Two problems in Sigil 2.7.0 in Windows11

[philja]

1. Wanting to edit a template file, I clicked on the 'Open Preferences Location' button in Sigil on my Windows box and to my surprise, it landed me in Desktop on the File Explorer. I tried many times, and it was consistent.

I navigated to the directory I needed: username\AppData\.local\share\sigil-ebook\sigil\ , but this may be a problem for some users.

The 'Open Preferences Location' function works as expected in Linux and on my MacBook, but not in Windows 11.

2. The second problem I find is that Sigil on Windows does not remember the width of the Book Browser pane between sessions. It appears to do so correctly in Linux and on the MacBook. In Windows, Sigil always starts with the Book Browser at its minimum width - all I can read of the chapter names is Ch...ml.

Not mega problems, but the preferences location might be difficult for some users.

[DiapDealer]

Neither of your issues manifest for me on any of my Windows 10 or 11 test environments. If number 2 was a widespread problem, there would have been lots of people screaming already. Not sure what might be going on on your machine.

[Turtle91]

hmmm...I think this may be an issue on your computer??? My Windows 11 opens the preferences location just fine. It also remembers the width of the book bowser pane....sorta. If I close Sigil after making the Pane half of the window, then it reverts to a "max-width" or a percentage of the window. If I make the pane much smaller - its minimum width - Sigil will re-open to the minimum width. It also remembers any size in-between minimum and "maximum".

Have you tried manually setting the preferences location somewhere else, and then setting it back?? That might help...

Otherwise I'll let the Sigil maintainers troubleshoot this with you.

Windows 11 Pro N version: 25H2
Sigil: 2.7.0
QT: 6.9.3

[KevinH]

They may be related. If Qt can not find its local data path, then Sigil will not find its preferences and therefore no settings ini file would be read or written to which means no window geometry is kept.

Qt uses Windows environment vars to determine its path. Perhaps yours are not set correctly or you have moved it to a network drive (damn ms cloud stuff) which I had a dickens to disable when I last used Windows.

QString Utility::DefinePrefsDir()
{
    // If the SIGIL_PREFS_DIR environment variable override exists; use it.
    // It's up to the user to provide a directory they have permission to write to.
    if (!SIGIL_PREFS_DIR.isEmpty()) {
        return SIGIL_PREFS_DIR;
    } else {
        return QStandardPaths::writableLocation(QStandardPaths::AppLocalDataLocation);
    }
}

[KevinH]

And according to Qt's QStandardPaths docs, AppLocalData value defined as:

Returns the local settings path on the Windows operating system. On all other platforms, it returns the same value as AppDataLocation.

And here are the templates for the AppLocalDataLocation on Windows:

"C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>",
"C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>",
"<APPDIR>",
"<APPDIR>/data",
"<APPDIR>/data/<APPNAME>"

And the Windows specific code and calls that determine these can be found here:

https://github.com/qt/qtbase/blob/20...dpaths_win.cpp

So check what environment vars you have set? Also check permissions to verify that the location / path is actually writeable by the user.

This code literally has not changed in years in Sigil so it is most likely an issue on your specific machine.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by philja

I navigated to the directory I needed: username\AppData\.local\share\sigil-ebook\sigil\ , but this may be a problem for some users.

I wasn't able to reproduce the problem on my Windows 11 machine.

AFAIK, the default preferences folder is:

%localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil

or

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\sigil-ebook\sigil

where <user> is your actual user name. Did you maybe create a symbolic link to the folder that you mentioned?

Also what happens if you press WIN+R, paste the following path into the Run box and hit Enter:

%localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil

[philja]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I wasn't able to reproduce the problem on my Windows 11 machine.

AFAIK, the default preferences folder is:

%localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil

or

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\sigil-ebook\sigil

where <user> is your actual user name. Did you maybe create a symbolic link to the folder that you mentioned?

Also what happens if you press WIN+R, paste the following path into the Run box and hit Enter:

%localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil

First, let me humbly apologise for my error in the path in my original post - when correcting the '/' to '\' for Windows, I pasted in a part of the Linux path.

I confirm that my preferences location on the Windows box is:
C:\Users\pnj\AppData\Local\sigil-ebook\sigil

It seems that the problems are down to my machine. It was a W10 box which I upgraded to W11 last summer. I only use it occasionally when I need a couple of applications which don't run well on linux - and when I'm in W11, I'll sometimes use Sigil (which happened today).

I've never, as far as I can recall, ever set any environment variables.

When I press WIN+R & paste the following

%localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil

into the Run box and hit Enter: it correctly opens the preferences location.


So do I conclude that there is something wrong with my Sigil installation?

Afterthought: I recall sometime ago that when I tried to update KDP Previewer3, I got a message saying the upgrade wouldn't work with some mention, IIRC, of inability to find something related to QT. My fix then was simply to delete the old Previewer and make a new installation of the latest version.

[JSWolf]

Do you have these problems if you run Sigil in Safe Mode?

[philja]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you have these problems if you run Sigil in Safe Mode?

I don't see any option to start Sigil in Safe mode. How would I do that?

[philja]

I deleted Sigil, downloaded and installed a new 2.7.0 and the two problems are still there. The situation has evolved, though - for the worse, I fear.

Running %localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil in Win-R now fails to open the correct location and just opens Desktop in File Explorer - same as the Preferences Location button in Sigil does.

Otherwise, Sigil works fine using my display variations in qt_styles.qss file and my templates.

Off to bed now - see how it develops tomorrow.

[KevinH]

My guess is when you installed Windows 11 it got set up with a Microsoft Cloud or network based user account. Windows is making it harder and harder to set up a normal user account that is not tied to the cloud.

I do not think reinstalling Sigil will make any differences. You should manually cd to the expected paths and verify that you have write permissions at that location and its parent.

%localappdata% is effectively a system defined environment variable for each user.

[DiapDealer]

Using regedit, check the contents of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

The Local AppData folder should be set to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by philja

I don't see any option to start Sigil in Safe mode. How would I do that?

You run Windows in safe mode. Then you run Sigil.

[philja]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Using regedit, check the contents of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

The Local AppData folder should be set to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local

I checked this, and it's as you said.

echo %localappdata% returns C:\Users\<NAME>\AppData\Local
echo %USERPROFILE% returns C:\Users\<NAME>

All this seems ok but I can only get to the Preferences Location by manual navigation. Hovering over the button in Preferences does show the correct path to the location, but actually clicking the button takes me to Desktop in File Explorer.

I noticed that some application icons in the Start Menu have a right-click option of 'Open File Location'. I tried that, and it too lands me on Desktop in Explorer after briefly flashing up another page.

I tried using Windows System File Checker to repair missing or corrupted files, but it found no fault. Sadly, though, it has screwed up OBS and Elgato Streamdeck settings, which I'll have to reconstruct.

So, I'm pretty hacked off with Windows at the moment and wish I'd never noticed the difficulty in getting to the Preferences location.

Unless someone has a real easy killer solution, I'll live with the minor aggravations.

[KevinH]

You can of course set a Windows Environment Variable (SIGIL_PREFS_DIR) to force Sigil to use the exact path you want. You should not need to do this but it will work as all code in Sigil uses that DefinePrefs routine I posted for you earlier to build the proper path to Preferences.