Remote desktop and file renaming

[Telemarker]

Hello All,

I often work from home on my office PC via a VPN and Remote desktop.

Just recently I have been having problems renaming or moving files within projects, the 'Link update' dialog box just hangs there forever with the 'Computing dependency set' message showing.
I did the same thing from the office yesterday and it's all done and dusted in less time than it takes to blink.

Any ideas?

Simon

[Msquared]

A few ideas . . .

Firstly, what happens if you try to access/copy/move a similar number of files from similar locations outside of Flare via your remote desktop and VPN? Is that slow too, or is that blisteringly fast? If that's slow, then the issues are more fundamental than Flare and you probably need to raise it with your network guys (or gals).

Otherwise, is your project bound to source control? If so, that may be the problem. What happens if you access your source control repository directly via your VPN? Is the performance there reasonable? In fact, can you actually access it at all via the VPN? If you can't or it's slow even without Flare, then again, I think this is something for your network folks.

Otherwise, if it looks like it may be to do with Flare and source control, but direct VPN access via your source control client is acceptable, you may find Flare copes better if you use an unbound project when working from home, then reconcile your changes with source control later, or even when you get back to the office.

[Telemarker]

Thanks for the ideas...

This is apparently just linked to renaming or moving files in Flare unfortunately, every other file move outside of Flare is fast and trouble free (and my workaround is to move and rename the files in explorer and then redo the naming manually in the code, luckily it's a very small project).

We don't use source control with Flare so that's another potential problem out of the way...

Flare and my projects are 'locally' installed on my PC in the office so it's not a problem related to me accessing my Flare project on a server via a my 'home' PC either...
Any further ideas?

[michaelm]

I am continuously having the same issue and it is extremely frustrating.
This has been an issue for years judging by the posts...

[RamonS]

Are you running Flare at home accessing files on the server at work or is all running back in the office? While it is possible to run Flare locally and have it access files on a share via VPN it is worse than doing that on a LAN.

[michaelm]

It is on a LAN. I am not sure but sometimes it will rename instantly others, never. All attempted within minutes of each other.

[RamonS]

It is on a LAN. I am not sure but sometimes it will rename instantly others, never. All attempted within minutes of each other.

While it should work pulling project files through the LAN and then especially through a VPN is not recommended. The network connection of the office PC not only has to serve the file share, but also the VPN and remote desktop. Plenty of network traffic generated that way that will push the network connection to the limit. Many others have reported all kinds of problems, especially performance issues. Move the project files off the network share to the local drive of the office PC. When you work from home run Flare on the office PC using the local files. You can still use the network share as backup location. Create a simple batch file and run it on the Windows scheduler so that the project files get copied automatically to the network share on a daily basis. If it need to be on the network to be shared with others you are better served by using a source control system.

[michaelm]

Ramon, these are great solutions and I wish I could use them. But alas, the office won't allow that, and there are multiple people working on the same project, so I am not sure how the batch would deal with the variations. For now, I'll just have to limp along when it is an issue. Wait till after hours to do my major renaming/moving/deleting needs.
I don't see a way to solve this, until my office expands the office highway so-to-speak.

I will look into the source control option though, that may be a route we can explore.


Thanks very much for your input!

[RamonS]

You have multiple people editing the same project and no source control? Yes, you do want to look into that soon.
And what does the company not allow? Having the project files on a local drive?

[michaelm]

Yes, what i mean is that the project is located on a network drive and moving the project to a local drive is not an option.
As far as source control, there are only 3 TWs, and each of us works on our own work streams. So while we are all working on the same project, we really don't have a need for source control from what I have been told. When I said I am not sure how to batch would deal with differences, I misspoke, because we have virtually never done work on the same topic simultaneously. Also, I have read on these forums many times how source control creates issues.

If you get a moment, can you give me a few bullet points on why I may want to argue to initiate adding a source control function to our project?

[NorthEast]

Source control will:
- Protect you from conflicts, and the very real potential of data loss by overwriting each other's work - which if it happens, you may not even know about it until it's too late.
- Keep a file history, meaning you can roll-back files to older versions.
- Back-up your project to another location, should something happen to your network copy.

I use source control for everything, even on projects where I'm a sole author.

Your scenario would make me have kittens.

[michaelm]

Well, I personally asked about this when I came on board. But rest easy you wouldn't have kittens in this situation. They back up their network drive multiple times daily, and they keep the file iterations. So if I needed to roll back a file, it wouldn't be as easy as if we used source code, but it would be doable.
Thanks for the info everyone.
Side note: We have two main project, and this renaming issue seems to only happen on one of them (it happens on the main project, the other project is just as big, but it imports the style sheet and page layouts and such)

[Francis321]

Which remote desktop software you are using? Try using logmein, R-HUB remote support servers etc. and check if the issue is resolved.

[doloremipsum]

@Francis321, this thread is from 2014! But very topical, isn't it?

In response to all of this, I'm pretty sure a Remote Desktop connection wouldn't have anything to do with how Flare operates, because it's just sharing visual information about what the remote PC is doing. Shouldn't be any different from operating on the PC directly, except that you're at the mercy of VPN/internet connection. I suspect the problem is more likely related to operating Flare with multiple authors on a network share (probably leads to a higher-than-average rate of Analyzer bork-ups).

If anyone IS having problems with a remote desktop connection: you can install Flare on a second PC. I've installed it on my home desktop and can continue using Git source control to share my work just like I do at the office.