Knowledge Base

Problem

The user receives an error message when attempting to save their work in The Observer XT. The error persists across different projects and different computers, suggesting the issue is not machine- or project-specific.

Details

Affects The Observer XT (including Pocket Observer workflows).
Occurs on Windows 11 (and likely other Windows versions).
Error appears during the save operation, not during coding.
Reproduces across multiple projects and multiple workstations, ruling out file corruption or a single machine misconfiguration.
Floating license environments are a common context but the issue is location-dependent, not license-dependent.
Root cause: The Observer XT creates a temporary working copy of the project folder on the local C: drive when a project is opened. On save, it attempts to copy that temporary working copy back to the original project folder location. If that location is a network share, mapped drive, or cloud-synced folder (e.g., OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox), the copy-back step can fail due to permissions, sync conflicts, or network latency.

Solution

1. Identify where the project folder is currently stored. Check whether it resides on a network share (UNC path or mapped drive), a cloud-synced folder (OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.), or another non-local location.
2. If the project is on a network or cloud location, move the entire project folder to a local directory on the C: drive (e.g., C:\Users\<username>\Documents\ObserverProjects\).
3. Open The Observer XT and load the project from the new local path.
4. Attempt to save. Confirm the error no longer appears.
5. If the project must remain accessible to multiple users or be backed up centrally, establish a workflow where each user works from a local copy and periodically syncs or transfers completed data back to the shared/cloud location manually — or use a dedicated file-sync step outside of The Observer XT session.
6. If the project folder was previously on OneDrive or SharePoint, ensure the folder is not still flagged for cloud sync (right-click the folder in Windows Explorer and check sync/OneDrive settings), as background sync activity can interfere with the copy-back step even for locally cached files.
7. If the issue persists after moving to a fully local path, contact Noldus support with the exact error message text and screenshots for further diagnosis.