Shortcuts lost when updated to 11.0.1

[nesedenyana]

Hi,

The 11.0.1 changelog lists "[installer] Fixed an issue where shortcuts were lost during an upgrade from the previous version", but this is exactly what happened to me when IT upgraded me from v10 to 11.0.1.

What happened

• User data moved from %APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0 to %APPDATA%\PDF-XChange\PDF Editor. My folder-level JavaScript add-ons were not migrated, but I copied them over manually and they work.
• My custom keyboard shortcuts and toolbar layouts are gone.

What I found

• The old key HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings still exists, but only with a few remnant subkeys (CustomUI, Plugins, PluginsData, Presets, Prompts, Security). Cmds and CmdLayouts are missing.
• The new key HKCU\Software\PDF-XChange\PDFEditor\Settings only contains v11 defaults.
• A search of the whole HKCU hive and my user profile found no copy of the old data and no .xces backup.

So it looks like the upgrade removed the old command/toolbar keys without migrating them.

Why this matters
I spent a lot of time setting up shortcuts and styles to match what I was used to in Bluebeam, to make the switch to PDF-XChange easier. Losing all of that in a routine update is very frustrating.

Questions

1. Is this a known issue in 11.0.1?
2. Does the installer or migrator keep a backup of the v10 settings anywhere (file or registry)?
3. Is there any other way to recover them, apart from restoring an old NTUSER.DAT?

It would also help if future upgrades automatically exported a .xces backup before migrating.

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi nesedenyana,

I have passed your queries on to the development team for review.

Kind regards,

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi nesedenyana,

My custom keyboard shortcuts and toolbar layouts are gone.
...
The old key HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings still exists, but only with a few remnant subkeys (CustomUI, Plugins, PluginsData, Presets, Prompts, Security). Cmds and CmdLayouts are missing.

This is a very strange symptom, because our v10->v11 settings migration process doesn't change the v10-settings at all. Also, our installer and updater don't do it. Something else on your machine must have removed the HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings\CmdLayouts and HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings\Cmds. Do you use any registry cleaner app? Those apps may deliberately remove parts of the registry.
Also, is it possible your IT department changed the registry in some way? For example, eventually they may update your user profile on the machine by creating a new one and copying everything from the old one. It sounds like a crazy idea, but anything is possible...

User data moved from %APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0 to %APPDATA%\PDF-XChange\PDF Editor. My folder-level JavaScript add-ons were not migrated, but I copied them over manually and they work.

To clarify: do you mean the "%APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\JavaScripts" folder or
"c:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF Editor\JavaScripts" ? Because if we're talking about the first one - it should be copied during the settings migration process to the new "%APPDATA%\PDF-XChange\PDF Editor\JavaScripts". The second one - no.

FYI: the settings migration process starts with the v11 app(our PDF Editor), at its first start, not with the installer/updater. And it just simply copies(once!) everything:

from
HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings
to
HKCU\Software\PDF-XChange\PDFEditor\Settings

and

from
%APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor
to
%APPDATA%\PDF-XChange\PDF Editor

===

By the way, can you see in your registry any of the following keys:

HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings.old
HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings.new

?

If yes, then there is a chance to restore the settings you lost...


Cheers.

[nesedenyana]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.

1. Settings.old / Settings.new: neither key exists. The only subkey under HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0 is Settings.

2. JavaScripts: it was the first one, %APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\JavaScripts. The files are still there in the old folder, but they were not in the new %APPDATA%\PDF-XChange\PDF Editor\JavaScripts folder after the update, so I copied them manually. History.dat, HistoryThumbs.dat and Security\SignTemplates.dat were not copied either.

3. Registry cleaner: no, I don't use any.

4. IT changes: IT is not aware of any changes to my profile or registry. They were investigating the cause together with me.

Given that the AppData migration also did not happen, could the migration have failed or been skipped on first start? Is there a log or flag in the registry that shows whether it ran?