Deskscapes 11 issue with invalid files in favorites

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I am not that good with Deskscapes, but have you tried these setting to delete favorites? or disable "Make favorite"?

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Hello and thank you for the assistance.  Yes, I have tried multiple times to delete as you illustrated.  I don't see a disable option.  The best I can do is temporarily delete them, but they always come back.  It doesn't matter if I delete and reboot my computer, close the program, or even try cleaning out the trash on my pc.  It always comes back afterwards.  Here is the strange part.  If there are several invalid backgrounds in the favorite area, just selecting 1 and deleting the background will remove all the invalid backgrounds, as if the program knows they are invalid.  Yet, if I return to favorites later, I will see all of the invalid backgrounds restored there again, as if they were never deleted.  

What happened if you "un-tick" the "Make favorite" first before deleting?

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Here is the Favorites backgrounds, even though all have been deleted or moved to another location.

I select just one and you can see that it isn't even selected (no checkmark) as a Favorite at the bottom options, but it is in Favorites nonetheless.  It is like some residual memory file that won't go away.

I can try to delete the invalid background and it will indeed delete all of them.  However, if I select anything else and return to Favorites later, they (invalid backgrounds) will all be restored, as if they were never deleted.

Thank you for your help.

That is strange, on my system, this is what I saw on my system on adding and removing favorites.

Did you removed the files by deleting it manually?

Perhaps doing this might help.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

I am able to add and remove the background files, other than not being able to permanently delete the residual invalid files stored in Deskscapes Favorites.   Also, notice that all the invalid images do not have an actual image (just a title of the previous image that was there with NO photo).  That is a sign that something is not right.  A real image for each of the files should be present if it was valid, such as the ones shown in your last reply.  The original background file was deleted, but some residual file got leftover in Favorites.  Let me try the suggestion you have regarding the Clearing of the cache.

I deleted the invalid files and then cleared both the cache and the extracted folder.

However, when I return to Favorites, all those invalid files return back.  So that didn't work.  It was a good suggestion, but I think there is a bug somewhere that causes these invalid residual files to stay.  I don't want to have to remove, reinstall, and reactivated the program every time I need to clean up.

Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation. Retest and report back here.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Ok, I purged Deskscapes, rebooted, downloaded latest version of Deskscapes and reinstalled, reactivated, rebooted one more time.  I pointed to some backgrounds I wanted to use and tested.  This is what I noticed and I think this may help.  Some of the titles of the backgrounds used contain characters other than alphanumeric (neither English letters nor numbers).  This caused the background to convert the name of those characters to ?? when made favorites.  I think this is what is somehow creating this file in Favorites which cannot be permanently removed.  In fact, when I tried to delete it this time (even though it is temporarily deleted and will return), it also deleted a valid background in Favorites along with the invalid file.  Somehow, the invalid background file in Favorites gets tied with the valid files sometimes.

So to illustrate, this is what is in Favorites now:

The second background is the invalid file, which I will attempt to delete.  If I try to preview the invalid background, it will just show a black screen in the preview, so I know for sure it is not valid.

After deletion though, not only did it remove the invalid background, it also removed a valid background.  I had 4 backgrounds in Favorites, but I only have 2 now.  See photo below.

If I click somewhere else and return to Favorites though, both the invalid and valid backgrounds will return.  Somehow, that invalid background not only cannot be deleted permanently, it gets tied to valid backgrounds sometimes.  I think Deskscapes does not know how to deal with non alphanumeric characters in background titles when made Favorites.

Hello,
I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

This has been an issue for over a year now, and has been reported multiple times by me and others. Deleting any file leaves a ghost image. I think it has something to do with the way DeskScapes handles recent files. Hopefully, once Start11v2 becomes stable, the Devs can spend a little time with DeskScapes and solve this issue. Until then we will need to be patient.

If you just untick "Make Favorite," the file will be removed from your Favorites without leaving a ghost image. However, if you delete an image from the "Installed" section, a ghost image will still remain in the "Recently Installed" section.

Hello, thank you for the info.  I think you are right, but there is an additional variation of the error as well.  I noticed after purging the original install and reinstalling Deskscapes, that while testing the installed backgrounds again (none of which got deleted yet this time around), if I made a background (that contained any non English alphanumeric characters like a foreign character or even a symbol) a favorite, this inadvertently also creates a ghost image as well in the favorites area.  So I believe this a secondary issue that can also cause issues as well, in addition to the deletion or movement of the original file.  Even worst this time around though, the ghost file somehow tied into a valid background file in Favorites and a deletion will remove both files as well too, although it is temporary.

That being said, it's good to know that I'm not the only one experiencing this issue.  This is also the first time I've used the forum.  Thanks again for the input.

While I recall this issue, do have that\those thread link(s) handy, Plaird; I want to make sure its logged correctly and updated. 

Thanks
Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

https://forums.stardock.com/509582/page/1/#3863377

Thank you Pelaird 

Issue updated: ODNT-7683

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager