Lost profiles under the settings tab

[StefanS]

Hi,
I use the PDF X-Change Addin for Word. I have now noticed that my personal profiles under the settings tab have been lost.
For the used software versions, see files attached.

How can I solve the problem?

best regards
StefanS

Screenshot 2024-04-29 134544.png

Screenshot 2024-04-29 134500.png

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello StefanS,

Do you know when this happened? E.g. was it after an upgrade of Windows/Office?
If you do not have a back up of your settings, you might need to recreate those profiles.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[StefanS]

Thanks for your response on this.
I am not aware of any updates because this is controlled by the IT department.
Could you let me know where to find the file with the saved profiles? Which location and which file name?
I would like to backup the file to prevent any future loss.
thanks again.
Best greetings
Stefan

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello StefanS,

The Add-in profiles would be stored in the registry under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\Office Addin\Profiles
So you would need to copy this registry tree to make a back up of your Office Add-In profiles.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[StefanS]

Hi Stefan,
thanks for your swift response.
Having the profiles in the registry would mean that the cause of the reported loss is related to pdf-XChange and not to Windows Updates, right?
Have a nice weekend.
Kind regards
StefanS

[StefanS]

... to be honest, it is a big hassle with the profiles. Just trying to apply watermarks but without success.
Could you give a dedicated review?
thanks
regards
StefanS

Screenshot 2024-05-03 144938.png

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[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi, StefanS

currently there is no mechanism to export/import these profiles, so we will add that. There is a ticker for this: RT#6613: Feature Request :: Office Add-In :: Import/Export profiles

So that will provide a mechanism to recover profiles should they be lost again, however it would be better to prevent the loss in the first place.

The settings are, as we discussed, stored in the registry. That does not however mean that our software is responsible for removing the entries. We read settings from the registry on application start, changes are stored in RAM until application close, when it gets written to the registry. Anything that can modify the registry could have triggered the deletion of these settings. Since this is a managed environment I would be asking IT to see if they can monitor the registry changes moving forward to identify the process doing this.

I hope the new feature helps when available, but I hope even more that we can determine what is causing it. I am not of the mind that it is our application given that this appears to be an isolated incident. We do not see this being reported elsewhere and I am keen to nail down the cause.

Do you think IT would cooperate and monitor for registry changes moving forward?