I had about 20 modules loaded in my library. Lately they have all vanished. I then reloaded just three more modules to see if they would work. They did. Now, one day later, they have vanished.
The modules themselves are not deleted, only the splash screen where you have to load them. What I then do is point to wear the vessel module I want to play is and the game plays OK. But what is causing the vessel library to not populate the modules that I have loaded?
Version 3.7.15
Mac Version
We have been trying to get someone experiencing this issue to help assist in troubleshooting it literally for years. Not a single person has ever followed through to the point where the reason for this can be determined.
How would you describe your technical capability on MacOS? Do you know what the Terminal is and how to perform some basic commands in it? Do you know how to use the Finder to navigate to specific folders (the key ones at issue here are by default hidden)?
Ultimately, the goal here is to get a copy of your VASSAL preferences from before your list of used modules is wiped and compare it to what that preferences file looks like after the list disappears.
I am computer literate so maybe I can help with this. As long as it is not tooo complicated. I still donât know what is causing this and this occurred only recently as I have been using Vassal for years.
OK, the fastest way to navigate to where you need to be in your home directory is likely just using Finder itself, not Terminal. In Finder, use the Go menu in the omnipresent bar along the top of your screen, and in that menu choose âGo to Folderâ.
That should bring up a prompt where you can start typing a location on the filesystem. Underlined in yellow is what you must enter:
It must identical to thatâcharacter for character. You cannot omit the tilde (~) at the start.
~/Library/Application Support/VASSAL/prefs
Hit enter. It should bring up a window containing a variety of filesâpreferences for every module youâve ever opened on this computer, and crucially, VASSALâs global preferences: the file V_Global. Itâs this file that needs to be inspected. Make a copy of it and paste it somewhere (e.g., your Desktop) while you still have a list of modules in the module manager view in VASSAL (i.e., nothingâs disappeared yet). The next time the list gets wiped and it shows no modules, return to this location and make another copy of V_Global so it can be compared to the âgoodâ one.
I am also a Mac user. I havenât experienced this issue, but if I had, after learning which file is to be observed, I would use the Time Machine app to retrieve earlier backed up copies of that file, in order to expose the changes of interest.
If xlegion also has periodic file backups configured, perhaps the before and after versions of the prefs file are already available.
Hey Jim
That sounds like a good way to start but Iâm afraid I donât have enough âexpertiseâ to find out âwhereâ that file would be nor how to contrast it.
@Joel: I think your âmethodologyâ is probably the âbestsâ solution to solving this mystery. I followed your instructions implicitly and got to the point where I could âseeâ which modules were listed. It only listed âtwoâ when there are in fact about 20.
Unfortunately, I donât know what to do about it. The âlocationâ seems to be correct but at least you have given me some tools to solve the mystery.
Thank you.
OK, I completely removed Vassal from the Mac. I did not move the location where I stored the actual Vassal Modules. I re-installed Vassal and then loaded up 3 modules as a test. I noticed that THIS time, I had to key in my name and pass word etcâŚNo surprise there. However, BEFORE when the modules did not show up and I re-loaded them from their locations I DID NOT have to put in my name and password.
So, Iâm thinking that THIS time it may work. I will only know after a day or so as I populate Vassal with more modules and see if they show up.
I sure hope so. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe something got âcorruptedâ and this was the only way to fix it easily.
Thanks guys.
All this is to be expected. Removing and reinstalling VASSAL is not a solution to this issue. Please review the procedures I provided. Thatâs the only way this can get investigated. We need your VASSAL preferences file both when your list of modules is still present and then a second copy of the file immediately after the list of modules has emptied.
Every single time previously that someone has come forward with this issue, they refuse to follow the troubleshooting procedure and just go freelancing in some other direction, and no progress is made. I really donât get it!
Butting in here for a moment⌠do you keep your module files on DropBox (specifically) or some other storage?
Vassal does a validation check on the files in the local module library and drops those that donât pass the test. I experience this problem from time to time and Iâve wondered if the module files can get locked temporarily by other software - cloud storage being an obvious example - causing validation failures.
No, I keep them in a sib folder called âVassal Modulesâ. These have always remained intact and I have not moved them.
As I mentioned above, I took vassal off of the Mack entirely and reloaded it. I have since added three modules and when I start them up they work fine. The first time I load them I have to use my name and password after that everything seems to be OK.
So I will observe the modules over the next few days, keep adding to them and see if the library remains preserved. Remain hopeful as my gut feeling is that it will be OK now because I had to put my name and password in all over again Weir before I did not.
But your theory about keeping the modules in the cloud or something also makes sense. But in my case, it is not applicable.
Thanks for the reply.
Per @JoelCFC25âs advice, reloading Vassal wonât have fixed this files disappearing issue. Itâs a transient problem, unfortunately. Which is why itâs been so hard to pin down. It will likely happen again sometime, hopefully not soon.
As for entering your username and passwords again - that is required if you re-install Vassal.
OK, well, we will see. I am a Vassal user for years now and this has never come up before. It just came out of nowhere.
On this point I donât agree. Nothing about removing VASSAL and reinstalling it should ever alter or remove the per-module preference files in ~/Library/Application Support/VASSAL/prefs.
I donât have enough programming knowledge to argue with you. All I know is that for the âshort termâ it has worked. However, maybe a week or so ahead in time, it may all come back. Only time will tell.
Oh, I did not know that this was such an elusive problem but I do regularly experience it and it seems linked to this validation check because everytime I had the emptied Vassal library problem, it was because the external hard drive where my modules are stored disconnected while Vassal was running (usb plug is a little bit loose and cats/child have a way to mess with this at the wrong time). I thought this was expected behavior for some reason. If not, well I could help by doing it on purpose⌠Just tell me if it sounds like the same bug.
Pretty much the same issue.
Vassal modules will be updated typically by being superseded by a file with a different name. The user is expected to have deleted the older file, when theyâve done with it, and then the module library keeps itself in line. Thatâs the useful side of this feature.
So, Iâm thinking itâs not so much a bug but, maybe, environmental factors undermine the intention - such as your loose drive connection, unreliable connections to network or cloud storage or software behaviour with equivalent effect of making a file unavailable when Vassal checks.
The only âpatternâ that I can detect is a âdailyâ one. In other words when I add modules âthat dayâ, they all seem to work perfectly fine, even with re-booting the computer and/or just opening and closing vassal. BUT, the next day all of them will be missing again. So, I donât know how to trouble shoot this problem, but it only started a week ago and I have used Vassal for over 10 years.
Here you are then⌠In the interest of science and bug squashing, I voluntarily trashed my Vassal collection again.
Here are 3 V_Global files: https://nextcloud.nicolasblanchart.be/index.php/s/2agaMYYtw4pHfA6
The âbeforeâ one is the initial situation before the HDD disconnection.
The âhdd disconnectedâ one is after the HDD disconnection and a Vassal restart.
The âafter hdd connected againâ is after the HDD reconnection and a Vassal restart.
I think 2 and 3 are the same. You can see that only two modules remains from state 1: those where not on my external hdd but on the internal one in the windows download folder (I just quickly saved them there to check how they were made with no intention to keep them). I had forgotten about those two but the fact they were still there proved very useful to determine that what happens here is linked to the fact that Vassal cannot find the vmod when it restarts then delete them from its library.
Maybe change this to a user preference setting instead of automatically doing it this way ?
If nothing else, I thank you for being the very first user of the many who have reported this problem to actually follow through on producing the requested information!
