Hello,
I have just updated to v11.17 and now all my colour labels have gone - or at least they go for a while, then appear for a couple of seconds then disappear again. It happens so sporadically I can't track how long they stay or go.
I am on Win7 64bit.
Is this only happening in certain folders?
Or with certain labels?
How complex are you label definitions, and amount of labels in use?
I have lots of folders and files labelled - too many to count (if only there was a way to keep track of how many labelled items we have with Dopus!) Since the labels are in the NTFS File System they are not listed in Preferences so I couldn't tell you.
I have only noticed it in a couple of folders with lots of folders and files within them so far, nothing different from the others, as I said, its very random.
Re; Certain labels, not sure what you mean as the labels are only differentiated by colour aren't they? Unless I'm getting them mixed up with something else - I am referring to the way you can highlight a file or folders with different colours. I have a shortcut button on a toolbar to 'Set Label...' to selected items - I love it and use it regularly 
I have reinstalled Dopus, but I have noticed sometimes Dopus 'freezes' and thats when the labels disappear and then reappear again when Dopus unfreezes. So I can't tell if its Dopus or some other process in the background causing it - I have not installed anything else, no Windows Updates, no drivers.
Edit - okay I see what you mean about 'certain labels' - there are two different kinds of labelling, right? The ones that are set under 'Colours and Fonts', like 'Favorites and Compressed etc, those ones are fine, they don't disappear. Its the other one under 'File and Folder Labels' that randomly disappear. They have gone again - all of them. If I try to change the colour or reset it, nothing happens.
So the Labelled files and folders list in Preferences is completely empty? You don't have any wildcard or filter labels, for example, and they are all set directly on specific files/folders?
Yes, exactly that. Sorry I couldn't explain it properly lol.
What I mean is there was nothing in the list before, all the files and folders that I set the coloir labels to, the colour labels are gone from them (the files and folders are still there but the colour labels on them keep disappearing). If I try to colour them again, nothing happens and then all of a sudden, the colour flashes on again for a few seconds and then disappears again - all the items that I've set. I went to all the folders and files I've coloured to see if its happening to all of them - it does.
Does the problem still happen after setting Preferences / Miscellaneous / Advanced: no_external_change_notify = True ?
I'll give that a try.
Will that affect metadata set by external programs for images and music files?
So far so good, the labels are staying put
What does that option do exactly?
It makes Opus ignore changes that other programs make.
It isn't a long-term solution, but it tells us the labels were vanishing probably because another program or component keeps changing the files you are looking at, non-stop.
It could be that the change is triggered by Opus inspecting the files, and is happening because a shell extension is modifying the files every time Opus or Windows asks for details of them (which should not cause changes, but some shell extensions are badly written).
It could also be various other things which might be scanning and touching the files.
I would probably use Process Monitor to see which processes are modifying the files in question, or the folders they are in. It can also identify the cause down to a component level, in case it is a shell extension.
If you generate a Process Monitor log that includes file activity, then save it into PML format (don't use the CSV option, it won't include needed data), you can zip the log and email it to leo@gpsoft.com.au and I'll see if anything stands out.
I've noticed a side-effect to this solution, when downloading or adding a program or file from the internet, cloud backup etc, is that the item doesn't show up in the lister until I press F5 to refresh it. This won't be a long term solution then lol.
I have monitored processes with Process Monitor as you said - its a good little program, I've used it before - and I can see it is my file backup program (KLS Backup) doing its volume shadow backups/increment backups but it was never this sensitive in the last version of Dopus to affect the colour labels like that, so some of your changes are affecting things differently - though they are all good changes, which is why I didn't hesitate in updating as soon as I was notified.
I'll switch my backup program to manual backups for now, but I hope this will be a temporary setup as I really need my regular backups and I want to change that advanced option back to False.
A backup tool should not normally be modifying the files it is backing up in any way, so I'd say something strange is going on there if that is what is happening.
Thats the only thing I can think of, even though its the same program I've been running for years. If its not that, then I don't know what else it can be. I'll just manage with it, hopefully it will work itself out. Thank you
We can look at the logs if you want a second pair of eyes.
The gap between the colour labels appearing and disappearing seem to be getting shorter, which is a good thing - at least I know thery're still there and not gone for good and I have to redo them lol.
If something is interfering with them in the background, I don't know what it is but it's not so bad now.
Re Process Monitor, not sure what process I should set it to monitor (Dopus?) to generate a log, but whatever you suggest I'll try
All processes, since the aim is to find out which unknown process is triggering all the change events.
I'm not sure if I'm using this program (Process Monitor) wrong, as I don't know how to monitor ALL processes, I've only ever used it to monitor one filtered process in the past.
Everytime I start it, a box pops up to ask me to enter a process in the filter. How do I set it to monitor everything?
It monitors everything by default, excluding a few things like itself. If you specify an exe to monitor then it will only monitor that one.
Click the Reset button, top-left of the filter dialog, and it will reset the filter to the defaults and monitor (almost) everything, which is usually appropriate.
I have generated a couple of logs and I saved them to.PML format but the files are huge! One of them is 4GB and the smaller one is 2.63GB. I'm sure you wouldn't want me to email those lol. Are they usually that size?
As small as this program is (Process Monitor), its not very intuitive so I don't know if I used it right.
I do appreciate your patience in helping me, even though the problem seems to be correcting itself - its not as bad as it was.
I am curious as to what process could be running in the background causing the colour labels to flash on and off, but this Process Monitor is more trouble than its worth lol.
Let me know if sending you these logs is worth it, or how I could make them smaller.