Something to check:

Director's Chair > Edit > Preferences (Alt+C).

On the Confirmation Tab, Uncheck "Enable file deletion from the hard drive".

If that is checked, PowerDirector may delete your files automatically.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

By "Director's chair," I assume that's the unlabeled icon at the top left corner that says "Menu" when you mouseover? Under Edit->Preferences->Confirmation, there is an option "Enable file deletion from hard drive." It has never been checked, so that must not be the option we are looking for.

Right now, I have the temp dir set with limited privileges. With any luck, we will get an error message when the prg tries to delete files again, but it looks like it is a long (few days) timeout, and there may be another factor as well.

Yes, Director's chair is the picture of a director's chair on the upper Left.

Yes, it is the menu access in PD8.

If you press Alt+C in the edit module, that will bring the Preferences window.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote:
If you press Alt+C in the edit module, that will bring the Preferences window.

On the Confirmation Tab, Uncheck "Enable file deletion from the hard drive".

It has never been checked, so that must not be the option we are looking for.

Quote:

Quote:
If you press Alt+C in the edit module, that will bring the Preferences window.

On the Confirmation Tab, Uncheck "Enable file deletion from the hard drive".

It has never been checked, so that must not be the option we are looking for.

It is the only one in preferences that has anything to do with files that I know of.

Later versions of Powerdirector have the ability to delete PD temporary files.

Maybe uninstall then re-install.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: Later versions of Powerdirector have the ability to delete PD temporary files.

Which is exactly what I am trying to avoid. Besides, vers 11 won't run in my machine.

Maybe uninstall then re-install.

So you have nothing, then. I'll deal with it.

As a temporary measure, until you find a proper solution, why not back up the files to another directory at the end of each session? You could create a pair of DOS batch files (anyone old enough to remember them?) to do the back up and restore and put shortcuts on the desktop so you can do it with a double-click. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Quote: As a temporary measure, until you find a proper solution, why not back up the files to another directory at the end of each session? You could create a pair of DOS batch files (anyone old enough to remember them?) to do the back up and restore and put shortcuts on the desktop so you can do it with a double-click.

That's what I have been doing, now that I know what is happening.

It was puzzling for a while, since it only happens if graphics are modified (stretched, cropped) in PD. The file name is not changed in the script (it still points to the original), and it takes a few days before the delete action kicks in. For those reasons, not all edits were affected, and the ones that were only showed up if I revisited the edit weeks later.

STEVEN Tory,

I've been burnt by that as well. What I ended up doing is moving the temp photo created by PD for certain edits into my permanent editing folder for a given project and then import into the workspace and add to the timeline to replace the image that was modified. A real headache. I also found this approach makes the pds file more upwardly compatibly with newer PD versions if you ever plan on upgrading. To my knowledge, later PD versions don't appear to create this temp file anymore. It also does not work to "Export" your project as these modified pics are not exported.

The option mentioned in preferences will not do anything for this issue. The check on "Enable file deletion from hard drive" when uncheck prevents you from right clicking on a item in the workspace and selecting "Delete from Disk". The "Delete from Disk" item will actually be greyed out in the menu. My experience, it never changed the disappearance of these PD created temp files.

Jeff

Thanks, JL_JL! Your experience closely matches mine, and your explanation of the "delete from disk" option matches what I would expect. I will chalk this up to a bug that Cyberlink doesn't want to acknowledge, admit that it exists, or fix, except by charging for an upgrade.

Update...

It appears that PD8 deletes the temp files after about a week of non-use, although there might be other factors involved. I tried restoring the deleted files, then PD could open the PDS file and edit as usual.

However, if I set the temp files as R/O and disabled any changes, PD8 would crash hard upon loading of the PDS script with an "appincompat" error.

So it looks like I will have to continue saving the temp files, then restoring them before reading the PDS file; setting attributes doesn't work.

Give me the PD source code and I'll fix it. Right, fat chance.

So far, I have discovered this about the program. Upon execution, the first for a day, PD deletes a block of scratch files that are over 5 days old, but not older than 21 days, although the date range may be variable. It appears to be using the date range as a determining factor, not any association with the script file that created them.

Subsequent executions of PD on the same day do not cause any more file deletions.

I was dismayed to find out that PD also reaches into a backup directory I had created, named ...\photoTmp\BU, below the scratch dir, where I put a copy of all the files for safekeeping. PD deleted some of those, too, but not the same block of dates!

PD seems to remove the R/O flag I put on all files so it can delete them. There is no warning given for any of these actions.

So I have been forced to save a copy of all scratch files on another drive where PD can't find them, and restore them to the scratch dir at least once a day.

It would sure be nice if there was some way I could disable this automatic deletion function. It cannot be considered a feature.