DT 5.1.0+23 Windows 11 all my preference settings are lost

Software
1

I have been using DT for a few days on the latest weekly windows build and all was fine for last few days. I then shut it down and when I reopened it later all my preferences seem to have been lost including my import settings, information overlays and sigmoid processing option has reverted to the filmic default. Any suggestions about what might have caused this and is there a quick way to recover or do I just have to reset my preferences.

This seems to be a DB problem as images recently imported are not included in the collection.

2

The workflow settings are not in the DB but in darktablerc.

3

The Lua scripts are still installed but no longer load because the ones I have selected are no remembered. The image information overlays etc displayed in Lighttable and darkroom view are no longer what I setup. The import preferences are no longer setup as I set them and have reverted to the default behaviour. The collections history is no longer available.

So based on this information. What have I screwed up?

4

Check your antivirus software stuff. It might be blocking changes.

5

@g-man I can’t see any blocking occurring from Avast anti-virus. Luckily the database seems intact and I just have to reset preferences and reimport images in to my DT view. I wonder if I shut DT down while it was still exporting an edit as a new file. Would this account for the problem? Are preferences stored in the darktablerc file?

6

Unfortunately this could be the case. There is a not-yet-fixed bug in 5.0 happening if you close dt with background jobs like exporting still running. For now you should close dt after all the background jobs have finished (you can see those as progress bars at the lower left).

7

It sounds like your darktablerc file got corrupted, which could have happened if darktable didn’t exit cleanly and either failed to write the darktablerc file or wrote it corrupted.

8

Thanks @hannoschwalm and @wpferguson. I did shut down when DT seem stuck in a loop doing an export. Strange bit is that next opening all appeared fine, I exported the images giving problem and finished the collection before shutting down as normal. At least the DB was not corrupted and my presets and styles are also safe. Lesson learnt for me. BTW, have a good New Year.