Dunno if you’ve been monitoring the support threads but, since the 6.0 release, there have been a surge of lost databasepath preferences.
Users here and on Reddit report the same problem.
It is relatively simple to resolve (with a quick detour into exploring the recent-file.xml). But WHY is it happening?
The loss of preferences values might extend beyond the Databasepath… but one’s trees being not visible will be the most blatant symptom. And people using the feature to re-open the last tree might not even notice that.
It probably only affects users who have CHANGED from the default too. So that cuts the potential reports further and makes this surge more concerning.
Maybe these people having problems are related to Environmental Variables that were set in previous experiments and are only just now affecting the 6.0 upgrades?
I intalled 6.0 to test (have not made the switch to actually use 6.0) but 6.0 set up the user version folder and recognized the database folder in my user folder set by GRAMPSHOME.
We are talking about the databasepath in the Family Tree tab of Gramps Edit → Preferences
Their 5.2 gramps.ini value is reportedly not being converted to their 6.0 install.
For instance, let’s explore another far-fetched speculation :
A lot of people might have been using the “Remember last Family Tree” and might not have had a valid databasepath for a while. But a problem would have only manifested when upgrading because the “Remember” option was ignored.
Sorry, I often make “indirect” comment. In my mind, the path is stored into a XML file. How recent paths set into this ‘possible’ dedicated XML file are handled?
Media paths ARE stored in the XML archival files and the Gramps Data Model
But the databasepath is stored externally in the gramps.ini file and loaded into the live SQLite database files. (I find Gramps Environmental Variables to be very conceptually challenging. Specifically unclear is: when each variable’s values are applied into the Gramps environment.)
Yes, as I was repeatedly explaining where to find the recent-files-gramps.xml and how to parse it, I wished that there was an easier way.
It is reminiscent of the Recent-Items addon by @kku for Select Object dialogs. It would be nice if a pull-down menu could be built from the folders recent-files-gramps.xml list of unique paths. Or, more accurately, one level up from those folders. (Since modifying the Gtk File Chooser probably is not an option, so maybe adding a menu to the field in Preferences?)
