All custom panels and actions disappeared

[Soom]

All of a sudden, TVPaint appears as if it was just installed. For years I have worked with my custom panels and buttons without loosing them, and now all lost - need to reinstall and recreate all of them again...
TVPaint used to crash on launch a lot for some while, so it might be related. Our tech guy has just reinstalled everything, so I hope it will be fine, but my custom panels are still gone.
Is there any way to preserve the configuration for the future, or somehow restore the lost panels?
My startup option is always "use last used configuration" and it never changed.
I am on PC Windows 7 and TVP 10.5.7 32bit

[Animark]

As I know TVPaint stores all your custom panels in a special "default" folder.
Normally it is located in c:/users/username/AppData/Roaming/tvp animation 10 pro

You can have a look at there. But if your system admin installed the software new, the folder is probably overwritten with a new one.

I use to export my panels always as .TVPX for the case of loosing my default folder.

[Thierry]

As Animark said, you can take a look in the tvp animation 10 pro folder, that's where the configuration are stored.

In general, I would recommand saving your panels as TVPX from time to time, so you don't lose them when reinstalling the software.

[Svengali]

Is there any way to preserve the configuration for the future, or somehow restore the lost panels?

In my experience, I've found it prudent to have regular, multiple backups of the Default folder (and all of its subfolders), along with periodic backups of the current TVPaint folder (and all of its subfolders).

In a case where something like what happened to you happens, you can usually restore a previously backed up, Default folder... and all of your panels, scripts and buttons will be as they were when the Default folder was backed up.

As Animark points out, the Default folder can be found under c:/users/username/AppData/Roaming/tvp animation 10 pro.

Thierry's suggestion to periodically backup any updated custom panels into .tvpx files is also a good practice.

Sven

[Soom]

Thanks for all the help!
Update:
I have checked the 'default' folder, but can't make much of it. Judging by the icon-thumbnails, all files belong to the default TVPaint installation, and in the CustomPanel folder, I didn't even understand how to open them - the *.dip files seem just to be icons...
Reinstalling didn't help - nothing changed, I still have TVPaint crashing occasionally.
We also tried system restore to some previous date - a strange thing happened: the panels were back, but most of the actions were just grey squares, and most of them didn't work.
I am still trying to find a solution, maybe revert some Windows updates (or on contrary - update Windows???)
Anyway, one thing for sure - from the moment I get it right, I will back up my default folder...
Ah, and yes - I do usually save my custom panels and keyboard shortcuts separately, but not all, as I occasionally add and tweak actions here and there... I wish we could be able to export the whole work-space with all the custom buttons and panels...

[nabblakusk]

I was having the same problem but then I found out that if youre in TvPaint go to Costom panels / Load a custom panel... an find a folder named plugins - C:\Program Files (x86)\TVPaint Developpement\TVPaint Animation 11 (32bits)\plugins and find what ever you need with the .bin ending it will load an be good as new. In my case it was the Handy panel I use that allot when adding and breaking instances.
Hope this helps
- nabblakusk

[Soom]

I was having the same problem but then I found out that if youre in TvPaint go to Costom panels / Load a custom panel... an find a folder named plugins - C:\Program Files (x86)\TVPaint Developpement\TVPaint Animation 11 (32bits)\plugins and find what ever you need with the .bin ending it will load an be good as new. In my case it was the Handy panel I use that allot when adding and breaking instances.
Hope this helps
- nabblakusk

Thanks, but we are in 2018 already, so welcome to the future!
in any case, since that event, I always backup the whole Configuration folder, so I never loose any custom stuff.

[Thierry]

I always backup the whole Configuration folder, so I never loose any custom stuff.

That's always a good idea!

[hellofilms]

Which folder is that?

I find a config txt file in the tvpaint 11 default folder.

/ Mattias

[Thierry]

Here are the locations:

Windows : C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\tvp animation 11

Mac : /Users/<username>/Library/tvp animation 11
To access it, click on the Go to menu, then keep the Alt key in: the Library folder will be displayed in the list.

Linux : /home/<username>/.tvp/tvp animation 11
To access it, go in your home folder, then hit CTRL+H to show hidden folders.

[Soom]

Also - it's just a good idea in general to have regular backups of the whole hard disk. I have an external disk attached to my Mac and Time Machine is backing up automatically. If anything is ever lost, I can always go even several months back, and retrieve the lost info. On Windows I used Cobian Backup - it's a free backup software with easy custom settings and many backup options, and just a separate folder for backups on the same hard disk (we didn't have extra hard disks at work, but still it's an effective preventive measure)