Hello there,
Lately, whenever I update Notepad++ (using the PortableApps platform) my theme and settings are reset to defaults.
Can you take a look at it?
Thanks!
New: Run-Command (Dec 2, 2024), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, 2024)
1,100+ portable packages, 1.1 billion downloads
No Ads Nov/Dec!, Please donate today
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
I have only been using PortableApps lauchner for a couple of days now and ran into the same issue.
I hope this is not a common problem, as retaining the configuration is the main reason why I m using portable apps.
So can anyone confirm if this is an expected behavior or a "defect".
This is fixed in today's release. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Not fixed - now made update, does not work my theme and can not choose another in menue..?
[edit]
Why are there two folders with "Themes" - but I can not load any of the 20 included themes (Preferences / Styles / Theme) -> only "Default" available!
Z:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\Data\themes
Z:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\DefaultData\themes
File with user-config for design
"Z:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++\stylers.xml"
should not be overwritten when updating...
Odd, that file wasn't created for me when I customized a theme. Are there any other files that should be caught before I create a revision?
DefaultData is what it says, it's the default data the app uses on first run or if you delete the Data directory to reset it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I just checked and this all should already be handled. stylers.xml is moved back and forth to Data and is not overwritten on upgrades even if Notepad++ was unsafely exited.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It has not been fixed yet. I tried to install a new plugin, and it resets theme and settings.
Was working for me. Today when updating to 7.8 the issue appeared again.
Edit: I'm not sure it changed the settings, but it surely changed the theme.
As Issues have been increasing, I am considering searching for an alternative.
With latest update, not only theme was reset, but also opened unsaved files do not show up. I hope that data has not been lost. For anyone having the same issue, you should probably be able to recover your session from Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++\backup.
In my case, I also loose some setting in the case of plugins update. As somebody here already mentioned, my biggest impact is the loosing of the saved and unsaved files AKA session because the session.xml file get lost. I don’t customize the rest of the NP++ settings much, otherwise I would probably see more settings disappear. But lucky us, NP++ saves all the saved and unsaved files form the session in the backup directory and doesn’t override them, so the information is still here.
I think I have a theory, why do we have such issues with a new Plugin Admin. It bases on the art how NP++ made portable and the way the admin restarts the NP++ itself. It looks that somehow it is impossible to make the NP++ portable by just set the right path to the %APPDATA% location. So portable launcher have to put some setting files from the config directory direct to the NP++ program files directory just before the start of the NP++ binary itself. Those files are:
config.xml
contextMenu.xml
session.xml
shortcuts.xml
stylers.xml
plugins\config\converter.ini
plugins\config\nppPluginList.dll.
The maybe changed files are also removed from the NP++ program files directory back to the config directory after NP++ itself terminates and before portable launcher also exits. But this only happens in the case NP++ would be closed by the user.
In case of the Plugin Admin update the Admin itself restarts the NP++. So portable launcher registers the termination of the NP++ itself and removes all the files listed above. After that Plugin Admin starts the NP++ directly, without using the portable launcher. This way all the files from the above list are missed and therefore NP++ acts like on the first start, creating all of them. So all the changes are lost by now, in the case that user didn’t backup those files manually. This would also explain the disappearance of the Plugin Admin itself because of the missing .dll from the list.
The solution would be either some changes in the way NP++ made portable (move all the files in the application data directory and point here, monitor the restart of the NP++ through Plugin Admin or something else) or asking the NP++ developer to allow the manual restart of the NP++ instead of the automatic one. Maybe there are some other possible changes to the NP++ itself. Maybe there are some other way in case my theory is true.
Some threads about this issue:
https://portableapps.com/node/59896
https://portableapps.com/node/61516
This is fixed again in today's release. Apologies for the regression in 7.8.5.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi there. I just downloaded and installed PortableApps today and after spending about an hour on theming Notepad++ lost it. This seems to happen whenever I install a new plugin.
Another weird behaviors include the PluginAdmin disappearing.
After you use the plug-in manager, you must immediately close, wait, and restart notepad++ portable as mentioned on the app homepage.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I've tried this several times and I can't seem to get it to work. This is very frustrating! I have also deleted and reinstalled.
Basically, my test case--now that I've lost about 2 hours of my day haha--is to change the background color. Then I will either Install or Uninstall a plugin.
The VERY MOMENT it restarts I exit. I hum to myself for about 10-15 seconds and run N++ again and the screen is back to white. I can also attest to loosing shortcut keys, and other settings.
Try closing Notepad++ after making all the changes you'd like so it saves, then make plugin changes.
Notepad++ seems determined to escape any process containers when restarting after plugin changes making it difficult to handle.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I still can't seem to get it to work :/
I probably won't be changing plugins after my initial setup--my bug concern is loosing the settings later--is there an easy way to back them up for a just-in-case?
So here is something I tried that seemed to work for me.
After making desired customization you can go into **Preferences > Cloud** and set the location somewhere else. Then you can close out and reopen N++. After this I've had luck with installing/reinstalling plugins and NOT losing settings. This seems working fine, but I've still made a secondary "cloud" backup.
TL;DR You can make a quick n' easy "backup directory" with the Cloud section in Preferences. This can also serve to function as a new default settings directory (or so it seems to me)
Hi guys,
The issue of defaulting to the "stylers.xml" theme still exists in this latest version, but I found I can reproduce it.
Firstly, I installed to C:\Portable\NotePad++
If I open and change my theme, save my work and close it and then re-open directly from the particular or any saved document, it works as expected i.e. retains scheme, open documents etc.
However, the moment I pin the shortcut to the taskbar and then open it, it defaults to black on white and only find "stylers.xml" and none of the other themes.
So, I have to re-open, set the theme, save etc. And opening the document directly works again.
Thus, not sure what pinning it to taskbar does (I'm no Windows expert / lover), but that simple acts breaks it - until I set it again.
My solution, once set, don't pin it to taskbar.
At least, that works for me.
M.
Pinning to the taskbar via Windows is pinning the non-portable NotePad++ executable and ignoring the bits that make it portable.
If you use the Platform, you can right click on NotePad++ in the list and pin that way, which will do it correctly for you.
If you don't use the Platform you need to modify the link to point to the Notepad++\Notepad++Portable.exe instead of Notepad++\App\notepad++.exe
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation!
The update of Notepad++ Portable I do it like this:
1. I am using last paf 'NotepadPlusPlusPortable_7.8.5_Rev_3.paf.exe' and I do a manual update with last 32-bit official build of Notepad++ (file npp.7.9.portable.zip).
2. I Update plugins
3. when the item 'Plugin Admin...' disappears, I copy from original file (npp.7.9.portable.zip) the file '\plugins\Config\nppPluginList.dll' and I put it in 'C:\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\Data\Config\plugins\config'
4. so item 'Plugin Admin...' is visible again.
Maybe this can help.
This should be properly fixed with today's release of Notepad++ Portable 7.9.4. There's a chance if your current one wasn't shut down properly that it will not work on this upgrade but should in the future. You can test this by reinstalling it over itself (which is what an upgrade does).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
There might still be a problem with plugins that use sub-directories for their configurations such as "NppFTP" or "XPatherizer". These are not getting copied / moved.
I added those two manually to the
[DirectoriesMove]-section ofNotepad++Portable.iniand that seems to work properly.The same is good for plugins that use configuration files with different extensions than
.xmlor.ini.One such example is "CustomizeToolbar", which uses (at least) the extensions
.datand.btn.Adding these to the
[FilesMove]-section ofNotepad++Portable.inifixes the problem.Hope this helps...
Try using this in your Notepad++Portable.ini within App\AppInfo\Launcher:
This should work for everything. You'll still need to close and restart Notepad++ Portable after installing or updating plugins, though.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Seems to work perfectly with npp 7.9.4 Rev 2!
I just thought, there was a special reason for treating the config files separately...
Thanks!
I did some more testing after I'd posted, this is the launcher ini from the Rev 2 release now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I have just updated to 8.1.2 (64-bit) and the issue still occurs. After the update, some settings for Zenburn theme I use, such as: the font name or the foreground/background colour of active tab text are back to default. I had the issue after the updates in the past. Any idea how to fix it?
How are you changing the options in the Zenburn theme? Via the Style Configurator within Notepad++ or by editing the theme's XML directly?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I edit them within NP++ (Settings/Style Configurator...)
In a behavior I can't understand, Notepad++ makes changes directly to its own theme XML files when you customize it in the Style Configurator. Those will get overwritten on each upgrade as Notepad++ makes changes to the base themes over time (last altered in May 2021). They're stored in Data to preserve any new themes you might add. To get around this strange behavior, while Notepad++ is closed, open up your Notepad++Portable\Data\themes directory. Copy and paste the Zenburn.xml file and name it Zenburn-custom.xml. Then open up Notepad++ Portable and select this new theme from the Style Configurator. You'll be able to customize it ongoing without it being overwritten. It won't get any updates from the publisher, of course, though the original Zenburn will. I've also added these details to the App Notes: https://portableapps.com/apps/development/notepadpp_portable#app-notes
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!