Corrupted settings file notification

[rherrell]

I've had PP for for a long time and it's worked flawlessly, I just upgraded to Pro/Plus and now every time I start my computer I get this pop-up message...

"Your settings file may be corrupted. A backup settings file was found, do you want to restore from the backup?"

I've searched the forum and found a discussion about it being a problem with the code and that it would be fixed, that was two years ago. Is there any way I can fix it, it sure is annoying?!

TIA,

Rick

[mjs]

Welcome to the forum rherrell, sorry to hear you're having this issue.

If this message involves Pop Peeper it should read as follows: "Your POP Peeper settings file may be corrupted. A backup settings file was found, do you want to restore from the backup?"

Can you please provide a screen shot of the error? (for help doing this: How to take a screenshot & attach/insert it into your post)

Thanks

[rherrell]

THANKS for the quick response.

Yes, that's exactly what it says. It DOES say POP PEEPER up at the top of the notification. I really don't want to restart my computer right now so if you really need a screenshot I can do it later.

THANKS again,

Rick

[mjs]

OK, no need for a screenshot, so did you try doing a "Restore"?

If not just following the steps should solve this issue.

Additional details about this are included in the Pop Peeper FAQ in the "Plus Pack" section which you'll find by scrolling down the page.

[rherrell]

OK, I did a restore , I'll let you know tomorrow if it worked...THANKS!

[Jeff]

What I suspect the problem is that the "corrupted" ini file is in your "Program Files" folder, which is not writable and that's why it occurs every time you start POP Peeper. To verify this theory:
- From PP's main menu, select Tools / Options
- Select the "Storage" page
- Refer to the "Ini Location" -- does it include "Program Files" in the path? (don't close this window before you copy the value)

Assuming it does, you'll need to manually move the file. I'll need you to tell me what the "ini location" is (use select/copy/paste) so that I can give you the correct path to where the ini file is.


Also, it's not necessary to restart your computer, you just need to exit POP Peeper (if it's still running) and then restart POP Peeper (you can find the shortcut in your Start Menu).

Odds are that the restore will not work because it couldn't overwrite the protected file in Program Files.

[rherrell]

You're right Jeff, I still have the problem after restore.

Here's what you asked for...
C:\Users\rherrell\AppData\Roaming\POP Peeper\poppeeper.ini

[rherrell]

Just in case, here's the notification.

[Jeff]

hm, ok, your ini file is in the acceptable "appdata" folder, so the file is not write-protected due to UAC as I was expecting. However, it's possible that the file is still write-protected. What you'll need to do is open Windows Explorer to the folder containing the ini file:
C:\Users\rherrell\AppData\Roaming\POP Peeper\
This folder is hidden by default, so you can copy/paste that into Windows Explorer's address bar and press <enter> to access it directly.

Then, right-click on the poppeeper.ini file (make sure it's not the .bak file *) and select "Properties"
Make sure that "Read-only" near the bottom is not enabled; if it is, uncheck it and that's the problem.

* - If your Windows Explorer is hiding file extensions by default, you may want to enable it to make sure that you're accessing the correct ini file. From Explorer's menu, select Tools / Folder options; View tab; then make sure that "hide extensions for know file types" is NOT checked. That's the process for Win7, I think later versions (win10, anyway) have a slightly different method... let me know if you can't find it and what OS you have.

After looking at your screenshot again, you probably do have Win10, so for that you just need to click on the "view" menu and you should see "file name extensions" checkbox on the right -- enable that.


(digression: why does Microsoft continue to hide file extensions...?)

[rherrell]

All I have is the .ini.bak file, is this the problem, i.e. no seperate .ini file? I searched for poppeeper.ini but all it returned was the .ini.bak file.

[Jeff]

The file we're after is the file immediately above the poppeeper.ini.bak file. ie. its name is "poppeeper" and the type is "Configuration settings"

However, based on the fact that both file sizes are 6K, it's possible that the backup file doesn't have any accounts in it either.

I apologize for the problem, but at this point it would probably be easier just to setup those accounts again. It looks like you only have 4 accounts, which is certainly not as bad as it could be. If you want me to investigate it a little more before you resort to that, send me your poppeeper.ini.bak file and I'll see if it has any of your account information in it. Email it as an attachment to (support at esumsoft dot com) -- it may contain some personal information, which I will ignore, so do not post it on this public forum.

[mjs]

All I have is the .ini.bak file, is this the problem, i.e. no seperate .ini file? I searched for poppeeper.ini but all it returned was the .ini.bak file.

Have you done a right-click on the file named "poppeeper" with file type "Configuration sett..." ("popeeper" file displayed in your screenshot w/ modified date of 9/3/15 directly above your "popeeper.ini.bak" file) and selected "Properties" to make sure that "Read-only" toward the bottom is NOT enabled, if the "Read-only is checked then uncheck it and click "OK". (since you have a total of only 4 accounts then it's possible that the small 6KB file size may actually be entirely appropriate).

[Jeff]

Oh, yes, thanks for that reminder!