Datavyu spreadsheet appears blank, controller grayed out when reopening previously saved files

[mai65pitt]

I tried to open a datavyu file that another team member saved to our team's server. When I tried to open it the spreadsheet was blank (no transcript or columns) and listed as "untitled," and the controller was grayed out. See below for a screenshot. This only seems to happen on my Windows laptop. I have opened the same file on Mac laptop (same version of Datavyu, 1.3.7) without these problems. Two of my team members working on other datavyu files have reported the same issue more than once this week.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows
• Datavyu version 1.3.7

Additional context
This has happened to other members on the team, working on other datavyu files saved on our team's server.

[jperricone]

@mai65pitt I can help you with your question. Can you please tell me your full name, the name of your PI (or if you are the PI in your lab), and your institution? We’re keeping track of the kinds of questions people have and a list of the people who request Datavyu tech support.
Thank you,
Joey

[mai65pitt]

Hi Joey, my name is Margaret Isaacson and my PI is Melissa Libertus at the University of Pittsburgh, Learning Research and Development Center

[jperricone]

@mai65pitt thank you! Are there files on the server (that have been saved on macs) that you are able to open on windows? Or is it the case that all openable files on windows have never been modified on mac? Are you able to send me sample opf file that can/can't be opened on windows? We can look at the contents and see if somehow the mac OS is corrupting them for windows (joseph.perricone@databrary.org). In the meantime, I have a couple suggestions that you can try: 1) drag the file to local storage, then see if it opens on windows 2) create a dummy file on mac (just add one test column), save it to server, then see if you can open it on windows (perhaps the video somehow is disabling you from loading your spreadsheets). Please let me know how this goes and we can do further debugging if you're still having issues.

[mai65pitt]

There are a lot of different people working on datavyu files on the server so I am not sure which files have been saved on macs vs PC. I don't think that all openable files on windows have never been modified on mac.

I tried both of your suggestions:

1. I successfully opened the file once I had saved it to local storage, so thank you for that! The only thing that did not open was the video, so I will re-add that data.
2. I tried two dummy files: the first I saved to the server without the video. This one I was able to open on windows. The second I saved to the server with the same video from the problematic file. When I tried to open this file, the spreadsheet didn't load and the controller grayed out again.

It seems like the video is the problem. Once I removed the video from the problematic file and saved it again to the server I was able to open it on windows. Do you have any idea why the video would cause the spreadsheet not to load? Unfortunately I won't be able to send you the video or opf file with the video attached because of our project's data privacy rules.

Thanks for your help

[jperricone]

No problem. Glad to hear that you are able to load the spreadsheet from local storage. Does it give you a warning that the video cannot be found or does nothing happen? Are there other files on the server that load successfully (with video) on windows? It may be that the video is formatted in a way that none of your windows plug-ins can load. If the video is not already, can you convert it to a .mp4 file then see if you can load it? Here is free software to do so for mac: https://handbrake.fr/