue I note is that you say a folder was created outside of RoboHelp using Windows Explorer.

Folders need to be created using RoboHelp. That way all the internal database entries should be properly created.

What I would recommend in this case is to simply move the Images folder to a different folder. This will be a temporary move.

Once you have done this, using RoboHelp, create the Images folder where you want to have it. Then move all the images from the original folder to the RoboHelp folder.

I'd give that a go and see how well it works.

Cheers... Rick

[dash1138]

Thank you Rick. I tried out your recommendation and it seems to have worked for making the image file appear in the project manager pod.

In windows explorer, I moved the folder to a different directory and then created the folder with the same name within robohelp. Then in windows explorer I moved the image file into the folder that was created from within robohelp. I re-opened the project and the image appeared in the project manager.

Any ideas as to why the image files seem to disappear from the folders that were created outside of robohelp?

I appreciate your help. Thanks.

[Captiv8r]

Just a WAG on it.

RoboHelp manages things it is aware of. Because the folder was created using Windows Explorer and not from inside RoboHelp, there was no way for RoboHelp to update its internal data stores properly.

So my own guess here is that there was some spot that wasn't properly updated and the application just kind of "lost track" of where things should be.

I have no clue how valid my hypothesis is, but it's all I've got at the moment.

Happy Friday! Rick

[dash1138]

Fantastic. Thank you for all your help.