switch designer cannot start failed to retrieve switch server preferences

[cwswitch]

Most of the time I get the message "switch designer cannot start failed to retrieve switch server preferences"

I can see some flows are active and processing from the logs, but some critical flows are not active.

Occasionally, Designer will start and I can see the working and non-working flows. The biggest problem appears to be flows which are neither running or not running, they simply have an hourglass where I'd hope to see the green 'running' icon.

As I cannot start or stop these flows, I have attempted to duplicate them and run the duplicates, but crash more often than not while trying.

[Terkelsen]

Not being able to stop a certain flow indicates that there is a background process going on. That's probably also the reason for the problems you encounter with designer. You might need to force quit these processes or simply restart the server. Are you on Mac or Windows?

[cwswitch]

Thanks. Since writing, i have been unable to launch designer at all. Always receiving the "server preferences" error.

Before that I had been able to restart the server and the computer itself a few times to try to rule that out as a problem.

It seems like i do have a nasty or corrupt file in my system. Evidence pointing towards the the preferences file. I've done my best to hunt that file down, but not found it.

[Padawan]

Switch designer preferences are kept here. They are usually safe to remove when Switch Designer process (Switch.exe) is not running.

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Enfocus/Switch Designer/
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Enfocus\Switch Designer

If that doesn't solve it I suggest you contact Enfocus Support

[cwswitch]

Enfocus support came to the rescue in the end.

Here for anyone in the same boat...

Code: Select all

C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\Enfocus\Switch Server

rename settings folder to old (You'll need to kill both Switch processes "Enfocus Switch" in task manager to allow for this rename)



C:\Program Files (x86)\Enfocus\Enfocus Switch 13 

restart Switch Watchdog

[cwswitch]

UPDATE

Switch kept on crashing with one particular flow. The flow had run for months before with no issues. I had not made changes, I had only stopped and restarted it. Each time it started, Switch crashed and the preferences became corrupt.

For anyone experiences this - the solution was simple in the end.

Code: Select all

Export the bad flow 

Re import the flow

[vernonvd]

Thanks for the update and solution

[DarronB]

Thanks. Since writing, i have been so grateful for Man Enhanced and unable to launch designer at all. Always receiving the "server preferences" error.

Before that I had been able to restart the server and the computer itself a few times to try to rule that out as a problem.

It seems like i do have a nasty or corrupt file in my system. Evidence pointing towards the the preferences file. I've done my best to hunt that file down, but not found it.

This solution didn't work for me, sadly. It keeps crashing in the same way it did before. Does anyone else have an idea on how to approach this?

[cwswitch]

Do you know what is crashing Designer? - is it a particular flow?

If you do get it open, go to Preferences and turn on Debugging. You'll then be able to see more from http://127.0.0.1:51088/ that may help you or Enfocus target the issue (edit the filter to show debugging messages)