"Empty" log-files in my campaignfolder. Campaign not saving progress

[Antitrist]

Hi everyone. I hope someone can help me with an issue i am having with my campaign on FGC

A week ago i had a session where everything went well. Yesterday i did some preparations for my next session this week, and again everything went fine.

But later the same day, when i tried to open FG, it did not load the campaign, instead it gave me a blank campaign.

I did some searching on similar problems om this forum. I kopied and renamed the last backup to a db-file, and tried again. Spill empty. Even thought it is the biggest file, it appears empty.

The best i could do was to open the last session form a week ago, and I made new preperation. I also invited one of my players to log on to FG. It seems like everything went ok from there. A small exception was that the profilepics of the players where gone. I ended this session correctly and opened FG again to check if all my changes where there. And its seemed fine.

This morning I opened FG again and it seems the problem is back. its not possibly to open my session from the day before, and all is gone.

Sorry for the long explanation. Does anyone know what has gone wrong?

I'm using my same computer but it might be where the problem lies, consider it was when i restarted the computer that the problems occurs.

[Zacchaeus]

Welcome to FG

It looks like your campaign database is getting corrupted. Can you screenshot the contents of your campaign folder (that is the contents of the campaign that you are having a problem with.). Make sure you click on detailed view so we can see timestamps and file sizes.

[Antitrist]

Thanks for the reply. This is what i got:

52366
52367

[Zacchaeus]

The first thing you need to do is click on the View mane at the top of the folder window and check 'file name extensions'. You aren't seeing the .xml part of the file so when you rename it's possible that you have renamed it db.xml.xml.

The instructions you found to recover your db file are correct and you'll need to rename an older session file to db.xml. You may need to go back a session or two before you find a non-corrupt one.

[Antitrist]

Thanks.
Looks like its only db.xml:
52369
52370

I have gone as far back as the session from last week (from 06.04.2022). Thats the last session that seemed to work well (not counting the missing profile pictures for my players). Is it possible that this too is corrupted? FG worked fine when i worked on it later.
I also done changes now, and restarted my computer, it seems to work ok now, but I am still not sure as to why this happened and if it would happen again in todays session. The only thing i can remember to have done differently when i planned the session that seems to have been corrupted was to use a token module from Ray Gaustadnes, but surlely that can't be the problem?

Edit: As i write this everything seemed to work fine but i got a corruption error on the next startup too (see attached image). Everything seemed fine when i entered FG after that however, and nothing was missing.

52371

[Zacchaeus]

The 'error' message is just telling you that a backup file exists. It's not saying that there is an issue just that there could be one because a backup file exits - something which doesn't normally exist. When FG is started up it creates a copy of the db.xml file and if FG exits correctly then that file is renamed as a session file. If, however, FG doesn't exit properly then the backup file doesn't get renamed and so exists as what it says - a back up of the last time you opened FG.

There are many reasons why a database can get corrupted; one thing is do you use any kind of synchronised backup of your FG folders to the cloud? If so disable that whilst FG is running since that is known to cause issues.

[Antitrist]

Thanks for the explanations. I am very careful making sure i exit correctly every time i use FG, as i know it is important. Still I can see that some backup-files gets created. Should this worry me?

As far as i know the FG folder is not synchronized to the cloud.

Am i correct in assuming that if this corruption-problem continues i need to go back further in the session-log and start from there?

[Antitrist]

Thanks for the explanations. I am very careful making sure i exit correctly every time i use FG, as i know it is important. Still I can see that some backup-files gets created. Should this worry me?

As far as i know the FG folder is not synchronized to the cloud.

Am i correct in assuming that if this corruption-problem continues i need to go back further in the session-log and start from there?

[Zacchaeus]

If this is happening regularly and you are not exiting out of FG incorrectly and you don't have synced cloud back up then something else is at play. Possibly your anti virus software or some other program is preventing FG from writing files correctly. Or possibly you don't have the correct read/write permissions on your D drive. You haven't used the default location for your data so that could be an issue. It could be an extension - if you use extensions. It may be FG is running out of memory if you have a lot of files loaded.

[Trenloe]

1) Exit out of Fantasy Grounds completely.
2) Make sure you don't have another instance of Fantasy Grounds running.
3) Check in Windows Task Manager for a process called FantasyGrounds.exe - if there is one running, right-click on the process and End Task - wait until the process stops.
4) Check in the campaign directory for a db.restore.xml file - if there is one, delete it.

Do some further testing after doing the above 4 steps.

[Moon Wizard]

Another thing to check is to ensure that the FG data folder has full access rights for your user on your machine. Write permissions can get messed up on folders when you install to a folder location other than the default one (which uses the drive space designated by the OS for user data); or by a third party program (such as security or backup restore) changing permissions.

The FG data folder can be accessed by clicking on the folder button in upper left of launch screen. Then, go up one level, right click on the folder, choose Properties context option, choose Security tab, and make sure that your current user has full rights on the folder and all files/folders underneath that folder.

Make sure to close Fantasy Grounds before making the permissions changes.

Regards,
JPG

[Antitrist]

Thank you everyone for very useful information. I really appreciate it. The Session last night went well, with no issues (well the players have some serious issues in game, but that was expected). I'll be sure to come back to this tread if something similar happens again. :o

[JustinFreitas]

I love FGC so much! I had the corruption happen to me once from an Acronis True Image backup kicking off while I was in the client. Not exactly your situation but wanted to supply related information. Good luck!

[Laerun]

It is possible that anti-virus is creating this issue, and also, since you are running the older 'classic' version, be aware that if you run extensions, they may not be compatible with FG Classic any longer, depending on when and where you get these from.
Also, please check the integrity of your hard drive to insure that it is not failing, and, also make sure that you have enough HD space available.

Best of luck..