Hello folks
I've discovered some odd behavior of the actual amsn portable!
asmn downloaded + installed on my usb stick at my office pc, done all settings (user icon, skin, behavior aso.) so far, everything works fine, closing amsn, starting it, do more settings, all ok!
however, when using the same usb stick with the installed amsn at my home pc, it starts ONLY for the first time almost normally, but even then you can already see some settings are gone, f.e. you can't see your self defined user icon, or the skin you've set is replaced by the default one, aso. but login is still possible. but if you then change any settings, close amsn and start it again, now EVERY settings are gone. that means for me, no auto login, default skin, no user icon, no login name nor pw stars shown, everything is empty and all settings are default like when fresh installed!
the same thing happens 1:1, when I install amsn at my home pc to the usb stick, and try to start it then again on my office pc! Really odd thing...
btw, there are different drive letters when using the usb stick at the office & at home!
(home set manual by win drive managment, at the office automatically by windows)
system data:
*) office pc:
windows xp prof. sp3, german, admin rights
usb stick drive letter: D (automatically set by windows environment)
content of "D:\USB\PortableApps\aMSNPortable\Data\settings\aMSNPortableSettings.ini"
[aMSNPortableSettings]
LastDrive=D:
LastLanguage=en
*) home pc:
vista enterprise ed., sp2, german, admin rights
usb stick drive letter: Z (manually set)
content of "Z:\USB\PortableApps\aMSNPortable\Data\settings\aMSNPortableSettings.ini"
[aMSNPortableSettings]
LastDrive=Z:
LastLanguage=en
*) usb stick:
corsair voyager gt 8gb
I've installed a lot of portable apps from portableapps.com on my usb stick, and a lot of more from different pages, all working fine till now! that's the first PA application which won't work like expected!
if someone needs some screenshots, send me your emailadress...
so, hopefully there's another one who has the same fault like me, and hopefully there'll be an solution as soon as possible! in the meantime I'll use PA pidgin portable, but he's not supporting (msn) video chat... 
thx in advance for some info reply!
bye
Sparksman
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You didn't manually change anything in any of the files, especially in aMSNPortableSettings.ini did you?
I think about 100,000 people are using aMSN, so if it was a universal problem, we'd have heard about it many times. This is something specific to your install.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
no, why should I do so? I aim for proper application working like expected from any PA applications in the past till now, so I really won't burn my paws and change well developed setting by PA!!!
believe me, I haven't changed a single file! and you can imagine my surprise when the mentioned behavior happened, not only one time, but every time, whatever I tried so far!
Did you change anything else you can think of? Did you change any settings in aMSN or add any add-ons? You didn't install it to one place and then change the directory? Have you tried a fresh install?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John, I didn't anything you've mentioned! I did a clean, fresh, NEW installation to my usb stick with the setup.exe downloaded from PA, did all my settings, never touched any installed file, and was happy that amsn portable was smooth running, still after closing/opening it many times on the same pc.
and after switching the pc the next day (home/office; office/home) the first amsn start showed already some missing settings, and the second start (after doing a random settings change before) was without ANY personal settings; like fresh installed!
however, to satisfy you, I'll do the same process again, downloading a fresh amsn portable setup.exe from PA, installing it to the usb stick on my home pc, and then trying it again on monday at my office pc! so we'll see what's happening then!
as soon I've got a result, I'll reply to your comment again!
cu!
Hello John,
case solved, it was the usb stick himself, he just passed away, or better said, he smoked away!
great! that's the 2nd private usb stick who died this way! it seems usb sticks are still not ready for using them every day as mobile office, application launcher and data storage at the same time on different pc's & notebooks! (I'm working in the IT support)
so my apologies for any caused trouble so far, and the reputation of amsn portable is restored again!
have a nice time!
bye
Sparksman
Hi
It seems I was too fast with my conclusion!
I did the same thing with an new usb stick (installing & do the settings for amsn portable at my office pc), works all fine, and then starting amsn at my home pc again, works almost fine for the 1st start, doing some minor settings change, close amsn, start it again, AND... BOOOM! crushed!
To give you a complete overview, I did screenshots of every step I did at my office pc and at home, too! --- but I don't know at the moment how I can add the ZIP file containing the pics to this forum comment! If you need them (probably), give me an hint how to do so, or maybe an email of yours...
so hopefully you'll believe me NOW, that there's a strange behavior with the current version of amsn portable so far...
yours
Sparksman
hello!
as suggested yesterday evening by the PA chat room crowd I uploaded the screenshots to Tinypic:
http://tinypic.com/sparksman
please keep in mind the pics are in the wrong way uploaded, as I started with the first screenshot till the last done screenshot, but of course Tinypic sorts them by default newest (= last uploaded) to oldest (= first uploaded)... :/
so, make yourself an overview, and tell me what you're think about it! if any question feel free to ask me!
bye
sparksman
FYI, there is one picture where you forgot to obliterate your contacts.
I'll take a look at the launcher code tonight.
Cheers
uups... thx for info! ^^;
...it was for my opinion with an photo session the only way to convince JH, and maybe you too... *shrug*
...and eventually stopped using AMSN because no one else appeared to be having the problem. When I used a theme or skin, it worked well for about a week and 'poof', one day it was all gone. I finally stopped downloading and re-doing the theme and settings. About 46 weeks ago, another had the issue and I gave him bad advice, to reload the latest version. https://portableapps.com/node/16393
I later started experiencing the very same issues. With only two complaints in that long a period, I just thought it was a unique issue for me. I love the program, but its frustrating to have to reload everything every week or two. If we find the tweak that is causing the settings to disappear, I would probably start using it again.
BTW, its hard to complain about something that others have worked so hard to create and the problem is so small. You guys do great work and I personally appreciate it a lot. It makes my life a lot easier in many ways.
Thanks again,
Raleigh
https://portableapps.com/node/19194
https://portableapps.com/node/20743
Alright, can't test much, because I have no accounts. Just looked at the code and the config files.
So here it is, my bug report.
The config files store the paths with "/", but the launcher tries to adjust them with "\". So the settings will get lost if you change the driveletter.
aMSNPortable.nsi (lines 162-168):
IfFileExists "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\amsn\config.xml" "" UpdateGConfig ${ReplaceInFile} "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\amsn\config.xml" '>$LASTDRIVE:\' '>$CURRENTDRIVE:\' Delete "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\amsn\config.xml" UpdateGConfig: IfFileExists "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\amsn\gconfig.xml" "" RememberPath ${ReplaceInFile} "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\amsn\gconfig.xml" '>$LASTDRIVE:\' '>$CURRENTDRIVE:\'config.xml example lines:
Looks like internally aMSN switched it at some point. I'll rebuild it when I get back from Seattle.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I've got the same problem, but it seems to me like I'm randomly loosing data. Sometimes on the same machine.
At home I've manually assigned the letter Q to my disk, at work it's "random" (usually F). I've noticed that when the program crashes or doesn't exit properly, there is a chance that all settings are lost. Somtimes it just randomly appears to be loosing all data. Even if you close and reopen it on the same machine, with say an hour between..
Thanks for the digging so far, hope it'll be tackled soon:)
https://portableapps.com/node/20743
I have the same issue... anyway, i hope that you can solve this issue so we all can enjoy a great app like amsn is..
Thanks to all of you ^^
Just thought I might bump this a little. If it is a quick fix, great. If not, I know there are more important programs and priorities.
Thanks,
Raleigh
A fix is being posted later today.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I only have an inkling of how busy you must be to keep all this running smoothly.
Thanks for fitting it in.
Raleigh
Hello John
Tried the installation with the current downloadable version of amsn today (Tue, October 20th 2009), the same error happend again like mentioned by me in the past!
Installation process was the same, did it on my office pc, and after starting amsn at my home pc the user pic was already gone, after changing some minor settings and restart of amsn the application started again like fresh installed!
Sorry for the bad news, but it's so! Thx for fixing it right away!
Bye
Sparksman
..I don't think he has had a chance to do the fix yet. I didn't see any changes in the download file. I lost my settings again today as well.
Regards,
Raleigh
john's comment from october 12 is... "A fix is being posted LATER TODAY.", so I considered he'll doing this right on the day of his comment, just the 12th, or even on 13th...
and I attempted a new installation 8 days later! of course I didn't proved the paf file in good trust... and yeah, john's busy and a lot of PA apps to handle and all... I'm aware of this!
regards,
Sparksman
John isn't as exact as a swiss clock
And time is relative!
Yes of course is it.
But now it is half a year ago that John said a fix is coming....
We are still waiting...
By the way
a new Version of this great tool has been released
I Hope John will bring this on our portable devices...
That fix was posted back in October of last year. Unfortunately aMSN had changed again and keeps settings in individual directories for each account and ignores the main settings files when logged in, so the launcher need to be completely rewritten to search out and update every account individually.
This will be fixed in 0.98.3, but the release will be delayed a bit so the launcher can be rewritten.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The 2nd incarnation of this issue has been fixed in the 0.98.3 release.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!