Longstanding File Won't Open - Months of work lost?

Troubleshooting
1

Hi everyone,
I have a pretty large project, all archival photos. I may have tried to open it from one computer, while it was running on another. But got an error message, so did not attempt to proceed with opening the file. Later, I quit Tropy on both machines.

A few weeks later, and I need to go back, and I tried opening the file again and got an error message: invalid project info AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)
at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)

Any thoughts on what is going on? Did I just lose months of work and archive time??

Thanks in advance!

Here is the error log:

{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229151,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“args”:,“opts”:{“env”:“production”,“autoUpdates”:true,“contextIsolation”:true,“webgl”:false,“verbose”:false,“trace”:false,“data”:“/Users/laurafree/Library/Application Support/Tropy”,“cache”:“/Users/laurafree/Library/Caches/Tropy”,“logs”:“/Users/laurafree/Library/Logs/Tropy”},“version”:“1.16.2”,“msg”:“main.init 1.16.2 Darwin 23.6.0 (arm64)”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229202,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“plugins scanned: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229203,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“app state restored”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229204,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“file”:“/Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy”,“msg”:“open new project window”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229307,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“switch to "system" theme”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229308,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“checking for updates…”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229395,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“status”:{“2d_canvas”:“enabled”,“canvas_oop_rasterization”:“enabled_on”,“direct_rendering_display_compositor”:“disabled_off_ok”,“gpu_compositing”:“enabled”,“multiple_raster_threads”:“enabled_on”,“opengl”:“enabled_on”,“rasterization”:“enabled”,“raw_draw”:“disabled_off_ok”,“skia_graphite”:“disabled_off”,“video_decode”:“enabled”,“video_encode”:“enabled”,“webgl”:“enabled”,“webgl2”:“enabled”,“webgpu”:“enabled”},“msg”:“gpu-info-update”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229455,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“dpx”:2,“args”:{“frameless”:true,“locale”:“en”,“webgl”:true,“zoom”:1},“msg”:“project.init”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229469,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“plugins scanned: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229469,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“plugins loaded: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229478,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“ready after 2906.659912109375ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229695,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“msg”:“no updates available”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229912,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring projectFiles@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229913,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring recent@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229913,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring settings@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229913,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring ui@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229915,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“w+”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Library/Application Support/Tropy/ontology.db”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403229922,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“project ready 676ms [dom:216ms init:256ms load:196ms]”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403230014,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“webgl”,“resolution”:2,“msg”:“Esper.instance created with webgl renderer”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403230027,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“w”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy/project.tpy”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403230055,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”,“msg”:“unexpected error in *project.open”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403238006,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“action”:“project.closed”,“meta”:{“ipc”:true,“seq”:9,“now”:1730403238006},“msg”:“project.closed failed: invalid project info”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403238062,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“r”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy/project.tpy”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403238125,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“stack”:“TypeError: Cannot set properties of undefined (setting ‘path’)\n at Object.pstat (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14877:16)\n at async bootstrap.pMap.concurrency.concurrency (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/main-WrD-zIve.js:2816:19)\n at async pMap.worker (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:5812:23)\n at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)\n at async Object.pMap (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:5804:3)\n at async /Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/main-WrD-zIve.js:2810:3\n at async /Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/main-WrD-zIve.js:2347:27”,“msg”:“failed to stat project file ‘/Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy’”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403246224,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“webgl”,“resolution”:2,“msg”:“Esper.instance created with webgl renderer”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403246236,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“w”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy/project.tpy”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403246255,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”,“msg”:“unexpected error in *project.open”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403255097,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“action”:“project.closed”,“meta”:{“ipc”:true,“seq”:16,“now”:1730403255097},“msg”:“project.closed failed: invalid project info”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345534,“type”:“browser”,“name”:“main”,“file”:“/Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy”,“msg”:“open new project window”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345672,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“dpx”:2,“args”:{“frameless”:true,“locale”:“en”,“webgl”:true,“zoom”:1},“msg”:“project.init”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345684,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“plugins scanned: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345684,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“plugins loaded: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345803,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring projectFiles@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345803,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring recent@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345804,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring settings@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345804,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“restoring ui@tropy”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345805,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“w+”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Library/Application Support/Tropy/ontology.db”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345958,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“webgl”,“resolution”:2,“msg”:“Esper.instance created with webgl renderer”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403345972,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“mode”:“w”,“msg”:“open db /Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy/project.tpy”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403346009,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”,“msg”:“unexpected error in *project.open”}
{“level”:30,“time”:1730403346011,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“msg”:“project ready 462ms [dom:126ms init:15ms load:115ms]”}
{“level”:40,“time”:1730403349223,“type”:“renderer”,“name”:“project”,“action”:“project.closed”,“meta”:{“ipc”:true,“seq”:9,“now”:1730403349223},“msg”:“project.closed failed: invalid project info”,“stack”:“AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: invalid project info\n at load (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14886:3)\n at async open$3 (/Applications/Tropy.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/lib/bootstrap-Cu1HUZ1R.js:14833:17)”}

2

Please check the contents of the project at /Users/laurafree/Dropbox/Tropy Projects/Removal Disabilities 41st Congress.tropy – on macOS you can right-click on the project file and select ‘Show package contents’ to see the contents in a new Finder window. Alternatively you can also look into the package in the Dropbox web app, which should also show the contents. In the project folder there should be a project.tpy file – judging by your log file I suspect that the file might not be there, possibly because Dropbox renamed it when you opened the file simultaneously on two computers and Dropbox decided that there’s a sync conflict. In any case, please let us know all the files that are in your project folder.

3

Hey thanks so much for your reply - sorry it took me so long to get back to you. The file is there. Here’s a screenshot.

tropy folder|690x290

The files are:
project.tpy-wal
project.typ-shm
project.typ
folder.ico
deskiot.ini
assets (folder)

The assets folder seems to have all of the images that I’ve uploaded to Tropy in it. (I couldn’t say for sure -there’s a lot I’ve uploaded and a lot in the folder so that seems good.)

Thanks for your help!

4

OK the folder itself looks good, but the project.tpy file has only 147kb which is is suspiciously little, so it’s likely that the file was damaged when synced with Dropbox.

If you send me the project.tpy file (and also the project.tpy-wal and -shm files) I will look at the file for you. If it’s damaged we can try to reconstruct the file, but judging by the file size I have little hope in this case, unless the project held only very little data.

So the more promising approach is probably trying to restore a previous version from Dropbox. I’d look at the version history of the project.tpy file. Your current file was last changed on Oct 31 and it’s likely that this is when the sync conflict occurred. So I’d try to restore the version immediately before that one. Once you have the restored version, open the project folder in Finder and remove the project.tpy file and both the -wal and -shm files if they exist. Then insert the restored project.tpy file in the folder (renaming it to exactly project.tpy in case the restored file has a different name) and then try to open the project again in Tropy.