Bit more detail … What theme are you using. What is the exact error message? URL for the site? What happens if you copy the project to your mac and then try to open?
‘/Users/katiechallans/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/My Mac (Katies-MBP)/Desktop/BruH3 desktop/Hash website 070525.rwc/Pages/2-Next-Hash/PageAttributes/Contents.plist’ file does not exist
Although @Pegasus’ advice comes a bit late (as you’re already experiencing problems), they’re right - most cloud storage solutions (like Dropbox) are problematic when using apps that store files the way RapidWeaver does (not just RapidWeaver though). Dropbox is not a good match with macOS.
There’s a few things you can try:
Copy the file over from Dropbox to your Mac and double click on it from your Mac. Does this work? If yes - great! Keep the file there and never move it back to Dropbox again
If not, Dropbox has corrupted the file unfortunately. Reinstate your backup (if you have one).
Was the project EVER stored in Dropbox? if it was - and it wasn’t zipped - then the Plist now required is still showing as being in a Library/Dropbox folder and it isn’t being found.
The project file you’re trying to open, is a locally synced file from Dropbox. I can tell that it is because you mentioned the path at which RapidWeaver is looking for the file (see the quote from your earlier message above). So perhaps you thought you saved the file locally, but there was still syncing going on with Dropbox I’m afraid.
Perhaps you’re trying to open the wrong version of the file? Try looking for your file using Spotlight, and see if multiple versions show up.
I think Erwin has hit the nail on the head here. You perhaps need to turn off Dropbox Syncing? This can be done for all files, selected files and also paused for a period of time.
I feel like you might have been using the project file stored in your Dropbox account, thinking you were using the one stored on your external hard drive.
The project file has become corrupted and that Contents.plist doesn’t exist, so RW can’t open your project.
Only things you can do are:
Try to find a backup of your project file that contains that Contents.plist file and restore it.
Delete that page “Pages/2-Next-Hash” and rebuild it, making sure you’re using the project file stored on your external hard drive and not the one on your Dropbox account.
And as @Pegasus and @Heroic_Nonsense pointed out, never store your RapidWeaver project file on Dropbox. Try to use iCloud instead if you really need to use cloud storage, but your external hard drive is the best bet.
Here’s what happened (judging by the error messages you posted earlier):
You originally had your project file on Dropbox, but moved it to your Mac a while ago;
Without you realising it, you opened the synced file from [library]/ClkoudStorage/Dropbox, and not a truly untethered copy of the file;
This tethered file is still in sync with Dropbox;
Dropbox did its usual unwanted file manipulation that happens to break files of the “bundle” type, as used by some Mac applications (including RapidWeaver), thereby breaking your file in the process;
As the file on your Mac and the one that was on Dropbox were in sync, the damage was also applied to the copy of the file on your Mac;
you’ve now moved the file from the synced location on your Mac to Volumes/Katie 1TB, but that is the file that was already damaged - the contents.plist of that particular page (“2-Next-Hash”) is simply gone from that folder, thanks to meddling in the bundle by Dropbox.
So, in short, moving an already damaged file doesn’t fix it unfortunately - there is data missing (contents.plist), and that data was removed by Dropbox.
By deleting the page that causes the error, (2-Next-Hash), you’ll be able to open the project file again (but you’ll have to rebuilt the “2-Next-Hash” page).
Alternatively, if you have this option in RapidWeaver set to anything other than “Never”:
…then there’s a backup of the project file on your web server (in a folder with a name consisting of a random string of letters and numbers, ending with “_rwbackup”). you can download it from there using a good FTP client, or the file manager that you’ll find in your hoster’s control panel.
In an effort to save you some unnecessary work, you don’t have to rebuild your entire site.
Just delete that “2-Next-Hash” page. Right-click if using a mouse, or control-click if using a trackpad, on your project file, and then select “Show Package Contents”, then delete that page folder per the below:
You should be able to open the project file afterwards, and you can just rebuild that one page. If the page is already online, you can copy/paste all the content from the online page into your RW project file so you don’t have to rebuild from scratch.