Weird and major errors, account based

[Grognard GM]

Here's the scenario:

I was running a game (CoC 7e) for the first time on FG, and thought everything was going fine until my son piped up he was having major issues. My wife and 2 other players (Demo account, and 2 Ultimate accounts, respectively) had zero apparent issues.

He was getting tons of error messages, and his character sheet wasn't functioning properly.

So I had him reinstall FG, and the problems continued.

So my wife (who was also playing) logged out of her account, logged into my son's account (on her machine, not his) and started getting the same errors as he had.

So at this point I knew it was obviously an account based problem rather than hardware or software, and had him make another account.

He logged in with his new account, got a string of errors again, and this time the character sheet was blank.

He logged into his first account, and the errors remained, but the non-functional character sheet appeared again (as it had originally.)

So my son has 2 accounts now (both fresh Demo accounts made today) that both have terrible errors and no functionality, with one worse than the other for some ungodly reason.

I'm going to link a sampling of the errors he was being spammed with, below.


Please help?


PS - To reiterate, this is not a problem with the computer, or virus checker, or FG updates, as my wife logging into his account on her laptop (with different specs) reproduced the errors, whereas she had none while on her machine using her own account.

[LordEntrails]

There is nothing I'm aware that is account based except for the player caches. IS your wife logging into your son's computer on a different o/s user account?

Those errors are almost always due to extensions or unpacked rulesets. It's possible and seems likely that your son's computer has multiple installs of FG on it.

First, make sure the GM computer is fully updated and that you try again with no extensions in a new campaign. Then search your son's computer for FantasyGrounds.exe and verify that there is only one.
If that doesn't work, please use compile logs. Grab a set from the GM computer, from your wife using your son's computer and from your son using his computer. Then attach the logs here (please rename them appropriately). That should give us the info to diagnose further.

[Tempered7]

The extension that produces those errors is 5e luck: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1241/view
Try disabling it if you have it, then play?

[Grognard GM]

There is nothing I'm aware that is account based except for the player caches. IS your wife logging into your son's computer on a different o/s user account?

Both using Windows.


Those errors are almost always due to extensions or unpacked rulesets. It's possible and seems likely that your son's computer has multiple installs of FG on it.

Only one copy of FG installed.


First, make sure the GM computer is fully updated and that you try again with no extensions in a new campaign.

Tried, no effect.


Then search your son's computer for FantasyGrounds.exe and verify that there is only one.

Checked and verified.


If that doesn't work, please use compile logs. Grab a set from the GM computer, from your wife using your son's computer and from your son using his computer. Then attach the logs here (please rename them appropriately). That should give us the info to diagnose further.

Below I have included logs for:

GM (me on my comp)

Wife on her account, her comp
Wife on son's account, her comp

Son on his account, his comp
Son on wife's account, his comp







The extension that produces those errors is 5e luck: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1241/view
Try disabling it if you have it, then play?

Thanks for the reply.

I do not have that installed, CoC 7e has an in-built Luck system.

[damned]

Can you first try deselecting the theme/extension and try again?

[damned]

Also the user account S****y has not confirmed his account - check email address the****@g****.com and activate the account

[Trenloe]

Looking at the logs, I see the following for both FG users grannysquareleslie and SlightlySketchy:


(C:/Users/TheOo/AppData/Roaming/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds/cache/Cthulhu I Choose You!/rulesets/CallOfCthulhu7E.dat): The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

There are multiple errors like this, and are related to not being able to save the ruleset files to the local PC cache - these need to be addressed before any further troubleshooting can be done as it's more than likely this that's causing the issue. The main things that could cause this are:
1) Running multiple instances of FG connecting as players to the same GM instance on the same computer.
2) Using a file sync/backup application (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc) on the FG live data.

[Grognard GM]

Looking at the logs, I see the following for both FG users grannysquareleslie and SlightlySketchy:


(C:/Users/TheOo/AppData/Roaming/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds/cache/Cthulhu I Choose You!/rulesets/CallOfCthulhu7E.dat): The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

There are multiple errors like this, and are related to not being able to save the ruleset files to the local PC cache - these need to be addressed before any further troubleshooting can be done as it's more than likely this that's causing the issue. The main things that could cause this are:
1) Running multiple instances of FG connecting as players to the same GM instance on the same computer.
2) Using a file sync/backup application (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc) on the FG live data.

1 is not happening.

If it's 2, it's nothing anyone has actively set up. Can this happen accidently/without user knowledge, and if so are there steps we can take to correct the problem?

[LordEntrails]

Many computers come with One Drive or Google Drive setup and configured to automatically do backups when you setup the computer. Check to see if either of those are installed, configured and running.

[Trenloe]

Can this happen accidently/without user knowledge, and if so are there steps we can take to correct the problem?
It would happen if you have such software installed and the FG data folders are included in the sync.

Try this:
1) Reboot the player computer.
2) Start FG but don't load a campaign.
3) Click the folder icon in the top left of the startup screen and a file explorer will open at the FG app data directory. Go to the "cache" directory and then delete the "Cthulhu I Choose You!" directory.
4) Now join the GMs game and see if the same errors occur. Make sure you use the currently running instance only (started in step #2), don't start another instance.

[Grognard GM]

It would happen if you have such software installed and the FG data folders are included in the sync.

Try this:
1) Reboot the player computer.
2) Start FG but don't load a campaign.
3) Click the folder icon in the top left of the startup screen and a file explorer will open at the FG app data directory. Go to the "cache" directory and then delete the "Cthulhu I Choose You!" directory.
4) Now join the GMs game and see if the same errors occur. Make sure you use the currently running instance only (started in step #2), don't start another instance.

Tried it, same (worse?) problems. Log included below.

[Trenloe]

It's the same issue, which causes all sorts of other issues because the player instance of FG can't cache the ruleset data it's downloading from the GM.


[9/17/2024 7:54:50 PM] [ERROR] Unable to save file (graphics/dice/diceskin_icon_element_frost_aura_cast.png) to cache file (C:/Users/TheOo/AppData/Roaming/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds/cache/Cthulhu I Choose You!/rulesets/CoreRPG.dat): The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

Make sure that the Windows user being used has full read/write access to this directory, and all the sub-directories and files: C:/Users/TheOo/AppData/Roaming/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds

[ddavison]

This is a theory, but there might be a problem with the exclamation point in the name of the campaign. Can you try renaming the campaign folder and then have the players rejoin and test?

Change "Cthulhu I Choose You!" toe "Cthulhu I Choose You"

[Trenloe]

This is a theory, but there might be a problem with the exclamation point in the name of the campaign. Can you try renaming the campaign folder and then have the players rejoin and test?

Change "Cthulhu I Choose You!" toe "Cthulhu I Choose You"
I tested that campaign name including the !, and it worked OK for me. It doesn't mean that this isn't causing an issue reported here. Definitely worth a try, and also worth a try creating a new campaign and testing with that.

[Grognard GM]

Update:

So I tried everything suggested here, plus scoured the internet for many hours.

My son's AppData folder was hidden, revealed it. Nothing saving to the Smiteworks folder, no matter what permissions I gave. He's had no problems with anything else, in years of using the Laptop.

I even deleted everything, reinstalled on a different drive, and nothing but errors. It wouldn't even run the launcher as Admin, just the craziest stuff.

So I dug out an old laptop, downloaded FGU to the default location, logged into my son's account...boom, worked first time, zero issues.

Am I happy with him having to switch to a separate old clunky laptop just to use FGU? No I am not, but short of an exorcism there's not a lot of options.


End result, he will be able to play in the game later today, so that's a good thing. Thank you very much to everyone that tried to resolve this ancient curse on his laptop, we appreciate it.

[LordEntrails]

Glad you found a solution. I wonder if his user profile is corrupt on his main PC? You could test this by creating a new Windows user account on the computer for him. Uninstall FG and then install it with that Windows account.

[damned]

Are you able to delete the Fantasy Grounds folder on the good laptop and let FG create it again when it installs?