When moving a folder - no prompt to update links

[lisabarry]

Hi,

I'm in the process of migrating 160+ Word documents to Flare. One of the steps in my migration is to move the imported document folder into another folder (we have different folders for different products). Previously this worked fine - I got the prompt to update the links and Flare updated the links OK.

Now I'm not getting the prompt to update the links. The folder moves, but all of the links (TOC, images, style sheet) become broken.

Any suggestions on how I can get this prompt to appear again?

We are using GitLab - I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this issue, but I started noticing it after another author started migrating documents (previously it was just me).

Thanks,
Lisa

[kgmarie]

I am bound to Subversion and I have gotten that issue before (when moving or renaming files). It took committing all the files to Subversion before the files would update again.

Hope that helps.

[Nita Beck]

The issue has nothing to do with the project's being bound to source control. Rather, it's likely that the Analyzer database (which is stored in the Analyzer folder within the project) has gotten corrupted. The database stores all the dependencies between files in the project; in short, it's the keeper of the links.

If you ever fail to get the Update Links prompt, close the Flare project entirely, delete the Analyzer folder, and then re-open the project. Flare will build a fresh database and you should see the Update Links prompt going forward.

Unfortunately, there is no way to retroactively fix all the links that were broken when you moved the folder of files.

Some words of advice going forward. Before moving an entire folder of stuff, make a zip backup of the project, JUST in case the database fails again. Also, my habit is to first move individual files to make sure I get the Update Links prompt. And if you ever fail to get the Update Links prompt again, immediately stop what you're doing, close, delete the Analyzer folder, and re-open. I had a client once who noticed that he was no longer getting the prompt but proceeded to spend many hours reorganizing folders and files. He ended up with a big mess-o-broken-links that took some effort to clean up.

[lisabarry]

Thanks for your responses.

kgmarie - Yes, I noticed similar behavior before. I got some errors when moving and renaming and I figured out that if I commit before doing either, it seemed to work.

Nita - Thank you. Deleting the Analyzer folder and reopening Flare seems to have solved the issue. I believe I had done this recently to fix another issue (might have been the same issue or something similar). Is this something you envision us needing to do quite often? Is there any advice on how we can try to not corrupt the database?

Thanks,
Lisa

[Nita Beck]

Lisa, there's nothing you did that made it happen. I don't know why it happens. Just does, in my experience.

Your mileage may vary, but I can go weeks without having to delete the Analyzer folder in a given project, and I use Flare heavily 5-6 days a week. I wouldn't worry about deleting it until you notice the lack of the Update Links prompt, which should be your signal that something is amiss.

As I said above, the only thing I would do proactively is make a zip backup (Project > Zip Project) before moving whole folders of stuff.