Time and time again we hear people disheartened because they “lost” the Categories for their art kits they worked so hard to curate, because they got a new computer or made what seemed to be a simple change to their art kit folders.
Unlike Tags, which are embedded into the Digital Art Kit (DAK) file directly, Categories are nothing more than links. By using links to add kits into Categories, you can take one kit and put it into a multitude of folders without taking up additional space on your computer. The downfall to using this sort of system is that one simple change or a move will cause a change to the link. Artisan® will become confused because the kit is no longer where the software expects it to be, and your once full and complete Category list is now empty. While it does take some technical know-how, you are able to rescue your already made Category list back into Artisan!
NOTE: This is an advanced technique and SHOULD NOT be attempted if you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with navigating around Windows File Explorer. Additionally, please please read thoroughly from beginning to end before attempting.
Backing Up
First, it is strongly recommended to have a regular backup process. If you use an online backup system (such as Carbonite, Crashplan, Backblaze, etc) it's important to know that they usually don't back up system files. So you will need to be proactive about backing up certain folders. You can read this article for a full list of content you can back up with both Artisan and Historian. You should back up your FOREVER desktop software's content on at least a monthly basis and/or any time you make major changes.
A lot of information to back up can be found in the folder location listed below. We highly recommend including this folder in your backup - either manually copying it over or simply paste it to a part your backup system can "see", like within your existing Documents folder for a backup system to grab. There is no need to mess around within the folder itself, simply copy the entire folder to save important pieces you can recover later.
C:\Users\username*\AppData**\Roaming\Forever\Artisan 6 (or Artisan 5, depending on which software you are in)
*This is your personal username on the computer.
**This is a hidden folder so you may first need to unhide this to gain access to it. To do this please click on the link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-97fbc472-c603-9d90-91d0-1166d1d9f4b5 and this will walk you through on finding the hidden items
Rescuing Your Categories
Step 1: Made note of the Digital Art Kit's new location
Now that you have your backup, you will want to note where your art kits are currently. In this example, the kits are on the external D drive in a folder titled "Digital Art", also written out as D:\Digital Art. Don't be confused by the external hard drive's name being Digital Scrapbooking - this specific external drive is dedicated to this single use so it has been named to reflect that.
Step 2: Get your completed Categories file
This is where the backup, or at least having access to the old computer, comes in handy. You will need access to the KitFolders.xml file that has the full list of your Categories. You can either keep the backup of this file on the external hard drive, or for easier editing copy it to your computer's desktop. It's a very small file so having this temporary extra file shouldn't affect anything.
Step 3: Find the file to edit on the computer
On the new computer navigate to the same C:\Users\username*\AppData**\Roaming\Forever\Artisan 6 (or Artisan 5) and find the KitFolders.xml file here. Right-click on it and choose to Open With > Notepad.
Step 4: Finding the old location for art kits in the file
The document may look a little scary at first, but is very easy to break down to know what to look for! Here's a little example showing both a commercial and a personal art kit within the same Category.
- The RootFolder is to tell Artisan where to start looking for the Category list.
- You'll see several Folder Name which breaks apart each Category you have named. In this example this category is called "Season of Winter".
- Next, the Package ID to clarify what type of kit it is (commercial for commercially purchased art kits made specifically for Artisan, or user for Personal Art Kits that are self-made) as well as link the location of the kit(s). Here we have a commercially purchased kit called "All Things January Mixology" and a personally created kit called "Snowmen Clipart" both stored in their default locations on the computer - Here is where you find the old location of the art kits, or where Artisan is still trying to look for them. Jot down this location next to the new location from step 1.
Step 5: Search and Replace
Within the opened Notepad document, from the top click Edit > Replace. In the pop-up window it will prompt you to "Find what" where you place the old location (from step 4), as well as "Replace with" which you'll enter the new location (from step 1). Make sure to check there are no spaces or additional text in these areas - an inaccurate link will cause your categories to not load! Once you've double-checked, you can click Replace All.
If you have more separate kit folders, please repeat this step for each of them to get from the old to the new location.
Step 6: Save and check
Now that the file has been changed to replace the old with the new, you can go to File > Save and confirm the save happens. Next, open Artisan and navigate into your Content Manager to see if your Categories have returned. If they have - AWESOME! Go back to the folder location in step 3 and save a copy of the newly edited KitFolders.xml file to your backup. You can choose to keep the old and new copy, or just save the new version.
If you continue to run into issues with this process, you can reach out to the pixies at pixel2pages@forever.com or FOREVER Client Care at support@forever.com for further assistance.