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An installed app is NOT recognized by PA

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April 16, 2012 - 10:17am
#1
Matt00
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An installed app is NOT recognized by PA

I hope the topic isn't to redundant but I have already spent several hours trying to figure this issue out including searching through the forum threads. I can't find an answer that makes any sense in my situation.

I have a favorite program, idailydiary (Splinterware) and have used it with PortableApps in the past. I've been using the program and PA for several years. All I had to do was install the programs to my USB drive in the PA folder and refresh the icons. It has always shown up with no problem.

I forgot my USB drive at home a few times and decided to move idailydiary to Dropbox. It ran fine from there until I realized that one of my computers was not updating the common files for some reason I never figured out. I decided to switch idd back to my Portableapps USB and just live without it on the days I might forget to carry it with me.

I've re-installed idd back on the USB drive inside the Portableapps folder. No matter what I do I cannot get the icon to show up in the menu on the PA platform.

PLEASE don't refer me to the support page that tells me to install the app in the folder "next to" the other apps as that is exactly where it IS installed. As I say, I've run it from there before.

When I did a clean re-install of idd I actually pointed the installer to K:PortableApps and that's exactly where it went. It runs fine from there. I just can't get PA to see it and add the icon.

Any help would be appreciated.

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April 16, 2012 - 10:57am
Gord Caswell
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Path

What is the full path to the program?

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April 16, 2012 - 12:02pm
(Reply to #2)
Matt00
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The path

The path is:
K:\PortableApps\iDailyDiary

I've had trouble getting idailydiary to show up on the menu in the past but it was so long ago I couldn't remember what I had to do to show it.

It seemed like the answer in the past was to make a copy of the .exe file icon and place it somewhere else on the USB drive. I couldn't remember where I placed it in the past or why it would work that way so it just wasn't happening.

I did find a problem which might have been the same issue from the past only this time I couldn't accidentally create a work-around.

I've gotten the program to show on the menu. I'm still confused as to what happened but I'll explain what I did.

1. Right clicked over the menu.
2. Selected "Show Hidden Icons".
3. Refreshed the app icons and noticed an unusual icon with no name listed for it.
4. Clicked on the unnamed, unfamiliar looking, odd looking icon. My program immediately opened.
5. Added a name "idailydiary" to the formerly unnamed icon in the menu.
6. I explored the folder "idailydiary" and found inside the folder a sub folder called "app". Inside the "app" folder was a sub-folder called "app data". (K:\PortableApps\iDailyDiary\app\app data)
7. Inside "app data" there were 4 icons which I have never seen before, rather plain squares, gray in color with an arrow pointing to the upper right corner. The same unnamed icon as was in the PA platform. Very generic looking and unnamed except for the word "icon" and the size.
8. Experimentally renamed the folder "app data" and moved it outside of the "app" folder.
9. Refreshed the app icons in the PortableApps platform.
10. The correct icon appeared in place of the generic looking one.
11. Deleted the folder "app data" and the generic useless icons.

I have no idea where the unnamed, generic looking icons came from or why they ended up inside the idailydiary folder. I've never seen them before.

Apparently PortableApps was seeing them first but didn't add them to the list of icons because they had no name associated with them. I'm guessing that once PA saw them, associated them with idd but couldn't properly display them they just remained as hidden.

All I can think of now is that my 'accidental work-around' in the past resulted in putting the .exe file with the correct icon where Portableapps was able to see it before seeing the bogus icons. The bogus icon may have been hidden in the platform associated with idailydiary in the past but I never had reason to discover it.

It might be one to remember anytime someone has a app that refuses to show up in the menu. Look for a bogus, unnamed icon file or multiple .exe files, which confuse the PA platform, hidden within the folder for the stubbornly hiding app.

Matt H

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April 16, 2012 - 1:40pm
(Reply to #3)
Gord Caswell
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The PortableApps.com Platform

The PortableApps.com Platform doesn't search for icons, or executables, in sub-folders of apps not in the PortableApps.com Format. All it does is add any executables it finds in the top level of the app to the list. In this case, it would load any executables in K:\PortableApps\iDailyDiary, nothing in any sub-directories.

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April 16, 2012 - 8:19pm
(Reply to #4)
Matt00
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Thanks for that answer.

Thanks for that answer. Shows how much I don't know about the topic. Shoots my theory dead. I still don't know why the goofy icon in the sub-folder replaced the regular icon or why the unnamed icon was hidden in the PA platform but I'm glad the thing is working. Smile

Matt H

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