Knowledge Base

Problem

After restoring a backup, encountering a project error, or renaming a project file in Observer XT, some or all observation event-data files (.ods) are no longer visible or accessible within the project, even though the files may still exist on disk.

Details

Affects Observer XT 17. Causes include: a corrupted or incomplete backup restore; renaming the project folder or file using Windows Explorer (rather than from within Observer XT), which breaks the internal index; or project/database corruption. Existing .ods event-data files on disk cannot be re-associated with a project by Noldus Support — the project database/index cannot be repaired externally.

Solution

1. **Verify the .ods file count**: Navigate to the project's event data folder on disk and count the .ods files. If the count matches your expected number of observations, the data may still be recoverable via an earlier backup.
2. **Restore from a known-good backup**: If you have a backup made before the issue occurred (via Observer XT's built-in backup function), restore that backup. Observations present in that backup should be accessible.
3. **If .ods files are missing from disk**: The observations are lost and will need to be re-scored. There is no method to reconstruct event data files that no longer exist.
4. **If .ods files exist on disk but are not recognized by the project**: The project index is broken and cannot be repaired externally. The only recovery path is an earlier project backup that still references those observations.
5. **Prevention**: Always use Observer XT's built-in backup and rename functions rather than renaming or moving project folders in Windows Explorer. Maintain regular backups using the built-in backup tool.