Textpad hangs/crashes when accessing OneDrive

[jkcohen]

Hi! I am finding that TP 9.4.1 does not play well with OneDrive. When I try to open or save a file in OneDrive using TP, there is a minute-long (if not longer) delay, during which the machine may freeze or operate very slowly. I am starting to avoid TP because I can't risk the program crashing and losing an unsaved file. Any help would be gratefully received.

[IanOfYork]

Save your files in a "real" directory — which is later synced with your cloud backup?

[AmigoJack]

Just one topic ago you could have read things to try out. Since "OneDrive" is a network share go for #4 in the following list.

Similar topics:

1. Hang / crash on File Open
2. Save/Save-As Folder List "Jump to" Help/Request
3. Ctrl-A to Open Multiple Files
4. TP 9.1 hangs with network shares after upgrade from 8.15, including "disable .editorconfig file processing on Configure/Preferences/Editor"
5. Bug: TextPad 9 Not Responding
6. long freeze/delays with save on local (C:) drive

Core quotes of potential fixes:

Try avoiding the themed dialog, because 9.x doesn't use Windows' native GUI anymore and as a result the 3rd party GUI provider hasn't fully imitated every aspect.

Toggling the 'Workspace follows active file' OFF and ON again seems to have "fixed" the issue.

Does it make any difference if you disable .editorconfig file processing on Configure/Preferences/Editor?

[bobbydurrett]

I'm having hanging issues with 9.4.1 also. It seems to have the same problem with or without onedrive. What is the best way to revert back to textpad 7?

[AmigoJack]

Download > TextPad 7 still offers 7.6.4 from 2017-03-07.

[bobbydurrett]

Oddly enough it does the same thing with Textpad 7. If I double click on an associated file or a file that is a link it is slow. But if I open a file with textpad it is fast. Also fast command line. Also, if one file is open the second one is fast. Nice. I double click on files through links all day long. I don't know how long I've used Textpad 7 with no problem. I just switched to 9 to get the BOM on UTF-16 files.

[AmigoJack]

Sounds like the combination of OneDrive and Windows' Explorer is the issue, not TextPad. Since at least Windows 7 the Explorer scans most (if not every) selected file(s) for metadata, f.e. picture files to then display in the status bar their dimensions (width and height). But it would be unusual for TXT files, as they never have metadata.

Which file extensions do you open with TextPad and which Windows version do you have?

[bobbydurrett]

Windows 10. I'm just opening .txt files. Worked well yesterday. Now is slow again today. Maybe it is connecting over the internet to some site that Textpad's company owns and it is slow or fast? Not sure. I've been using Textpad 7 on the same laptop for a long time with no issues.

[bbadmin]

First off I'd like to reassure you that the only time TextPad accesses our server is when you run "Check for Updates" from its Help menu. Even that can be disabled using policies as described in the help file.

It's not clear to me whether the slow behavior you're seeing is during the load and save processes, or in the Open/Save As dialog box. If the latter, try setting "Use the standard file open dialog box" on Configure » Preferences » File.

[bobbydurrett]

It is inconsistent, but right now if I double-click on a .txt document on my Windows 10 laptop it is slow. But if I right-click on the same file and choose Open with TextPad it is fast. Maybe it has something to do with file extension associations. Does the same whether the file is in OneDrive or not. This all worked fine for years using TextPad 7, but reverting back to TP 7 temporarily didn't help.

[AmigoJack]

This all worked fine for years using TextPad 7, but reverting back to TP 7 temporarily didn't help.

Don't underestimate that you constantly got Windows updates - one tiny bit in that could be responsible for the "new" behavior - that would also explain why switching the TextPad version alone does not help. If possible, try (temporarily) uninstalling OneDrive and then installing it afresh. I'm very sure TextPad is not the issue (and other programs should suffer from this, too).

[bbadmin]

File Explorer sends DDE messages with the file name to TextPad when you double click a file, whereas is starts a new instance with the file name in its command line when you right click and and choose Open with TextPad. Maybe another application is delaying the DDE messages?

[bobbydurrett]

I don't know. I switched the .txt file association back to notepad and it comes up instantly. But even so if I do an open with textpad on a text file that is through a link it hangs. I use links to text documents all the time so I'm pretty frustrated. Admittedly, TP9 is only $27, so I can't complain.

[AmigoJack]

File Explorer sends DDE messages with the file name to TextPad when you double click a file

Isn't this a configuration in the Registry, where one could easily delete ...\shell\open\ddeexec\? For TextPad 8.4.0 on Win7x64 I don't see this with my associated file extensions, and through the decades I experienced DDE being more of a hassle than an addition. I know Office did/does this, too.

[bobbydurrett]

I think it does have something to do with DDE. My guess is that because I didn't uninstall Textpad 7 before installing TextPad 9 I somehow whacked DDE. There was something about a DDL that disables use of DDE. Is there a way to turn it off in TP 9?