Hi, i just want to report that there's a serious bug in Opera 11 portable edition, and i assume that it's the same bug from previous versions - Opera is erasing profiles on startup AGAIN, and this is totally unacceptable behavior.
This is the third time since the Opera 11 release arrived that i've got overwritten/erased profile. And btw, i've spent days to tune and customize each of those profiles to work the way they should.
Now i'm back on Opera@USB 10.63, and maybe it's not as portable as OperaPortable edition (read it somewhere), but at least it works.
I use tons of portable software from this site, and never ever had an issue with any of it, until now. Isn't there a development cycle that should take care of those type of bugs? Sorry, but i don't have time to setup a new profile every few days.
And don't get me wrong, my intention is not to insult or disrespect author's work, but this was a very unpleasant experience. Please, fix it as soon as possible.
Thank you.
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There is specific code within the PA.c Launcher 2.1 that is Opera Portable uses specifically to prevent this. Specifically, if a user manages to lock a file by having Opera open it directly from a download (rather than saving first) and the profile is locked, the files are copied from App to Data, so there are then 2 full copies of said profile. That way, the launcher will be fine on next launch.
The only instance I can think of where it would still fail is if you are unsafely ejecting the drive (aka physically removing it) before this process has finished. Or have associated Opera as your default browser and are thus saving the profile locally (which you should not do with portable apps).
So, the question is, what specifically are you doing when this occurs. What OS. Where is it installed. Are you directly opening things from the web. Did Opera just update or install an extension when this happened (extensions are brand new and portablization isn't as far along as with Firefox and Chrome)? Etc.
Keep in mind that this is the *very first* report of this we have received from the 11 Beta or 11 Stable releases since we made fixes specifically to prevent this, so it's not like anyone is ignoring the issue. It's just that literally no one else has experienced it and posted despite 10s of thousands of downloads.
If there is anything at all related you can think of, please include it. We'd like to squash this bug for you.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
So, the question is, what specifically are you doing when this occurs. What OS. Where is it installed. Are you directly opening things from the web. Did Opera just update or install an extension when this happened?
Installed OperaPortable some days ago to a HD drive for some experience with PortableApps before using it on a real portable drive. My config: Windows XP, no extensions, no widgets, just the basic install, and then started tweaking Preferences (menu, toolbar, etc.).
I had just added some customized buttons to the main toolbar, saved a different path on the Config Editor, and closed Opera as directed, as some changes need a restart.
It might have happened that the close-and-reopen was too fast... I read the comment by J Neutron saying "you could just restore your latest profile from a backup copy you saved." Well, I don't backup profiles before I finish tweaking toolbars and menus to my liking. Sometimes you even do a lot of tweaking before you save and restart. Loosing all your work between tweakings just because there's no indication that you should allow an extra 10-second delay between closing and restarting is not fun...
Anyway, I've recovered part of what I thought was lost, and I want to share with others: if you're on a PC with Windows XP (it might work for other Windows OS as well), check the 'restore' folders. Although the names for files become letters and numbers only, the extension .ini is preserved, as well as part of the path (it is listed like '[drive letter]:\System Volume Information\_restore{lost of numbers and letters}\[one-letter+numbers].ini'. If you are on a specific (not common-lettered, say, T or M) drive, it can be even easier to identify the INI files you need to restore. Hope it helps others.
Thank you for your answer. I'm sorry if my earlier post sounded a bit rude, but i was just frustrated after the 3rd erased profile, and since this happened during my usual bussy work day.
I thought that this bug was the same as described in some other posts on this forum, but if it's the first report i'll be glad to provide info.
1. The Opera is located on my HDD's non system partition. Nothing is locked or encrypted, and the user account is not limited. The OS is Windows 7 x86. There are no other Opera instances installed on the system, and no extensions or widgets. Even mail is not configured or used, nor the Unite. Just plain browser with custom urlfilter (which i use since the first day of using Opers), etc.
2. This first happened after closing Opera to remove word "Menu" form the 'O' menu in upper left corner of the browser. After opening Opera, it showed me the introduction page, and everything else was deafault (bookmarks, urlfilter, etc). Just plain default profile without any sign of my settings. I looked for it everywhere (Opera portable folder and even the entire system) but with no luck. It just vanished.
3. After that i did it all again, removed "Menu" letters like usual, and it didn't failed at that point. It failed after setting up the whole profile, using it for a while, and then setting custom background on speed dial, located in the Opera Portable folder. Of course, i closed it and then opened it to find out that it's default again.
4. For the 3rd time it happened this afternoon after closing the browser window accidentally, and opening it again right away. That's a shame, becuse it was polished perfectly, and i planned to deploy it on other machines too.
Btw, i don't know if it's important, but bookmarks file, wand, urlfilter and speed dial where manually copied one by one from the previously used Opera@USB profile folder.
I personally see no real pattern with this bug. It just happens without any warning.
Thank you for any kind of help. If you need more info, feel free to ask.
When you change something in profile folder under Data, remember to not let the folder opened in Windows Explorer. If you do, PAL will not move the profile folder to App\Opera folder and Opera will create another profile. This will mess up the things. Perhaps was it your problem.
Is it safe to say, then, that in each of these instances, you closed and then opened Opera Portable quickly? The launcher takes a few seconds to ensure Opera has closed and then move or copy the profile back to data. If you re-launch in that timeframe, it could have unintended consequences, including causing the profile to be copied and a brand new one copied in at the same time since the first launcher instance is busy shutting down and the second one is starting up and doesn't see a profile in Data yet.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yes, that's it!
I tried it, and it's easy to reproduce. Just open default Opera, set your homepage or sth. similar, and then close and open it quickly. I bet you can get the same result in just a few runs. Well, i never thought it needs a few seconds to close safely.
So, is there any way to prevent this, or it's just how the whole thing works?
Thank you very much for a fast response, and finding a cause of this.
We'll have to have the launcher add in some detection to tell when it is trying to shut down and the app is closing.
The reason it's been hard to diagnose is that there's generally no reason to close and then immediately launch an app, so it hardly ever happens. The launcher already detects when an app restarts (as Firefox and others do when installing extensions/themes), but a user closing and relaunching will happen in the 2 second window that the launcher waits to ensure the app is closed and not actually restarting. So, if you close it, the 2 second window for a restart passes and then relaunch it while the launcher is taking about 1 second to move the files back (or longer if the profile is locked because you have something open directly from the web which is not recommended), you run into the problem.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That could be a reason to add a closing splash-screen (there was a discussion a while ago, didn't find it now). If users were warned, they would at least know what might have happened.
I work a lot with people, who don't know much about computers (heavily understated) and time told me to think of the least possibility to screw a bulletproof beginners set up. Someone will find a way to kick it off (not long ago, a word-template failed for some workmate because he tried to open it with Word for Windows 2.0 on his private computer with Win 3.1(and that was 2010!)).
(No offence meant for the thread starter, I just tried to state, what user knowledge may exists and is seldomly considered!)
yours,
dj
-edit-
parallel posting
No, it won't. The issue is this occurring between the app closing and the launcher realizing the app is closing. We have to further detect it and prevent the new version from launching. Having a closing splash would just be a mess, steal focus from other stuff, and not prevent this at all.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
But how is this affecting Opera copies on slower drivers? Mine actually happened on generic notebook 5400RPM hdd, which is IMHO way slower than normal desktop drives. The question is, how much is this reaction delayed on slower drives (let say usually very slow flash drives)?
Logically, if this closing procedure takes longer to finish, the time frame the same scenario is getting proportionally bigger.
There's no difference, really. Unless you get the Opera profile locked by opening things directly from the web and keeping them open when you close Opera (in which case it has to copy lots of files). Unless you do that, there's quite literally a 1-2 second window during which a simple rename is being done that you have to close and then immediately re-open Opera to get this bug to occur.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I read your technical explanations just afterwards. Agreed, splash would not help here.
You know, instead of getting frustrated about having to reconfigure your copy of the program for the third time, you could just restore your latest profile from a backup copy you saved.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Surely there is a way to guard against this issue?
There's a way to guard against having to make backups?
Naturally, it's called facing the consequences of irrecoverable failure every time it happens.
firefox used to do it as well hence why I now only use seamonkey & flock
Really poor and the soft isn't even open source
I totally agree with that backup claim, but i never mentioned lost bookmarks, passes or whatever. Opera@USB 10.63 was actually up and running in no time, but that's not the point of this thread. My working opera backups are made of several copies deployed on multiple machines plus synced with Opera Link. This was a test run meant to replace Opera@USB on these machines.
I lost my profile today with tons of tabs and bookmarks. This is not acceptable! I'll never use this THING again! I'm very mad.
opera link can save most stuff but not passwords
I've used Opera for years and way before I ever knew about portable programs I backed up my Opera profile dir.
I have Opera on Windows, linux and removable drives. My important data is copied all over the darn place.
come on people, responsible computing means backing up your stuff.
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." - Edward R. Murrow
This is utter rubbish.
Get it fixed ASAP.
See above: https://portableapps.com/node/26052#comment-166856
Also, everybody chill. scant, you're talking to unpaid volunteers whose time you have no claim on, keep that in mind (though none of them are the devs, I am).
And volunteers, you're dealing with a user that lost data, they're gonna be a bit annoyed and may be harsher than they should because they LOST something due to a bug in our launcher. Don't be so antagonistic to them.
scant_regard: Until it is fixed, do not quickly close and re-open Opera as that is the one thing that will trigger this bug.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I do think the volunteers do a great job as even though you are the head developer, I don't think there'd be as many apps were it not for them so thanks to all.
On a maybe more interesting note, does anyone remember when microsoft so vehemently tried to stop opera from accessing MSN?
Now that they've finally caved into standards I can only be thankful that PA is even offering this program, so if the launcher can be made to detect additional routines, i.e. Opera Link then that would be fantastic.
Regarding the installer however, can it be made to detect all drives so you don't get the / with no directory when installing?
Cheers
Did you really mean to say:
Volunteers are doing a great job EVEN THOUGH John is the head developer????
Please clarify....
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
What? Insulting to who
The statement was already clarified in the second verse.
From what you said, the volunteers could do an even better job if John wasn't hampering their efforts.
Excuse me if English isn't your primary language.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
English is my first language and I believe you read wrong because it's actually a statement of encouragement but you must remember that no matter how altruistic an effort is or may be, people are always going to want more and quite simply the goal of OSS is to solve problems hence the entire purpose (in my view) of this site.
Example:
Why does the Subject still read on to subsequent lines when I've already hit enter?
Now good boys will think "can I solve that issue with a plugin perhaps" and maybe if it works it will be integrated into the main framework of the application and overnight I will be rich and a star.
Let's change:
"I do think the volunteers do a great job AS even though you are the head developer..."
to
"I do think the volunteers do a great job AND, even though you are the head developer,..."
could you maybe code something for this bug for say $30K??
no but I'll tell *you* something....
... it works on XP!