Any way to stop losing my library of modules

Technical Support & Bugs
22

Hi Christian

I’m on Windows 11. I didn’t get any errors during the update to .24. the modules just weren’t there when I opened Vassal after the update. I’ll check on the files you listed when I’m at home tonight.

Regards,
Gary Vander Ploeg

23

Hi Christian,

As I said earlier I’m using Windows 11 and VASSAL version 3.7.24. Upon opening VASSAL after updating to the new version the library was blank.

Here’s what shows in the V_Global file:

Modules=D:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleetv2.0b.vmod,D:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleet_Upgrade_+_Expansion.vmod,D:\VASSAL Modules\5th_Fleet.vmod,

That’s just a few of the first modules. The location is correct (on D:\VASSAL Modules) but I’m not sure about all the double ‘\’

24

It would be helpful to have the entire contents of the V_Global file, as well as an errorLog from a run where the problem occurs.

25

It seems like you are storing your modules in the D: drive.

  • Is that a partition on your hard-disk, or is it some external drive? You seem to indicate that it is a partition on your main hard-disk, but I want to make sure.
  • Have you checked that that drive is actually mounted? I.e., that it is available.

Try, for example, to direct your File Explorer to that drive and sub-directory: D:\VASSAL Modules. Also check if the file D:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleetv2.0b.vmod

In what you quoted, I do not see any double \. Perhaps, open the V_Global file with Notepad or similar, select the whole text (typically Ctrl-A), copy it (Ctrl-C), and then paste (Ctrl-V) into a message here. Make sure to put three back ticks (```) before and after so that the text comes out as-is.

If you want to quote text in-line as-is, use a single back tick before and after, as

about all the double `\`,

becomes

about all the double \

See also How to format forum posts

What is a bit bewildering, is that your V_Global mentions some modules in the Modules= line, but that they are not shown in the Module Manager, not even as grayed out. The change in 3.7.22 should do that.

Again, open the errorLog in Notepad or similar, select everything with Ctrl-A, copy (Ctrl-C), and paste (Ctrl-V) into the message. Remember to put three back ticks (```) before and after so that the text comes out as-is.

For example

```
Foo Bar 
```

becomes

Foo Bar

That makes it much easier to read and thus hopefully diagnose the problem.

Yours,
Christian

26

Word of advice. “The cloud” = “someone else’s computer”

If you’re using “the cloud” as some sort of permanent storage method, YOU are the one setting you up for failure.

“The cloud” can be a sub-optimal backup strategy.

Remember, if you don’t own the computer, and you don’t own the media, then you don’t own the data on it… EVEN IF you’re paying a monthly storage fee.

Why? Because we have seen damn well that for that last 15+ years, tech companies are running on dubious legal theory that a contract is “whatever the company decides it means today,” not what YOU agreed to. An Australian just just bitchslapped Google for this nonsense the other day, as “the company reserves the right to change the terms of this contract” means no contract actually exists at all, so such language is legally invalid. But that doesn’t stop companies from continuing to operate in this manner.

You need back up? Go out, buy yourself a $20 USB adapter for 1 or 2 SATA drives (preferably one with it’s own power supply, and holds the drive in a vertical position with the electrical contacts facing downwards), and throw a SATA drive in it.

For a laptop, but one of the 2.5 inch external drives. You can easily get 1 TB spinning platter drives with USB 2.0 or USB 3.0/USB-C connectors for about $100. And unlike thumb-sized flash-drives, they’re NOT easily lost. And the laptop HDD inside is easily replaced if you need to do so at some future date).

Anyway, with an actual spining disk HDD, you get easily 3x as much storage as any flash-based memory (USB memory stick, or semi-permanently mounted SSD or NVM sticks in place of disk drives) for the same amount of money even at the 1 TB size, and they are FAR FAR FAR more reliable than flash, especially for any device in which there are ANY files which are written to repeatedly, even if only appended to, not overwritten. (Log files being written to on SSD, flash stick, or M1/M2/M3 NVM will wear them out and making them unusable as quickly as a few MONTHS…whereas spinning rust can handle that for literally decades. My current desktop machine currently has an 18-year old disk drive installed inside.
SMART (“Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology”) statistics on the disk’s controller indicate that the disk is still doing fine. I’m not hearing any bearing noise, and only a few hundred sectors have been relocated… which is typical even for brand new disks.

If this same disk had been an SSD, the mere 1.5 years I’ve owned it, logging activity from the Linux system installed on the computer would have worn out the flash memory’s rather limited (approx 10,000x) capacity for being rewritten… EVEN WITH the “wear levelling” that is standard for all Flash devices to stave off device failure caused by errors “too many writes during the device lifetime” (it’s caused by electrons getting trapped in insulation material in transistors which make up the memory cells, leaving them permanently stuck in a 1 or 0 state (depending on the implementation logic details), which a few here and there can be corrected by internal error-detecting-and-correcting codes (basically, a more extravagant variation of parity bits), but eventually, such stuck states overwhelm even the error-correction capabilities, and the device changes an internal storage bit to “this device is now read-only” and even then, God Help You to get all your data out of it without having to resort to tools such as the Linux-world data recovery tools such as “ddrescue” or it’s cousin, “dd_rescue”, which may have to run for days or even weeks to recover the data off of a device which, normally, can be completely read and copied to another device, bit for bit, in an hour or two.

27

Hi Christian,

You’re right I am storing my modules on drive D:, although VASSAL is also installed to that drive. The drive is a regular internal HDD and is accessible. I figured it might be easier to just attach the two files.

(Attachment errorLog is missing)

(Attachment V_Global is missing)

28

You can only attach images to a post, and they are recognised through file magic, not extension, so you can not fool the forum code by renaming the files.

You need to copy the content of the files I and paste that into the post. Put ``` before and after to make them come out verbatim - makes them easier to read. See also above.

Yours,
Christian

29

Hi Christian,
I forgot these are going through the forum. Here are the two file contents:

First: V_Global:

#Thu Apr 23 21:48:02 EDT 2026
BoundsOfModuleManager=222,86,1420,1446
HTMLChatColor=0,0,102
HTMLgameMessage1Color=0,0,0
HTMLgameMessage2Color=0,153,51
HTMLgameMessage3Color=153,0,0
HTMLgameMessage4Color=153,0,153
HTMLgameMessage5Color=0,180,166
HTMLotherChatColor=51,51,255
HTMLsystemMessageColor=102,102,102
Locale=en
Modules=D\:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleetv2.0b.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleet_Upgrade_+_Expansion.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\5th_Fleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Sixth_Fleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\7thFleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AcrossFourOceans_V-1-0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\ATP_VASSAL_1.01.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Aegean_Strike_v.95.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Air_Superiorty_2.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Atlantic_Sentinels_1_0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AAG_2.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AAPacific40.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BoB-42.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BattleOfTheBulgeSmithsonian-1.3.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Battlefleet Mars.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Bismarck.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Bismarck_TheLastBattle_ver1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CV_BattleOfMidway.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CA v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Carrier_v3.0s.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CB_-Philippine_Sea_Ver-1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Clash_of_Carriers.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Clear For Action\Clear for Action.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\D-Day-v3.0a.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Dreadnought v1.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Fast Carriers v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\First Strike v0.3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SPI-Freedom-in-the-Galaxy-v1_3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W66-grafspee.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\GRAND_FLEET.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Gulf_Strike_v2.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Harpoon_Captains_Edition_v1_2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Iron and Fire.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Luftwaffe_8_2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\The Battle of Midway 1942.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BG-Midway Deluxe_V2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\EuropaNavalMediteranean.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\EuropaNavalNorthernEurope.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W87-NetherlandsEastIndies.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\S292-North-Cape-v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Oceans_of_Fire_2023.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\OmahaBeachhead_ver.1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\PQ17v3-1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Picket_Duty_V1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\PlanOrange.1.1.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Red_Storm_Vassal_v4p.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Red_Sun_Rising.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\S311-PacSubs-Rev100.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\STSTCS_3.5.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Scratch_One_Flat_Top.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SilentVictory_v2.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SixthFleet(S-T) v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Solomons-Campaign_V20.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SE_4x_vassal_v3-07.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Target_for_Today_1_3_0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Task Force v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Flight_of_the_Goeben_0.3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tpovs_2.0.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\RN.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\The_War_at_Sea_(Jedko)-v0.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tokyo_express_v.099.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tonnage_War_Solitaire_20.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\USN_V05.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Under 10 Flags.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\UpScope v1 VASSAL.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Victory_at_Sea_(Jedko)-v0.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W96-G2_War Plan Z_V1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\WASL2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W63-CentralPacific-v0_1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\XXI v0.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W46-YamatoUnleashed-v0_2.vmod
PeerAddressBook=
RecentModules=D\:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleetv2.0b.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\2nd_Fleet_Upgrade_+_Expansion.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\5th_Fleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Sixth_Fleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\7thFleet.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AcrossFourOceans_V-1-0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\ATP_VASSAL_1.01.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Aegean_Strike_v.95.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Air_Superiorty_2.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Atlantic_Sentinels_1_0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AAG_2.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\AAPacific40.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BoB-42.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BattleOfTheBulgeSmithsonian-1.3.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Battlefleet Mars.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Bismarck.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Bismarck_TheLastBattle_ver1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CV_BattleOfMidway.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CA v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Carrier_v3.0s.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\CB_-Philippine_Sea_Ver-1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Clash_of_Carriers.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Clear For Action\Clear for Action.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\D-Day-v3.0a.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Dreadnought v1.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Fast Carriers v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\First Strike v0.3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SPI-Freedom-in-the-Galaxy-v1_3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W66-grafspee.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\GRAND_FLEET.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Gulf_Strike_v2.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Harpoon_Captains_Edition_v1_2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Iron and Fire.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Luftwaffe_8_2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\The Battle of Midway 1942.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\BG-Midway Deluxe_V2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\EuropaNavalMediteranean.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\EuropaNavalNorthernEurope.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W87-NetherlandsEastIndies.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\S292-North-Cape-v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Oceans_of_Fire_2023.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\OmahaBeachhead_ver.1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\PQ17v3-1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Picket_Duty_V1.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\PlanOrange.1.1.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Red_Storm_Vassal_v4p.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Red_Sun_Rising.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\S311-PacSubs-Rev100.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\STSTCS_3.5.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Scratch_One_Flat_Top.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SilentVictory_v2.0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SixthFleet(S-T) v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Solomons-Campaign_V20.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\SE_4x_vassal_v3-07.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Target_for_Today_1_3_0.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Task Force v1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Flight_of_the_Goeben_0.3.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tpovs_2.0.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\RN.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\The_War_at_Sea_(Jedko)-v0.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tokyo_express_v.099.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Tonnage_War_Solitaire_20.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\USN_V05.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Under 10 Flags.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\UpScope v1 VASSAL.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\Victory_at_Sea_(Jedko)-v0.1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W96-G2_War Plan Z_V1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\WASL2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W63-CentralPacific-v0_1.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\XXI v0.2.vmod,D\:\VASSAL Modules\W46-YamatoUnleashed-v0_2.vmod
ServerAddressBook=description\=VASSAL Server|type\=official,nodeHost\=localhost|description\=Private Server|type\=private|nodePort\=5050,description\=P2P Network|serverPw\=xyzzy|type\=peer2peer|listenPort\=5050
ServerSelected=\#Thu Apr 23 21\:47\:45 EDT 2026\r\ndescription\=VASSAL Server\r\ntype\=official\r\n
autoVersionCheck=true
badDataAuditTrails=true
converterMaximumHeap=1024
disableD3d=false
mainWindowHeight=-1
mainWindowRemember=true
mainWindowWidth=-1
maximumHeap=512
moduleManagerColumnWidths=352,137,236,113,169
moduleManagerDeveloperInfo=true
moduleManagerDividerLocation=1021
modulesDir=D\:\VASSAL Modules
nextVersionCheck=1667114363853
overrideDefaultFontSize=0
showServerStatus=true
tilerMaximumHeap=12218
translatableSupport=false
wakeUpSound=default
welcomeWizard=true

Next: errorLog:

2021-08-25 18:04:08,631 [0-main] INFO VASSAL.launch.StartUp - Starting
2021-08-25 18:04:08,637 [0-main] INFO VASSAL.launch.StartUp - OS Windows 10 10.0
2021-08-25 18:04:08,637 [0-main] INFO VASSAL.launch.StartUp - Java version 14.0.1
2021-08-25 18:04:08,638 [0-main] INFO VASSAL.launch.StartUp - VASSAL version 3.3.2
2021-08-25 18:04:08,824 [0-AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager - Manager
30

This looks like the wrong errorLog. It’s from Vassal 3.3.2 and has timestamps from 2021.