Fetch Softworks

Help - Lost All Existing Shortcuts (30 posts)

• Started 15 years ago by blawrimore
• Latest reply 14 years ago from Scott McGuire

• blawrimore Member

  I downloaded and launched Fetch 5.3 and found it had deleted all my old shortcuts. This is agony. I copied my earlier version of Fetch (pre-Leopard) from my Time Machine but still the shortcuts are gone. What can I do to get them back?

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  This is not normal behavior for Fetch 5.3, and when upgrading, Fetch should have preserved your older shortcuts so that your older version of Fetch could find them again.

  Which version of Fetch were you upgrading from?

  Hopefully you can get a copy of your shortcuts from before the upgrade out of Time Machine, and we can help you make them work with Fetch 5.3.

  But let us know which version of Fetch you were upgrading from in order for us to give the best advice.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• blawrimore Member

  My previous version was 5.2.1. I dragged it out of time machine and dropped it on my desktop, but when it launches I get the 5.3 interface and no shortcuts. What file are shortcuts stored in?
  Thanks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Hi,

  Fetch 5.2.1 and 5.3 store shortcuts in the

  Home > Library > Preferences > com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist

  file. I.e. go to your home folder, then to the Library folder, then the Preferences folder.

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• blawrimore Member

  "They are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry fetchsoftworks."

  I may be able to pull them from my old iMac but the preferences saved by the Time Machine are no good. Thanks for coaching me. I got the ball.

  Buck

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Buck,

  We have not said that they were gone forever; it is possible that we cannot recover them, but there are still a couple of things to try.

  One important thing to be aware of when attempting to restore the shortcuts from a backup is that you must be sure Fetch is quit and not running when you restore the shortcuts.

  So I would try the following:

  * Quit Fetch.
  * Restore the oldest copy of the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist that is stored in Time Machine (I believe you can restore from certain dates in Time Machine; restore from the oldest possible date where that file exists).
  * Run Fetch 5.3 again.

  If your shortcuts still do not show up after this, you should restore the shortcuts plist from Time Machine again, and email the shortcuts file to us at:

  bb at fetchsoftworks dot com

  and we will see if we can recover the shortcuts.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• blawrimore Member

  Thanks for the great service attitude. I just emailed you the old preferences file which the new app seems to overwrite at launch. Or something.
  Buck

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Buck,

  We have received your preferences file and will take a look.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• blawrimore Member

  Thanks Scott. I'll be waiting to hear back.
  Buck

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Ginna Member

  I accidentally poured lemonade into my computer and, big surprise, it died. Now on my new computer I've downloaded and installed Fetch 5.5.2. I tried pulling com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist from my backup. When Fetch wasn't open, I plunked that file in the proper place in Library > Preferences, but the shortcuts aren't coming back. Can you help, please? What else should I try?

  Thanks.
  Ginna

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Ginna,

  The first thing to double-check is to make sure you put the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist in the Library > Preferences folder inside your home folder, not the other Library > Preferences folder that you'll find by double-clicking your hard drive's icon.

  Please do the following:

  * Make sure Fetch is not running.
  * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Home"
  * Open the Library folder
  * Open the Preferences folder
  * Copy the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist file from your backup into that folder, replacing any shortcuts file of the same name that might be there.
  * Try running Fetch again, and see if your shortcuts appear.

  I apologize if this sounds obvious, but I want to check the simplest solution first before we investigate further. If you're still not seeing your shortcuts after doing this, please let us know.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Ginna Member

  Thanks, Scott. Unfortunately, that didn't work. (I had put the shortcuts.plist in my user folder, but when I moved it to the higher-level library folder and reopened Fetch, it still didn't work. More ideas? Tnx.

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Ginna,

  Just to be clear, the Shortcuts plist needs to go in Home > Library > Preferences . It will not work in any other location. I'm not sure if you're saying that's where you moved it to, or if you moved it somewhere else.

  If you want to email us the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist from your backup, we will take a look and see if we can figure out why it might not be showing up when you open Fetch 5.5.2. Please attach it to an email to bugs@fetchsoftworks.com .

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Ginna Member

  Hi Scott. To confirm: Yes, it's in Home > Library > Preferenes. I'll send you the file to see if you can solve the mystery. Many thanks@

  Ginna

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Ginna,

  Okay, we'll be on the lookout for the email with the attached file. (If you sent it already, let us know - we haven't received it as of this morning.)

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Ginna Member

  I sent it right after I posted. I just sent it again 30 seconds ago. My emails often land in people's junk folder. (My return address is @wormlips.com)

  I'll stay tuned for your reply. Many thanks.

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Ginna,

  Unfortunately, neither of your emails seems to have made it to us - not even in the junk folder.

  Could you please upload the file to our FTP server instead? Here's what to do:

  Open Fetch.

  Connect using the following information:

  Hostname: ftp.fetchsoftworks.com
  Username: (leave empty)
  Password: (leave empty)

  Once you're connected, you'll see an "incoming" folder. Drag and drop the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist file from your backup to the "incoming" folder icon.

  Please note that you can't open the incoming folder - it's a dropbox, which means you can put files in it but can't look in it or modify the files afterwards.

  Let me know once you've done this, and I'll go download the file and take a look at it.

  Sorry for the bother.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Ginna Member

  Scott,

  I believe you'll find the files there now. I put up two, just in case something was funky with the second.

  Thanks!

  Ginna

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Ginna,

  Yes, I found the files and have downloaded them, thanks.

  Were you trying to restore your shortcuts (that appear under the pop-up menu with a heart icon and in the Fetch Shortcuts window), or your recent connections (that appear under the pop-up menu with a clock icon)?

  I ask because the shortcuts file (com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.Shortcuts.plist) you uploaded is empty; it does not have any shortcuts in it, which would explain why you didn't see any shortcuts after you copied it to the new Macintosh.

  However, the other file you uploaded - com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.plist, your Fetch preferences file - has a list of recent connections for a variety of different servers in it.

  So I think you should try the following and see if it does what you want:

  * Make sure Fetch is not running.
  * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Home"
  * Open the Library folder
  * Open the Preferences folder
  * Copy the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.plist file from your backup into that folder, replacing any file of the same name that might be there.
  * Try running Fetch again, and look at the recent connections pop-up menu (the button with the clock icon in the New Connection window) and see if the information you're looking for is there.

  Let me know if that does what you wanted or not.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Edited 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  I'm using Fetch 4.0.3. Today, all of a sudden my shortcuts were gone. They all worked fine yesterday. When I open Fetch and try to access the Shortcuts list, I get "Error -50". I can't make new shortcuts. I read the forum topic about this and saw that perhaps there is a way you can restore them using a plist file? I looked at this file in BBEdit and it looks nearly barren. I don't have Time Machine or a back up of this file that I know of. I am thinking of upgrading to 5.5, but will this bring my shortcuts back? I need help soon or I'm going to have to rebuild a lot of shortcuts. KC

  Edited 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Keith,

  Which version of Mac OS X are you using?

  Have you tried restarting your Mac and seeing if that fixes the problem?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Edited 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  I'm on OS 10.4.11 and I have restarted and it did not fix the problem.

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Keith,

  Please try the following; this will not recover your shortcuts (we will still see if that is possible), but will help us narrow the problem.

  * Make sure you have quit Fetch.
  * Click the desktop background to select the Finder.
  * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Home"
  * Open the Library folder
  * Open the Preferences folder
  * Find the Fetch Shortcuts file, and move it to the Desktop. Do not throw away this file.
  * Try opening Fetch and accessing the shortcuts list and making a new shortcut. Do you still get the -50 error?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  Same error -50 when I relaunch Fetch and choose Window/Fetch Shortcuts. When I choose Customize/New Shortcut I simply get the "bant" sound that means, "no dice, dude" However, I can access recent connections and it will connect to those as long as I know the PW. KC

  Edited 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Keith,

  Okay, hang on to that shortcuts file that is now on your Desktop - your shortcuts may still be in it.

  Actually, could you email it to us and we'll check to see if the shortcuts are still in there?

  * Select the Fetch Shortcuts file on your Desktop.
  * Go to the File menu, and choose Creative Archive.
  * This will create a file named Fetch Shortcuts.zip.
  * Email the file to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com .

  And then the next thing I'd like you to try is to download and install a fresh copy of Fetch 4.0.3. You can download it from here:

  http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/download/Fetch_4.0.3.dmg

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Edited 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  I've got the new version on my machine...it didn't "install" but the dmg opened and I supplanted the old copy with the new. ( I moved the old version to the desktop) and I sent you the file. Thanks for your help with this!

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  New copy of Fetch yeilds same error. KC

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Keith,

  Thanks for trying the new copy of Fetch 4.0.3 and letting us know the results.

  We received the file you sent, however, the file I was looking for (and that you should have moved out of your Preferences folder) is named "Fetch Shortcuts" not "com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.plist". The com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.plist file is the preferences file for Fetch 5 (not Fetch 4.0.3) and it does not contain your shortcuts. The Fetch 4 shortcuts file has the name "Fetch Shortcuts".

  So, backing up a bit, when I asked you earlier to move your Fetch Shortcuts file to your desktop, did you move the one that is named "Fetch Shortcuts"?

  If not, could you please try these instructions again?

  * Make sure you have quit Fetch.
  * Click the desktop background to select the Finder.
  * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Home"
  * Open the Library folder
  * Open the Preferences folder
  * Find the file named Fetch Shortcuts, and move it to the Desktop. Do not throw away this file.
  * Try opening Fetch and accessing the shortcuts list and making a new shortcut. Do you still get the -50 error?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Keith Member

  Ah, sorry about that...my brain was holding on to the instructions above in this string (advice for 5 no less). Now I can access the shortcuts list, no error. What next?

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Keith,

  Okay, thanks for trying that. This indicates that the shortcuts file is the source of the problem.

  If you could email it to us, we'll take a look and see if we can recover anything from it. Here are the instructions again:

  * Select the Fetch Shortcuts file on your Desktop.
  * Go to the File menu, and choose Creative Archive.
  * This will create a file named Fetch Shortcuts.zip.
  * Email the file to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com .

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #