The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

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swishchee
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:57 pm

The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

Post by swishchee »

Hello,

I'm not sure how to report on this problem. I am using Everything in a work environment which has very large network folder. I added the network as a folder (mapped to the Z drive) and I set the database to my desktop (the most local storage I have, that isn't marred with server synchronization issues).

Upon running Everything the first time, it was able to build a db file in the folder specified. I deleted that db file and wanted to force a rebuild, since that happened before I mapped the Z:\. However, on every subsequent time running Everything, it simply cannot rebuild or add to the file. It just hangs at "Scanning Z:\..." and the task manager shows no memory or CPU use for the program beyond idling. The folder for the database file remains empty, and the program itself doesn't seem to take up any more memory than it had at idle. That's why I concluded that it just froze.

I have a feeling it might have to do with read/write permissions, but I have not found a good way to investigate how different volumes are treated by Everything. I can access all of these directories just fine, even without admin privs. The program itself is running without admin privs.
raccoon
Posts: 1017
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:24 am

Re: The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

Post by raccoon »

Make sure you give Everything permission to run its background Service. This creates a secondary Everything.exe running process with NT_AUTHORITY\SYSTEM level privileges.

Make sure that the folder your Everything.ini settings are in has User level write permissions. If Everything cannot write its settings and db files, it cannot save these between sessions. You can experiment by unzipping Everything.exe from Everything.zip to a folder in your Documents folder, or to a thumb drive, or to a program path that is not under the write-protected "C:\Program Files *\" path. The installation-and-settings directory I use is "C:\Portable\Everything\".

Normally when you use the Everything installer, it will install the program correctly to the Program Files directory, and store your settings correctly in the Users\AppData folder. But if you're on a company computer and installed the program as an Administrator, the settings might have been installed to the Administrator User folder, and that's no good for you. So a Portable (unzipped) install might work best for you.
void
Developer
Posts: 16678
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

Post by void »

Please make sure Everything is running as a standard user (otherwise Everything will be unable to see your network drive):
  • In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
  • Click the General tab on the left.
  • Check Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything (without this Everything might not be saving your database to disk)
  • Uncheck Run as administrator.
  • Check Everything Service. (Please make sure this is tick-checked and not square-checked)
  • Click OK.
  • Exit Everything (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).
  • Restart Everything.

The database is stored in memory.
The Everything.db is saved to disk when you exit Everything.



Please check the indexing progress in the debug console:
  • In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
    /debug
    This will show the debug console.
  • Type in the following search and press ENTER:
    /verbose
    Everything will show the current folder being indexed in Green text.
Does Everything appear to get stuck on a single folder?
Is indexing just really slow?


To close the debug console:
  • In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
    /debug


-If indexing is really slow, please make sure folder_update_thread_mode_background is disabled:
  • In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
    /folder_update_thread_mode_background=0
  • If successful, folder_update_thread_mode_background=0 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.
swishchee
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:57 pm

Re: The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

Post by swishchee »

Hello,
I did all of the steps you listed at the beginning, then restarted.

The memory usage never seemed to expand for everything.exe. However, the debug console seems to show that it is indeed scanning and not getting stuck on a single folder. I see the memory expand to somewhere in the 100-200MB range, then it drops to around 20 MB, then repeats. I'm guessing that it's attempting to write what's stored in memory into some file somewhere. The problem is, however, that there is no everything.db saved to disk anywhere I've looked, after I close everything.exe. Am I looking in the wrong place?

I also did folder_update_thread_mode_background=0 and the status bar indeed showed that it = 0, but nothing seemed to change about the relatively normal-looking scan that was occurring in the debug console.

The only thing that updated was everything.ini, in the same directory that was specified for everything.db to be placed. If it had permissions to change the everything.ini, you'd think it would also have permissions to add everything.db to the same directory.

Maybe I'm still ignorant as to how the software works, but, so far, I'm not seeing any possible way that scan information is being stored, either in memory or in a passive file. Maybe I'm continuing to look in the wrong place for the db.

In the debug console, while the program itself was minimized/closed, it seemed to just be scanning through different directories without issue. When I had the GUI open, I was receiving the following message periodically between the scan location updates that I've been unable to interpret:

MSG: 000000000006085a 0113 000000000000002d 0000000000000000
void
Developer
Posts: 16678
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: The software cannot create an index db file anywhere.

Post by void »

Thank you for your reply swishchee,

The Everything database is stored in memory.
The Everything.db is only written to disk when you exit Everything (File -> Exit)
If you click File -> Exit, is your Everything.db written to disk? (the default location is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Everything )

If Everything does not have write permission to the database location you should see the following message:

Unable to write to database location: c:\folder

Please choose another database location.



The folder_update_thread_mode_background=0 change will not take effect until the next rescan.


MSG: 000000000006085a 0113 000000000000002d 0000000000000000
This is normal.
0113 is a timer event.


In the debug console, while the program itself was minimized/closed, it seemed to just be scanning through different directories without issue.
Did the rescan complete?
Is Indexing still shown in the status bar?
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