Categories lost

[Gavia Immer]

Hello,

I spent the past few months developing a customized categories hierarchy and categorizing my images. Now, unfortunately, when I launch xnview (v1.94, libformat 5.54), it reverts to the program's default categories (i.e., the ones that are installed when first installing the program--audios, icons, drawings, etc.). The category.db file is still in my xnview directory and still seems to contain the correct category information (at least I can still see the various category names when viewing this file with a text viewer); however, none of the images that I had previously categorized are now categorized when viewing them in xnview.

Any thoughts on what is the problem or how to correct it?

Thanks,
Gavia

[Dreamer]

Hello Gavia,

hmm.. the path to category.db might be changed in XnView options. Before any changes first backup the category.db file and search for category.db elsewhere, than backup all category.db files, xnview.ini file and category.bak file. Then check the path for other files in xnview > options > system integration > integration > folder used for other files.

[Gavia Immer]

Hi Dreamer,

Thank you for the suggestions. After some more digging around, it appears that the program installation had (somehow) become corrupted. Immediately after the problem began with the categories, I noticed that, every time I launched the program, I would get the Tips window even though I kept checking the box to turn it off. I noticed also that the program would not remember the last window position/size (despite having that setting checked in the Interface settings, nor would it remember the last folder at startup, despite having the Launch browser at startup > Last used option selected under General settings. Even more curious was the fact that the ini file was 0 bytes and had nothing in it. I even tried renaming the ini file to force the program to recreate it, which it did, but the recreated ini was also 0 bytes and empty! So, I reinstalled the program in another folder and copied the categories.db file to the new location, along with the xnview.db file. Curiously, when I tried copying the categories.bak file, the system choked, telling me that the file was corrupted and unreadable. Anyway, reinstalling the program and copying the relevant database files to the new installation solved the problem. All is well now. Phew!

Thanks again for your help,
Gavia