"Sorting Gallery Items" won't complete - crashes program

[hobbspeter]

When I try to open any of my local Xara Designer Pro 9 index.xar files for www.elmeriselersingers.com I get a message in the lower left reading "99% - Sorting Gallery Items". My mouse pointer circle goes round and round for hours (literally) but the sorting never finishes. The only way out of this "freeze" is to go to "Close the Program". Other websites in my Xara work fine. I have tried going back to the backup from several months ago and I still have the problem described above. Because the program freezes, I can't get access to the Utilities button to try to change the gallery cache settings for this program. This is a very important client so I need to get this fixed. Any thoughts?

[Boy]

Possibly the .xar file got corrupted. You could try ExpandXar from the Xara Xone archives to see if you can fix it. This is the write-up for it (the link to download the utility is at the end):

"ALL IS NOT LOST!!! Many of us has experienced the frustration of not being able to open a XAR file that for some mysterious reason has become corrupted. Well, all may not be lost. Gerry I from the Xara Ltd. Development Group has come up with something that might recover part or all of your corrupted file. It is called Expand.XAR. Here’s how it works. Now works with web files too.

Extract the ExpanderXar.exe program from the archive (the ZIP file) to the same folder as the bad *.xar file.

Select Start\Run and type cmd and hit Return (Enter).

Change directory to the correct folder, for example cd C:\MyXarFiles (cd is the command to change the directory to the folder (path name) where your corrupt file is languishing.

Run the utility by keying in: expandxar mybadfile.xar output.xar or expandxar mybadfile.web output.web

If an output file is generated (output.xar in the above case) then try loading it into Xtreme, ignoring warnings about unrecognized tags.
If it loads and you want to keep the recovered data then re-save the document where ever you like. Click here to download the ZIPped archive expander.xar (69K)."

[hobbspeter]

Thanks for the suggested solution. I downloaded the expandxar program and succeeded in creating an output.xar file. But when I ran it, I ended up with the same situation as before. as the file tried to open. I received the same error, "99% - Sorting Gallery Items".
I have a suspicion that my main Xara file may contain some gallery items from a source that is different from those located in the main "index_xar_files" folder - gallery items from an version of the main Xara file. I don't know how to solve this problem, if it does exist.
My website at www.elmeriselersingers.com it is important to me, but it has hi-res photos in the Media\Publicity Photos directory that cannot be reached to to a bad links. I really need to solve this problem, and would appreciate further help.

[Boy]

Have you tried opening the file with an older version of (Web) Designer? Just trying to find a possible solution to your problem.

[hobbspeter]

I did try. I can open old versions that had the index.web files with Xara Web Designer MX, but that program won't open index.xar files, as best as I can see. I tried renaming some files from .xar to.web, to see if this would work, but these files won't open.
I did find earlier, when my .xar files were working, that I had some pages included that were from some previous file. I corrected that and all seemed well. But the, in trying to move other (what I thought were unneeded) files, I ended up messing the program up and now it no longer opens.
I don't know where to go, now.

[Boy]

I am sorry but I don't either. You could contact Xara support. Perhaps they can help you.

[hobbspeter]

Thanks. I have done so am am awaiting a reply. (It's still Sunday.)

[hobbspeter]

THE PROBLEM HAS RETURNED!
This problem went away after I opened a much older version of the file for www.elmeriselersingers.com. I then updated the pages to make them current; published the new files; and all went well. But today, when I tried to open the updated index.xar file I again got the dreaded "99% - Sorting Gallery Items" error, an error that never reaches 100%. This is driving me crazy, for I have an error on the published site that needs immediate correction. (My other Xara site (www.mapleleaffurniture.ca) works fine.)
I am uploading the index.xar file that was used to create the present site at www.elmeriselersingers.com.
I wonder if I am doing something wrong when I save the files. In this case I used the "Save As" to create this renamed file. I then did a full site preview. All worked well, Then I published the files. But when I try to open the file a couple of days later I get the error.
I even uninstalled Xara Designer Pro 9 64 bit and reinstalled it today, but it did ot fix the problem.
I have opened a ticket on the Support section. While awaiting their reply, can anyone here help?
My index.xar file is attached.

[Christine Farrelly]

Same issue if I try to open it.

Christine

[PhilM]

Hi hobbspeter,

What galleries do you have open just before you load the file? And what are the sort settings on each of those galleries?

To find out, click the "More..." button in each gallery in turn and choose "Sort..." from the menu. Then write down the settings of all the dropdowns and switches in the Sort dialog. (Or use Alt+PrintScreen to grab each Sort dialog as a bitmap and then paste it into a document and label it - be careful and methodical while doing this to avoid getting things mixed up.)

Christine, could you do the same thing, please?

Thanks,

Phil