# Gramps is blocked

**URL:** <https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-is-blocked/4220>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 24, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-is-blocked/4220 "2023-09-24T16:03:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Uranzu](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/uranzu/32/3293_2.png) [@Uranzu](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Uranzu)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-is-blocked/4220/1 "2023-09-24T16:03:45Z")

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Hi, I am using Gramps 51 under linux, KDE Neon 5.27  
Normally I start Gramps with the diagrams tab or relations tab, which are the most used by me. Today while I was running the program I switched to the main board tab, then an empty board appeared and everything got blocked.  
I restarted the computer, installed all system pending updates, but the problem does not disappear. Now each time I open Gramps I just see the empty board tab, everything seems to be frozen, and I am unable to do anything. I also tried to open previous backups but nothing changes.  
Thanks for your help!

 ![Screenshot_20230924_175901](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/b/bcdaf6183e58d2a9a92217a9d8dd3f294f60ebc0.png)

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**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-is-blocked/4220/2 "2023-09-24T16:32:01Z")

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It seems likely that your preferences file(s) has somehow become corrupted.

Notice that your screen-capture shows 2 categories ( **Tabelro** /Dashboard and **Personas** /People) are highlighted in the Navigator sidebar. Normally only 1 (the Active view) is highlighted after a click on the Navigator sidebar. This indicates that there is a problem switching between these categories.

You will have to clean the corruption manually. Restarting (or even reinstalling) will not resolve this kind of issue.

- You have to do a manual edit of the `gramps.ini` file. (You _could_ delete this file. But it contains preferences that are easy to overlook. Simply delete the block starting with `[interface]`)
- delete the `.ini` files (the main, sidebar and bottombar initialization files) related to both of the 2 affected views.

For the Gramps 5.1.x versions, these are in the `gramps51` sub-directory of the [Gramps User Directory](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Gramps_Glossary#user_directory).

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/e/e0e23f859b89e4bf9a8bf4942122e1a15fb946d3.png)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/2ac1e712b7adf612e31ca08a55419f4cf37c0158.png) [@system](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 4:33pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-is-blocked/4220/3 "2023-10-24T16:33:03Z")

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