Vanishing images

jgawne · 07-30-2014, 03:36 PM

I am really sorry to see Sigil no longer being supported. Sigh.

However, I have had a weird issue that has reoccurred three times in the recent past and I wonder if anyone knows what might be causing this, so that maybe I can NOT do it again.

I have a well formed sigil file with a number of images (10-20). I save the file and go away for the night. I turn on my machine, open sigil, open the same file and ... it is there, but everything in the images file is gone.

The first time I figured I just screwed something up. Second time I went Hmmm. Third time I decide this is going to be a pain in the butt if every single time I have to go reload the images.

ideas?

theducks · 07-30-2014, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgawne

I am really sorry to see Sigil no longer being supported. Sigh.

However, I have had a weird issue that has reoccurred three times in the recent past and I wonder if anyone knows what might be causing this, so that maybe I can NOT do it again.

I have a well formed sigil file with a number of images (10-20). I save the file and go away for the night. I turn on my machine, open sigil, open the same file and ... it is there, but everything in the images file is gone.

The first time I figured I just screwed something up. Second time I went Hmmm. Third time I decide this is going to be a pain in the butt if every single time I have to go reload the images.

ideas?

Real strange.

Is there something odd about the Names of the images? (any special characters?) image10.jpg is safe

Case (of) name (path) errors caused by hand coding.

Personally, I only use Pretty Print Tidy (Preferences: clean source)

jgawne · 07-31-2014, 02:12 PM

nope, I am careful about that. And I know that a double space in the file name will mess it up.

This is just I save the file, shut down the machine, come back the next day, open it up and 'poof!' EVERY image file has vanished from the epub.

theducks · 07-31-2014, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgawne

nope, I am careful about that. And I know that a double space in the file name will mess it up.

This is just I save the file, shut down the machine, come back the next day, open it up and 'poof!' EVERY image file has vanished from the epub.

I have touched 1000's of books with Sigil. I have not lost images from a saved book.

Did you happen to have the file open (or in a synched folder) outside Sigil at the time of a save? (The save should have failed)

mrmikel · 07-31-2014, 04:23 PM

Is the OP not putting them in the Sigil Images folder, and trying to force an organization of his own? Sigil is good at what it does, but it does it its own way with its own structure. If you want free form structure you'd have to go with the calibre editor or another editor. I'm suspecting you can create any other folders you want, but the files will be deleted or moved to some folder like Misc on saving.

BetterRed · 07-31-2014, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgawne

nope, I am careful about that. And I know that a double space in the file name will mess it up.

This is just I save the file, shut down the machine, come back the next day, open it up and 'poof!' EVERY image file has vanished from the epub.

After saving the file do you close Sigil ?

What happens if you save the file, close Sigil, and then reopen open the book in Sigil - are the images gone?

What happens if you make a change to the text - is that gone too?

Do you do a Save (ctrl/s) or a Save As (ctrl/shift/s)?

Are you sure you're saving over the top of the file you open at the start. Maybe you open something in My Folder A but you're saving to My Folder B?

BR

canpolat · 08-01-2014, 06:04 AM

@jgawne, after closing Sigil, could you try the following:

1. Create a copy of the .epub file.
2. Then change the file extension of the copy from .epub to .zip
3. Extract the .zip file to a convenient location.
4. In the extracted structure navigate to the 'Images' folder.
5. Verify that all the images you added are in that folder.

If you see all the images in that folder, that means you have successfully added the image files to your epub. If the images aren't there that means there is something wrong in the inclusion of the images (Long shot: could it be that you are including the shortcuts to the images instead of the images themselves? I'm not sure this is even possible.).

jgawne · 08-01-2014, 11:49 AM

No, I am doing it properly. I have not had this issue before on a number of projects that went fine. I have just forced myself to get into the habit of saving more versions. I do note that in the 'content' section the missing images are still referenced.

I've been trying to replicate it with no luck.

There is a possibility that I may have saved the file, but kept sigil open all night (computer in sleep mode) in at ;east one of the times.

At this point I am just going chalk it up to gremlins, and try and be really, really careful about saving versions even if there is no major change.

Toxaris · 08-01-2014, 12:09 PM

There is one possibility, but I don't see how that can have happened here. If for some reason the reference to the image file is removed from the OPF or changed in the OPF (extension for example), the images would not be loaded if the file is reopened.

exaltedwombat · 08-02-2014, 09:52 AM

Is there ANYTHING non-standard about the way you insert the images (R-click the Images folder, Add existing Files, then place it in the document using the Insert File button)?

jgawne · 08-08-2014, 11:10 AM

Nope nothing non-standard and I have done a number of books with lots of images with no problems. I can't replicate this issue so - that's that. Just a weird occurrence because I am SO VERY LUCKY.

If you guys did not already know this, if you have a double space in your image file name, it will show up as being in the images file, but will not show up in the book. But I learned that a while ago.

theducks · 08-08-2014, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgawne

Nope nothing non-standard and I have done a number of books with lots of images with no problems. I can't replicate this issue so - that's that. Just a weird occurrence because I am SO VERY LUCKY.

If you guys did not already know this, if you have a double space in your image file name, it will show up as being in the images file, but will not show up in the book. But I learned that a while ago.

Any spaces in file names should be avoided, just to many devices stumble on this.
Use an underscore_to_maintain_readability

exaltedwombat · 08-08-2014, 01:14 PM

When you run your book through the validator at
http://validator.idpf.org/
it will warn you if file names have spaces.

All over computing, SOME systems/programs tolerate nonstandard characters in file names. But don't do it.

07-30-2014, 03:36 PM	#1
jgawne Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: kindle	Vanishing images I am really sorry to see Sigil no longer being supported. Sigh. However, I have had a weird issue that has reoccurred three times in the recent past and I wonder if anyone knows what might be causing this, so that maybe I can NOT do it again. I have a well formed sigil file with a number of images (10-20). I save the file and go away for the night. I turn on my machine, open sigil, open the same file and ... it is there, but everything in the images file is gone. The first time I figured I just screwed something up. Second time I went Hmmm. Third time I decide this is going to be a pain in the butt if every single time I have to go reload the images. ideas?

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07-31-2014, 02:12 PM	#3
jgawne Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: kindle	nope, I am careful about that. And I know that a double space in the file name will mess it up. This is just I save the file, shut down the machine, come back the next day, open it up and 'poof!' EVERY image file has vanished from the epub.

07-31-2014, 04:23 PM	#5
mrmikel Color me gone Posts: 2,089 Karma: 1445295 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Central Oregon Coast Device: PRS-300	Is the OP not putting them in the Sigil Images folder, and trying to force an organization of his own? Sigil is good at what it does, but it does it its own way with its own structure. If you want free form structure you'd have to go with the calibre editor or another editor. I'm suspecting you can create any other folders you want, but the files will be deleted or moved to some folder like Misc on saving.

08-01-2014, 06:04 AM	#7
canpolat Connoisseur Posts: 92 Karma: 17950 Join Date: Mar 2013 Device: Xodo	@jgawne, after closing Sigil, could you try the following: 1. Create a copy of the .epub file. 2. Then change the file extension of the copy from .epub to .zip 3. Extract the .zip file to a convenient location. 4. In the extracted structure navigate to the 'Images' folder. 5. Verify that all the images you added are in that folder. If you see all the images in that folder, that means you have successfully added the image files to your epub. If the images aren't there that means there is something wrong in the inclusion of the images (Long shot: could it be that you are including the shortcuts to the images instead of the images themselves? I'm not sure this is even possible.).

08-01-2014, 11:49 AM	#8
jgawne Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: kindle	No, I am doing it properly. I have not had this issue before on a number of projects that went fine. I have just forced myself to get into the habit of saving more versions. I do note that in the 'content' section the missing images are still referenced. I've been trying to replicate it with no luck. There is a possibility that I may have saved the file, but kept sigil open all night (computer in sleep mode) in at ;east one of the times. At this point I am just going chalk it up to gremlins, and try and be really, really careful about saving versions even if there is no major change.

08-01-2014, 12:09 PM	#9
Toxaris Wizard Posts: 4,520 Karma: 121692313 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Heemskerk, NL Device: PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura	There is one possibility, but I don't see how that can have happened here. If for some reason the reference to the image file is removed from the OPF or changed in the OPF (extension for example), the images would not be loaded if the file is reopened.

08-02-2014, 09:52 AM	#10
exaltedwombat Guru Posts: 878 Karma: 2457540 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: none	Is there ANYTHING non-standard about the way you insert the images (R-click the Images folder, Add existing Files, then place it in the document using the Insert File button)?

08-08-2014, 11:10 AM	#11
jgawne Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: kindle	Nope nothing non-standard and I have done a number of books with lots of images with no problems. I can't replicate this issue so - that's that. Just a weird occurrence because I am SO VERY LUCKY. If you guys did not already know this, if you have a double space in your image file name, it will show up as being in the images file, but will not show up in the book. But I learned that a while ago.

08-08-2014, 01:14 PM	#13
exaltedwombat Guru Posts: 878 Karma: 2457540 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: none	When you run your book through the validator at http://validator.idpf.org/ it will warn you if file names have spaces. All over computing, SOME systems/programs tolerate nonstandard characters in file names. But don't do it.