Export error because of previous chapter

I installed HearThis on my colleague’s computer and put in the localization translations for Portuguese from my computer. When he records a chapter (Genesis 13, for example), and tries to export the media it gives an error saying "Sorry, the program made some mistake… O acesso ao caminho ‘C:\Users\TIB\Documents\HearThis-Kay\mp3\001012Genesis 12.mp3’ foi negado. (Access to the path ___ was denied). It only allows us to export Genesis 13 if we delete by hand all the recordings from other chapters (in this case, Genesis 12) from the program (not the destination folder). Then it lets us export. But the next day when we record the next chapter and try to export again it’s the same problem with the previous chapter. I tried making a different (empty) folder to export to, but that didn’t work. I also uninstalled and reinstalled HearThis and tried without putting in the localization translations, but we’re still getting the errors. I sent in the error reports we got last week, but we’re at a standstill until we can resolve this. Any ideas, please!? We’ve just started using HearTHis so losing recordings is not a problem. When I uninstalled and reinstalled, the program was still remembering previous recordings. Are there files somewhere else I could try to delete to do a more complete uninstall to try to fix this problem?

Usually an access denied error indicates that the file was created by one user (e.g., the administrator) and is now being accessed (in this case, overwritten) by another user. Are there multiple user accounts set up on this machine? (This used to be relatively rare, but now it is the recommended approach and it very common.) Since I don’t know exactly what you’ve done, I can’t be sure what is going wrong, but it does seem like any normal workflow would not lead to a situation where you’re constantly being denied permission to overwrite a file you created previously. This does not sound like an installation problem, so there should be no need to do a more thorough re-install.
With the computer logged into the same user account that you are using when running HearThis, right-click one of the generated audio files (e.g., 0001012Genesis 12.mp3) and select Properties. Then click the Security tab. Select each of the entries under Group or user names and see if they all have a check mark in the Allow column for Full control and Write. If not, you may need to edit the permissions for the file and/or the containing folder to grant permission to the desired account(s).
Let me know whether or not this solves the problem.

Thanks for getting back to me so fast!
Unfortunately, I checked the Security tab for the audio files and all of the Users have full control so that wasn’t the problem…
I’m not sure if this helps, but if my HearThis folder is empty and I try to export as a Scripture App Builder folder, the .mp3 exports, but it says the path is denied for the .txt file. If I try to export again, then I get errors that the .mp3 and the .txt paths are denied. Anything else I could try?

By “my HearThis folder”, I assume you mean this folder:
C:\Users\TIB\Documents\HearThis-Kay
You might have a look at the Security properties for that folder. Or just try to delete it and then export to see if that fixes it. If not, I can check with my colleagues to see if anyone else has an idea.

Two other things you could try as diagnostic measures:

  1. Run HearThis as an Administrator. If that works, then we at least know it is somehow related to security/permissions and not an actual error where the program is trying to write something invalid (e.g., overwriting a folder with a file).
  2. Try selecting None as the Verse Index Format. If this works, we’ll know for sure to focus on the txt files, not the mp3 files.

As a possible temporary workaround, you could change the destination when exporting and then manually copy the files to the desired folder. This would be a pain long-term, but it might help you out while we continue to track down the real problem. (Of course, if you get the same error when trying to copy the files manually, then that will tell us something useful, too.

Thanks for the ideas. No luck yet, but maybe narrowing down where the problem is…

I ran as an Administrator and that did not work.

I tried selecting None as the Verse Index Format and that did not work.

I checked the C:\Users\TIB\Documents\HearThis-Kay folder, also deleted it and it didn’t fix it. Well, if I have only Gen 13 recorded in HearThis, I can successfully export that ONE .mp3 chapter ONCE to an empty folder. (Interestingly, it still gives an error that the path for the .txt was denied even if I have None marked in the Verse Index Format or ask only for an MP3 folder.) As you say, I could then remove that file from the folder and export the .mp3 again… of THAT chapter (Gen 13). But that doesn’t solve the problem of when I record Genesis 14. Even if I am exporting to an empty folder, it just exports Gen13.mp3 and gives me the error about Gen13.txt (which I didn’t ask it to export this time) and I can’t get Gen14.mp3. What does work is if I delete phrase by phrase all the recordings in Genesis 13 in the HearTHis program. Then I can export Gen 14 (.mp3, but not .txt). But I’d have to move that file and delete Gen 14 phrase by phrase in the program to be able to do Gen 15.

I’m wondering… where are those recordings (not yet exported) saved on my computer? Back when I tried uninstalling, they didn’t get cleared and the problem seems to be with those unexported recordings.

HearThis keeps its repository of internal files in a folder under Program Data. These files should normally never be deleted and (as you observed) they are retained even if HearThis is uninstalled. Anyway, our focus needs to be on the problem during export. Deleting the source files every time would be a miserable bandage, fighting against the intended operation of the program.

I just looked at the code, and the reason you get the error even when you request not to export the label file is that in that case HearThis deletes the existing file. So if you don’t have permission to write the file, you also can’t delete it.

As far as I know, this is not a problem that other users have experienced. I’ll keep researching to see if I can come up with a possible cause… and a solution.

A possible cause of this problem could be your anti-virus software. You could try temporarily disabling it or adding an exception to tell it not to scan files in the destination folder. If that works, I would be especially interested to know which antivirus software you are using.

Another possible source of this problem could be if the folder you are exporting into is a shared location (either a network drive, or in a folder that is shared via OneDrive, DropBox, etc.).

If none of these suggestions prove helpful, we might need you to install ProcessMonitor (procmon) so we can see if there are any other processes besides HearThis trying to access those files.

Antivirus does not seem to be the problem. I tried the exception and disabling it…

I don’t think the shared location is the problem either. My colleague did use Google Drive and uploaded the folder to share with me once, but the problem was happening before that. I tried creating a new folder on the Desktop (not shared with anything) to export to, but the problem wasn’t resolved.

Shall we try the ProcessMonitor? Do you have instructions for me?

Instructions:

  1. Install and run Process Monitor (procmon.exe).
  2. When it starts, it should request to run as administrator, so you’ll need to enter those credentials.
  3. On the Filter menu, select Filter…
    (You’ll see a whole list of existing filters with a red circled X. Those are to keep Process Monitor from investigating itself, so just leave all those.)
  4. At the top under Display entries matching these conditions, select Path for the first box and Contains for the second box.
  5. In the third box, type the Destination folder as it shows up in HearThis’ Export Sound Files dialog box.
  6. Leave the fourth box as Include.
  7. Click Add to add this new filter.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Now, in the Export Sound Files dialog box, click the Export button.
    (The Process Monitor main window should quickly fill up with a bunch of messages.)
  10. When the Export finishes (fails), go back to Process Monitor, and on the File menu, select Save.
  11. Under Events to save, select Events displayed using current filter.
  12. Leave the Format as Native Process Monitor Format (PML).
  13. In the Path box, enter a location where you want to save the file.
  14. Click OK.
  15. Email the saved PML file to tom_bogle@sil.org.

Thanks.
By the way, when I did this, I noticed that both my Code42 backup software and Windows Defender (MsMpEng) were actively looking at the files I was exporting. Although they did not cause any problems, that is at least indicative of a possible source of problems.

Problem solved!!!

I installed procmon, got it running, and when I tried to export from HearThis, an alert popped up from the antivirus (Avast) saying it blocked HearThis.exe. It had never given this alert before!

So I said for it to always permit. I did save the procmon file and can send it to you if you want, but when I tested again, it worked just fine! I’m surprised Avast never gave me this alert before… and also that my disabling Avast the other day didn’t fix this. Thinking back, I guess it’s possible I only disabled the online scanning… but I had also added an exception for the export folder… Strange.

FYI When I downloaded the new version of HearThis I got another alert from Avast Antivirus.

I tested everything again and exporting is working just fine now! Thank you so much for all your help! Let me know if you want the procmon file.

Angie <><

Good to hear. I wonder if running ProcMon somehow caused Avast to show itself, or if it was just coincidence. (I wouldn’t think ProcMon could cause that, but I guess stranger things have happened.) Maybe when you made the changes to Avast the other day, some setting got changed or some “don’t warn me about this” flag got cleared. In any case, I do hope that having the record of this problem here on the Community site will help some other user in the future. One of the challenges of so many different antivirus, file sharing, backup, and disk maintenance programs is that it is nearly impossible to give adequate instructions to help users figure out what to disable or configure to avoid problems. And as you saw, it’s really hard to diagnose them when they occur. Thanks for your patience and hard work getting to the bottom of this.