Works one day not the next

Classic
1

I have reinstalled, paid, updated, recreated my website and for a few week everything worked.

Today I am told my document cannot open and mentions “dropbox”

I am saving to an external harddrive and not in dropbox on my Mac.
I upgraded RW as requested but no change.

Why does this keep happening and how I ensure able to use RW and regular update my blog.

2

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?

3

Same problem I had a month ago…

‘/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

www.bruh3.eu

I have a copy on my external harddrive but I get the same message… RW is stored on my desktop not in Dropbox.

4

dont SAVE your rw-files in dropbox. never do that, do it never never never… never do it! never ever!!!

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5

Hi @Katie,

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:

  1. 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
  2. If not, Dropbox has corrupted the file unfortunately. Reinstate your backup (if you have one).

Cheers,
Erwin

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6

They are NOT saved in Dropbox… I was told that lastime.

But I am now again getting this message.

7

Thank you … but… I did all of that 2 months ago… I am not letting RW near Dropbox it is saved on an external hard drive.

I spent hours recreating the web site and it was fine for 2 months and now I am back this message…

It must be something else I am doing because the response from RW is always the same…

Best regards, Katie

Katie Challans
Challans & Faber bv
+32 476 60 88 40

8

in this case @dang may be can help you …

9

RapidWeaver is looking for that contents.plist file at the below path:

‘/Users/katiechallans/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/My Mac (Katies-MBP)/Desktop/BruH3 desktop/Hash website 070525.rwc/Pages/2-Next-Hash/PageAttributes/Contents.plist’

That file path seems strange.

Can you confirm which project file you are trying to open in RapidWeaver? You mentioned you’ve got the project file saved in several places.

10

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.

11

Hi @Katie,

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.

Cheers,
Erwin

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12

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.

13

I have moved RW latest version to new external hard drive (having erased all data before using).

I am trying now to open my document, moved from previous external hard drive.

Still can not open it, and the message doesn’t mention “dropbox”.

‘/Volumes/KATIE 1TB/Hash website 070525.rwc/Pages/2-Next-Hash/PageAttributes/Contents.plist’ file does not exist

I do not want to turn off dropbox and then not have access to all my other work and documents.

14

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:

  1. Try to find a backup of your project file that contains that Contents.plist file and restore it.
  2. 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.

15

Hi @Katie,

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”:

Capto_Capture 2025-06-11_15-43-04_
Capto_Capture 2025-06-11_15-43-04_678×464 28.3 KB

…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.

Cheers,
Erwin

16

Dear Erwin and Dan G.

This is beginning to make sense!

First… I have set to ‘never’ !

Now in the process of recreating the site (again).

And keeping my fingers crossed… I hope you don’t hear from me again!

17

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:

delete-page-1
delete-page-1940×390 36.3 KB

delete-page-2
delete-page-21752×392 77.7 KB

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.

Feel free to post anytime you have a problem.

18

Thank you… I have done the copy/paste from online site… and am keep my fingers crossed for next update!

Best regards, Katie

Katie Challans
Challans & Faber bv
+32 476 60 88 40

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