It’s possible that you removed your documents folder (perhaps by accident). Here is some information how to restore the default configuration.
Hi, Inukshuk. Thanks for providing that Microsoft info. I had sent you screenshots of my Documents folder and one other, but I did it as a reply to a no-reply—duh! So, I found that my Documents folder is there, but it is EMPTY! How could that be? I’ve done tons of downloads, but they go into a downloads area on the desktop, from which I move them to a flash drive, or send them directly.
So, the folder is there and the path is there. If I restore default, that only affects the Documents folder, right? Not the entire computer setup.
Intropy/Ann
These are the screenshots of the structure of my directory containing the My Documents folder. You can see nothing’s ever been put into it. Other than that, does it look “normal” to you?
Ann/intropy
Is there also a Documents folder (or ‘My Documents’) in your user’s home folder? That folder should be at C:\\Users\<username> but you can also reach it if you navigate to %USERPROFILE% in Windows Explorer.
In any case, the issue at hand seems to be that there is no default Documents folder registered for your user. When Tropy starts it looks up you Document folder, because it’s being used as a default path to save and look for projects. Because no such folder seems to be registered the app crashes. We can easily fix this in the upcoming release, however, I would like to find out if there’s a legitimate reason for the folder not to be configured. But in the short term you need to configure Documents folder in order to start the current release.
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Hi, Inukshuk The screenshots in the post above by me show that I do have a Documents folder, but that it is empty. I cannot now find the reply that you made to me giving MSoft’s info on how to configure/reinstall/activate your Documents file. Could you provide that again? I just heard an hourlong tutorial on using Tropy, given by the University of Pennsylvania libraries. Great!
In your screenshots I can see two folders with ‘Documents’ in the name:
C:\\My Documents
and
C:\\Users\Public\Documents
Despite the name, both of these are not necessarily the Documents folder. Here is the link to Microsoft documentation again:
Essentially, there is one folder registered in the Windows registry as your Documents folder. By default, this should be at %USERPROFILE%\Documents, so for example something like C:\\Users\intropy\Documents if ‘intropy’ were your username. To make matters more confusing, Windows Explorer may display the name differently based on your locale (e.g., instead of ‘Documents’ it might say ‘My Documents’ or ‘Mes documents’ and so forth). In any case, it would be interesting if you have a Documents folder in your user profile (i.e., not the two folders in the screenshots above, but a third one), but for the sake of Tropy it’s really just important that there is a Documents folder somewhere and that it is correctly registered in the Windows registry.
It would be good for us to know why there is no Documents folder registered in your case. Is this your own laptop or is this a laptop issued to you and administered by an IT department or something like that? If there are legitimate reasons to configure Windows without a Documents folder, we’ll need to add safeguard to Tropy to work around this and not crash – however, if this is indeed a misconfiguration I think that crashing is actually OK and the fix should be to restore the Documents folder.
Inukshuk, the My Documents folder is empty, too. And to answer your question, I bought the Surface 5 brand new–and never have had it on any server. But your observation brings up an interesting question: I was trolling through my downloads and found some files that I deleted–permanently. There was one file, though, from an April '21 Zoom installation related to a book presentation by the daughter of a High School friend of mine—whose husband is a longtime computer whiz. That was his profession. When I tried to delete this file, it would not permit me to do so. It only allows me to move it to the recycle bin. Does that seem strange to you? Could my computer be linked to his, or on his server? It’s a really weird thing to contemplate, and if true, serious.
Thanks very much.
Intropy
OK I think in this case, we’re probably just dealing with some configuration issue and the best solution is probably to restore your Documents folder. Let’s try the following steps:
-
Your documents folder should be accessible via Quick access on the left in File Explorer. Just open File Explorer and look for ‘Documents’ under Quick access (marked with a star symbol). Is the folder there? If so, please tell me the full path of that folder.
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Also try to open the folder via the Run prompt. You should be able to open the Run prompt anywhere by pressing the Windows key and R at the same time. Alternatively, you can click on the start menu and type ‘run’ and this should point you to the Run application. At the prompt, please enter
%userprofile%\Documents– does this open the same Documents folder as above? If it does open a folder, please also note its absolute path. (If it does not open a folder please just try to open%userprofile%and note which folder this opens. -
The two steps above are just informational. To restore your Documents folder, the Microsoft docs I linked to earlier suggest this method to restore the default location: Find the File Explorer icon in the taskbar and right-click on it; in the menu there is supposed to be a ‘Documents’ entry (pinned near the top); also right-click that one and select Properties; in the Properties there should be a button ‘Restore default’ to restore the default location. After doing this, try to start Tropy again to see if it works.
Inukshuk: I tried to follow the steps you/MS laid out, but found that my system isn’t allowing that operation. Also, I formerly (a week ago) could bring up, at least, a listing of a My Documents file, but it was accessed through the C:\ path. Now there’s no Documents or My Documents file showing at all, and when I click on C:, nothing is displayed. Im including a number of screenshots depicting what my screen’s showing. The earliest are at the bottom (last week). Many thanks for your patience!
Intropy
Yes, my guess is that your Documents folder got deleted by accident. Best to try to restore it at its default location (supposedly this should be C:\\Users\harap\Documents). Please just follow the steps I posted earlier, I’ll copy them here for clarity:
The ‘File Explorer icon’ is visible, for example in you second to last screenshot above. starting at the left you have four white icons, a blue one, and then the File Explorer icon that you need to right click on.
I typed C:\Users\harap\Documents as the accompanying screenshots will show. Othe
wise, different options yield the same, as the previous screenshots show. And I did not delete anything (that Im aware of–and I was very careful–and the sys is very careful, doesn’t let you do it without notifying you). Herewith…3 screenshots, separated.
intropy
The only thing that I can think of that happened with this computer within the last week is that I renewed my subscription (a provisional one month) to Microsoft Office. August 9. Here are a couple more screenshots: one says that files are “read-only” which does not apply to folders, it says.
intropy
The screenshot showing a “MY Documents” folder is from a previous upload. This is no longer showing on my desktop, but I included it to show the small box that it revealed.
intropy
On Windows 10 your ‘Documents’ folder, by default would be at C:\\Users\harap\Documents; we’ve already established that the folder isn’t there on your system – this is either because you deleted or moved the folder. You do have a folder called C:\\My Documents but this folder is not registered as your ‘Documents’ folder apparently so it’s not clear to me what its purpose is. Perhaps this was your Documents folder originally, but you moved it out from your user profile? Your system either does not have a Documents folder configured or it may actually be set to your D:\\ drive (if I interpret one of your screenshots above correctly that the Documents shortcut tried to open that path).
But be that as it may, the easiest solution is to reset the Document folder to its default location as per the steps above.
As I said, the MY Documents folder isn’t there any more. It was a week ago when I made the screenshot to illustrate the “read-only” info box. Now I cannot even see the My Documents folder, I have not moved or deleted anything. See screenshot. How can I restore default (and I assume it’s only default for Documents, not other things, right?) when I can’t even find the folder?
Intropy
As for the D:, which is listed in this next screenshot as a “system folder,” when I click on it, a green “manage” button pops up, but nothing happens, not when I click the manage button, either. Now my mouse is not working–neither to advance the screen nor to click on anything. No cursor!
The “enter” key works, and thanks to my touch-screen, I can activate the reply button. Do you have any idea about what to do, given there’s no Documents file/folder and no D:\ path operative. (I’d assumed the D:\ was for my flash drives, which I use a lot.
The D:\ drive location is for removable drives, as screenshot shows. (Cursor is back working again–unplugged mouse & re-inserted). I’m beginning to wonder if I just have a defective machine? I also find, If Im not typing fast and without stopping, the cursor jumps back up to a line or two above. Infuriating!
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but please try restoring the default Documents folder (also see Microsoft’s description at the bottom here).
Inukshuk, I replied to you on this forum yesterday–here, not from my email, and it was not supernumerary, as your system will not permit that, as I already found out. That reply came back to me as “no reply,” which should not have happened. I had sent you a screenshot showing that the HKEY_CURRENT_USERS… command does not work. System cannot open this location. Im on a different device right now and can’t access the screenshot, but if you want to see it I can send it. There’s no way to progress beyond this point if the first step stipulated by you/Microsoft fails.
Intropy
What is this first step that fails? It sounds like you were trying to open the a registry key in the file explorer (which can’t work) or perhaps you looked up the value of the key in the registry and tried to open that? This would normally work, but won’t work in your case because this is the issue at hand.
In any case, over the last couple of posts I’ve been trying to understand if you tried restoring the Documents path at its default location; I’ll quote the steps here for the third time:
In some of your screenshots I see the Properties window for the ‘Desktop’ folder; I suspect that’s when you attempted to follow these steps, but that’s not the right folder. You need to open the Properties for the ‘Documents’ folder. It’s a problem that the links to the Documents folder seem to have been deleted on your system for whatever reason; still, I think there is a chance that you can find it there in the context menu of the File Explorer as explained above. If it’s not there the only way to restore the path that I can think of is to change the values in the Registry directly as explained in Microsoft’s documentation.