QGIS 3 "unable to save auxiliary storage"

[qgib]

Author Name: R L (R L)
Original Redmine Issue: 18477
Affected QGIS version: 3.4.1
Redmine category:project_loading/saving

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Using QGIS 3, upon attempting to save the loaded project, I'll get the message "unable to save auxiliary storage" and the saving will be unsuccessful.

It doesn't have happen every time I use the program, but I can't isolate anything different about the times it does.

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• nevada_county_roads.zip (Tom Grundy)
• Road_Centerlines.zip (Tom Grundy)

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Related issue(s): #28647 (duplicates)
Redmine related issue(s): 20828

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[qgib]

Author Name: Brendan Heberlein (Brendan Heberlein)

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I also have experienced this issue. Running Mac OS 10.13.3 on Early 2015 MacBook Pro Retina.

[qgib]

Author Name: Cameron MacIver (Cameron MacIver)

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I have the same issue. running an iMac with os 10.13.4

[qgib]

Author Name: Harrissou Santanna (@DelazJ)

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Given the different OS concerned i remove the OS mention.
When it occurs, does it really prevent you to save the auxiliary storage data (hence you lose your work) or is it simply a message with no effects?

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• operating_system was changed from Windows 10 to

[qgib]

Author Name: Tommy Wahlund (Tommy Wahlund)

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Same issue. Qgis 3.0.2 (revision 307d082). Windows 10. Could not isolate a reason to it either, since it only happens now and then.
The file got saved thought, so in my case the message was without effect.

[qgib]

Author Name: Calvin Thompson (Calvin Thompson)

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I've experienced this issue on 2.18.16 and now 3.0.2. I often leave qgis running as I add new client properties for my lawn care company. If I forget to save this can be a nuisance since I'll have to reload all the shape files.
Just now it happened again in 3.02, however I ended task in task manager hoping an automatic backup would save me. When I reopened it was up to date. Don't know if it has no effect in 3.02 or not, but there definitely was a small panic thinking I was going to have to recreate my project file again.
Win 10

[qgib]

Author Name: Adam Stewart (Adam Stewart)

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Also encountered this on macOS 10.13.5 with QGIS 3.2.0. Unfortunately, I have no additional info on how to reproduce it. It affects both Save and Save As. Before I tried to save, I tried to quit and it asked me if I wanted to save my changes. After seeing the error message, it no longer complained when I tried to quit, so I assume this means it actually saved and the error message is a red herring.

[qgib]

Author Name: Madeline Chmielinski (Madeline Chmielinski)

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Encountered this on macOS 10.12.6. QGIS did not save but I was able to work around this by saving as .qgs instead of the default .qgz

[qgib]

Author Name: Mars Sjoden (Mars Sjoden)

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QGIS version 3.2.0-Bonn
Mac 10.12.6

Same issue. Even though the same project has been saved to the same location before, this morning the error window popped up:

"unable to save auxiliary storage"

Saving as .qgs worked.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• version was changed from 3.0.0 to 3.2
• category_id was changed from Unknown to Project Loading/Saving

[qgib]

Author Name: Kim Frankcombe (@geokimbo)

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Same issue on Ubuntu 16.04 with QGIS 3.2.1. Tried save, save as, tried saving to /tmp where I know write permissions would not be an issue all no good. Change the files type to .qgs and it all worked fine. Curious that the file I originally opened was a qgs file so not sure why it wanted to change to .qgz on plain save. I just tried to repeat my steps but it now saves just fine so I can't reliably reproduce this sorry.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• version was changed from 3.2 to 3.2.1

[qgib]

Author Name: Samuel Wechsler (Samuel Wechsler)

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I observed same behaviour on Windows and with QGIS3.2 only happend when trying to save to .qgz but not to .qgis (same project).

[qgib]

Author Name: Regis Haubourg (@haubourg)

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• priority_id was changed from Normal to High

[qgib]

Author Name: Regis Haubourg (@haubourg)

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I just tested under ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10 with QGIS 3.2.2. I couldn't reproduce. Can someone share a project and a dataset. We maybe have a data specific failure here

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• status_id was changed from Open to Feedback

[qgib]

Author Name: Sebastian Hahn (Sebastian Hahn)

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I just testet with QGIS 3.2.3 under Windows 10. Saving as qgz still fails because of auxiliary storage. Saving as qgs works.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• version was changed from 3.2.1 to 3.2.3

[qgib]

Author Name: Paul Blottiere (Paul Blottiere)

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I did not succeed in reproducing the error, so I opened a PR in order to add a more explicit message: #8081.

It's not a bugfix of course, but it will help us to determine the origin of the problem.

[qgib]

Author Name: Tom Grundy (Tom Grundy)

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Same issue in 3.2.1 on Windows 10. Simple project (nevada_county_roads) and base data (Road_Centerlines) attached. Maybe a possible clue: it had been saving fine as qgz for quite a while, and after I added some rule-based symbology to Road_Centerlines, it started giving the same message. Changed from .qgz to .qgs and it saves fine. I have not tried to track it down any farther, since I need to move forward on this project with the valid .qgs workaround in place. Thanks

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• 13432 was configured as Road_Centerlines.zip
• 13431 was configured as nevada_county_roads.zip

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• Road_Centerlines.zip (Tom Grundy)
• nevada_county_roads.zip (Tom Grundy)

[qgib]

Author Name: Nick Hatch (Nick Hatch)

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Paul Blottiere wrote:

I opened a PR in order to add a more explicit message. It's not a bugfix of course, but it will help us to determine the origin of the problem.

Thanks Paul - I think that was really helpful. Just hit this with QGIS 3.4.1-Madeira on macOS 10.12.6, the error message was: "Unable to save auxiliary storage ('Cannot open /var/folders/2l/.../T/QGIS3-duDXtB/ProjectName.qgd for input')"

I first hit this issue with QGIS 3.2.x(1?) on OS X with a long-running open project, and lost a lot of work. Upgraded to 3.4.1-Madeira - and was really cautious with saving frequently. Was away from the computer for two-weeks, when I came back the computer was in a deep hibernate state with QGIS open. Tried to save and quit, received the error.

Is it possible that the root cause here is the underlying OS cleaning up temporary files out from under QGIS?

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• version was changed from 3.2.3 to 3.4.1

[qgib]

Author Name: belg4mit - (belg4mit -)

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I've run into this as well. It definitely does not save the data (the file timestamp remains unmodified), yet the asterisk indicating unsaved data in the window title disappears.

Bug #28647 seems to be a duplicate of this, but it does include a work-around for those encountering it, which might also be included in a revised error dialog: Try saving as QGS instead of QGZ.

[qgib]

Author Name: Alister Hood (@AlisterH)

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The error message indicates it is trying to save in the temporary directory e.g. C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/QGIS3-FaxmiV/
Is it right that it is trying to save there?

[qgib]

Author Name: Alister Hood (@AlisterH)

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I guess it saves to the temporary folder and then zips it up.

Does everyone experiencing this hibernate their pc?

[qgib]

Author Name: Andreas Olsson (Andreas Olsson)

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Same problem on Windows 10.

Error message: "Unable to save project C:*" -> "Unable to save auxiliary storage ('Cannot open C:/Users//AppData/Local/Temp/QGIS3-pbvmYI/*****.qgd for input')"

The folder isnt there, so does it fail to create it??

QGIS 3.4.4-1

It seems to be a difference using .qgs instead of qgz.

[qgib]

Author Name: Chris Ford (Chris Ford)

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Had the same problem using 3.4.4 on mac when save as uses .qgs.qgz (suggested) or .qgz (changed to) file type. The project is not saved.

Solved by using a .gqs file type.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• duplicated was configured as Unable to save project / auxiliary storage #28647

[Houska1]

Still present in 3.10.2 (OSGeo4Win). Just happened to me today; unfortunately didn't think of the qgs workaround, so lost some work.

In common with the symptoms described above (for Windows and others too), issue seems to be system hibernation and/or long elapsed calendar time with a QGIS project open (sometimes?) results in QGIS saving the project to a temp directory that doesn't exist prior to zipping to a .qgz.

Unfortunately, the error message leads one to believe it's only the auxiliary storage affected, but in fact as a result the whole project is not saved.

Quite annoying for us multitaskers; the problem is not that the old pre-hibernation changes are not saved -- hopefully we saved those long ago -- but that any changes made between returning to the open project and attempting to save it are at risk.

[Houska1]

Idea:
Given it may be tricky to debug exactly why and how the temp directory got zapped, could QGIS fall back to saving in a new/different directory (in my session I had no trouble creating temporary layers so it's not the whole temp directory structure being impacted!), or at least explicitly in the error message suggest saving as a .qgs?

[geokimbo]

Hibernation may be a common factor but not a required one, at least not for Ubuntu. My post back in Aug 18 was on a desktop without hibernation. It has not happened since. I upgraded to 18.04 shortly after posting - don't know if that is relevant though.

+1 for Houska1's suggestion of a more helpful error message.

[ghost]

THIS IS STILL NOT RESOLVED IN MY CASE

[ghost]

Well at least 3 people have this same problem have now closed #20828 , #34462 and #34462 so its not just me @gioman has closed everyone suggesting there is more.

Further more 1 found 9 open and 16 closed https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+auxiliary+storage

This means that you have potential ### 28 users with this problem if they are all duplicates. Why is no support being given . Why is this QGIS procedure copying this project to a folder the QGIS team know it will get deleted from . Is that not extraordinary to you it is to me!

[mwtoews]

This is still an annoying bug using QGIS 3.12.1-București on Windows from OSGeo4W.

The best workaround is to read the error message (e.g. see #28647) and then:

1. Navigate to the user temporary directory cd %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp
2. Create the temporary folder from the error message, e.g. mkdir QGIS3-OtLGsi
3. Create an empty file (with *.qgd extension) in the new folder from the error message, e.g. touch QGIS3-OtLGsi\project.qgd (or whatever works, such as right-click, create new text document, but then rename it)

This shouldn't be difficult to fix in the code by catching the exception to ignore the missing (and presumably cleaned-up folder) or recreate the temporary folder/file.

[rbaertsch]

I had the problem when trying to save with a full disk. Perhaps the missing file happens at that time.

[Gildae53]

I'm also having this problem with 3.12.2... I tried making sure Win 10 wasn't the culprit and then my Antivirus, but the problem doesn't lie there. I assume QGIS is doing this somehow. Anyone any further forward with a fix?

[brbell01]

This is still an annoying bug using QGIS 3.12.1-București on Windows from OSGeo4W.

The best workaround is to read the error message (e.g. see #28647) and then:

1. Navigate to the user temporary directory cd %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp
2. Create the temporary folder from the error message, e.g. mkdir QGIS3-OtLGsi
3. Create an empty file (with *.qgd extension) in the new folder from the error message, e.g. touch QGIS3-OtLGsi\project.qgd (or whatever works, such as right-click, create new text document, but then rename it)

This shouldn't be difficult to fix in the code by catching the exception to ignore the missing (and presumably cleaned-up folder) or recreate the temporary folder/file.

THANK YOU! This workaround did the trick and I probably saved several hours of having to recreate my map. Meanwhile, I've had this issue numerous times, now running 3.16.

[afrigeri]

This is still an annoying bug using QGIS 3.12.1-București on Windows from OSGeo4W.

The best workaround is to read the error message (e.g. see #28647) and then:

1. Navigate to the user temporary directory cd %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp
2. Create the temporary folder from the error message, e.g. mkdir QGIS3-OtLGsi
3. Create an empty file (with *.qgd extension) in the new folder from the error message, e.g. touch QGIS3-OtLGsi\project.qgd (or whatever works, such as right-click, create new text document, but then rename it)

This shouldn't be difficult to fix in the code by catching the exception to ignore the missing (and presumably cleaned-up folder) or recreate the temporary folder/file.

That worked on a stuck "unable to save auxiliary storage" 3.18

[cipri-tom]

This is still an annoying bug using QGIS 3.12.1-București on Windows from OSGeo4W.

The best workaround is to read the error message (e.g. see #28647) and then:

1. Navigate to the user temporary directory `cd %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp`

2. Create the temporary folder from the error message, e.g. `mkdir QGIS3-OtLGsi`

3. Create an empty file (with *.qgd extension) in the new folder from the error message, e.g. `touch QGIS3-OtLGsi\project.qgd` (or whatever works, such as right-click, create new text document, but then rename it)

This shouldn't be difficult to fix in the code by catching the exception to ignore the missing (and presumably cleaned-up folder) or recreate the temporary folder/file.

I tried this fix on MacOS (10.15) but after creating the directories and the file, I get: "Unable to perform zip". 🤔

[mirouml]

I just got this too. QGIS version 3.16.3-Hannover on Windows 10 (10.0) - going to update to 3.20 today, and see. Anyway it is clearly related to leaving QGIS open for a long time (hours) without saving, and then trying to save project, which fortunately I do only extremely rarely.

[ghost]

Getting error message "Unable to save auxiliary storage ('Cannot open /private/var/folders/8x/_4cv36hn3_l5pqm32hpwrt980000gp/T/QGIS3.iXSCWc for input')" when trying to save a project as .qgz file. Using QGIS-LTR 13.16.11-Hannover on on macOS 11.6.1.

Saving as a .qgs file does work.

[rduivenvoorde]

Somebody in my neighbourhood was bitten by this one:

Ignore the translation, but it tells the user that QGIS cannot save the qgd (the auxiliary sqlite db from the qgz file).

And (reading the old comments above): indeed this user had left the laptop overnight unused, it has gone into hibernation, and apparently Windows has cleaned up this temporary directory and threw away the qgd file....

Reading #43560 this is partially fixed (with as drawback that you can potentially loose al your label moving work (which is saved in this qgd file....)

Mabye a better solution would be:

• (on Windows only?): do NOT use the temporary directory which is apparently currently used to unpack the qgZ file as apparently Windows upon hibernation is cleaning up that directory
• so either we find a directory which is NOT cleaned during hibernation, OR unzip it qgz file somewhere (next to the qgz file itself??)

Mmm, according to the interwebs, temp files should stay there forever, unless another proces (cleanup utils??) clean stuff up

So not sure if we could work around this... But I'm going to see if I can reproduce this 'hibernation issue' on a windows pc here...