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microsoft / PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity
MIT License
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Backup fails with useless error message #27067

Open nurbles opened 1 year ago

nurbles commented 1 year ago

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.70.1

Installation method

PowerToys auto-update

Running as admin

No

Area(s) with issue?

General

Steps to reproduce

  1. Use the Location property of your Documents folder in Windows File Explorer to move your documents folder to your D: drive (I think it likely that any non-default location will trigger the issue).
  2. Restart your system to ensure everything has changed to use the new location.
  3. Open PowerToys to the General page and click the Backup button.

✔️ Expected Behavior

I expected the backup to succeed, especially to the default location.

❌ Actual Behavior

PowerToysNoBackup

Other Software

Edition Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2 Installed on ‎10/‎14/‎2020 OS build 19045.3086 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19041.1000.0

nurbles commented 1 year ago

I humbly suggest that error messages should always include information that identifies the exact error that is being reported. This may be included after "friendly" messages as a special code or some such that may be reported to developers. Otherwise, the errors are not of any use in actually finding and fixing a problem.

crutkas commented 5 months ago

/reportbug Without knowing the exact error here, hard to debug.

valid feedback for showing error but most stacktraces are a bit scary.

nurbles commented 5 months ago

It seems that someone understood (or at least stumbled over) the problem and corrected it. I just tested with v0.80.0 and the backup worked fine.

However, that does not change my opinion that messages like "There was an error. Try another location." are not especially helpful. If the messages don't change, perhaps they could include a button/link we could click for a more detailed error report that actually tells what the error was, what action triggered it, and what was the target/object of the action?