Can't Login to PDM

[SPerman]

I'm having an issue this morning that I haven't experienced before. If I try and log into the PDM, I get the spinning circle, and everything just hangs.

I have remoted into the PDM server and it is up and running. I can log into the PDM admin on the PDM machine without issue.

Does anyone have any idea on where to start debugging this problem? I am dead in the water until I get it solved.

[bnemec]

If it were me I would try these things, order would depend on what else I'm seeing and mostly guessing...
- Try logging in as another user on same machine and then same user on different machine. Sounds dumb but I've found this to be helpful.
* we use AD for login so I have a couple of PDM only users that I'll use for testing random stuff like this. So I'd try a PDM only user first, if that logs in then I'd try another user from AD (for example we have an AD account that cad admin can use).

- Is there a popup that's buried? I see this occasionally with PDM add-in throws an error dialog that buried and blocks login.

- We have setup to cache templates and library on login, if something blocks the "get latest" process that may not even pop up a warning dialog. Since you can get into Admin tool you can test this by taking test user out of all the groups and setting that user to not cache anything on login.

We have Solid Edge files in our vault and PDM insists on starting Design Manager (which requires a SE license) and this has been a huge PITA and waste of time continuously it doesn't help that PDM doesn't pass through any helpful warnings. It showed up in many ways not worth listing here. Point is, do you have other filetypes in the vault that are from a licensed software that PDM may be trying to launch a component of (for API usage) when caching files?

[SPerman]

On the phone with my VAR now. So far, not making any progress.

[SPerman]

At this point, he thinks my Vault View needs to be deleted and rebuilt. The question is what happens to the 135 files I have checked out? Do I lose all of that work? He is going to do some testing and get back to me, but I don't have a good feeling about what is going on.

[AlexB]

Whenever I have user with this issue, it's due to the Explorer recent files list. If the list is too long or contains PDM files/folders then for whatever reason it can hang the explorer.exe process.

Try unchecking the options shown here and restarting your explorer.exe process from the task manager.

Edit: If you delete your vault view with files checked out then you won't be able to check them back in if you re-add a new vault view. They will have a different "view ID" behind the scenes.

[bnemec]

At this point, he thinks my Vault View needs to be deleted and rebuilt. The question is what happens to the 135 files I have checked out? Do I lose all of that work? He is going to do some testing and get back to me, but I don't have a good feeling about what is going on.

When we ran into a case of loosing work, after I gave the user heck for not checking files in regularly , we went through a process to save all those files from the vault path to some other folder location not in a vault path. If work offline is an option that is one way to access the files. Another is to follow some steps to manually "delete" the vault view but leave the files there, at that point the vault root folder should have regular manila folder icon after reboot. Then working them back into the vault through a good vault view requires thought as it's likely a mix of new files and new versions of existing files. There are ways to save the stranded files, but always ask if they're worth the hassle. Sounds like it may be in your case.

I'm curious if they used Process Monitor to investigate what's hanging it.

[SPerman]

It is fixed, but I cannot tell you why. We checked a bunch of stuff, and repeated a bunch of steps that didn't change the outcome. These are the steps that I think had an effect.

We went to the PDM server, and opened the vault view as admin, and let the files sync.
Then we went back to my machine, and logged into the vault view, but in "offline mode."
Last we switched to "online mode" and everything was fine.

[SPerman]

Whenever I have user with this issue, it's due to the Explorer recent files list. If the list is too long or contains PDM files/folders then for whatever reason it can hang the explorer.exe process.

Try unchecking the options shown here and restarting your explorer.exe process from the task manager.
image.png

Edit: If you delete your vault view with files checked out then you won't be able to check them back in if you re-add a new vault view. They will have a different "view ID" behind the scenes.

If it happens again, I will turn those off and give it a try.

Something happened to my File explorer a couple of weeks ago, and there is now an extra space between each folder. Couple that with several dozen one drive folders, and it is infinite scrolling to find the folder I am looking for.

[SPerman]

When we ran into a case of loosing work, after I gave the user heck for not checking files in regularly , we went through a process to save all those files from the vault path to some other folder location not in a vault path. If work offline is an option that is one way to access the files. Another is to follow some steps to manually "delete" the vault view but leave the files there, at that point the vault root folder should have regular manila folder icon after reboot. Then working them back into the vault through a good vault view requires thought as it's likely a mix of new files and new versions of existing files. There are ways to save the stranded files, but always ask if they're worth the hassle. Sounds like it may be in your case.

I'm curious if they used Process Monitor to investigate what's hanging it.

He lectured me about not checking in my files every day. I'm a one man band, who works on one computer, so that isn't part of my workflow, although maybe it should be.

[SPerman]

This computer was loaded about 3 years ago, and was upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. I never did that in the past. In fact, I would typically do a fresh install of the OS every 12-18 months. I KNOW this improved performance in Windows 7 and earlier. My IT guy convinced me it is no longer necessary, and even talked me into upgrading from W10 to W11. I think next time I get a free 1/2 day I will wipe this computer and install Windows 11 fresh. I don't know if it is related to these problems, but it can't hurt.

[bnemec]

Win11? Hrm. What version and SP of PDM?

[SPerman]

Win11? Hrm. What version and SP of PDM?

2023 SP5

[mp3-250]

In case of emergency you can access your vault view without login with file managers like total commander, free commander, double commander or even with the command prompt and zip your checked out files in a backup folder.
Otherwise when you delete your vault view do not check to delete all files: your former vault is now a normal local folder and you can backup your checked out files before completely delete them and remake the vault view from scratch.

To check them in again takes a bit of time, but it can be done.