Hi Malorie Moneaux,

If your projects have disappeared from your Projects View, it doesn't mean they are lost. You can open them via the 'Open Project' button in your Studio 2017 Projects View then navigate to where you keep your projects. If you've never chosen a different place in your file structure to save projects to, they will be in the Studio 2017 default Projects folder on your computer:

You can also find your projects via Windows Explorer:

C:\Users\your user name\Documents\Studio 2017\Projects

Double-click on a project file as highlighted here or right-click and select 'Open with Studio':

There are more than one possible reason why your projects have disappeared from your projects view but above I've shown you how to deal with the symptom rather than the cause...

I hope this helps!

All the best,

Alison :)

Hi Alison

My project disappeared from my project list and I couldn't load it using the method you described here. When I tried, I got the message: "This project has already been opend in SDL Trados Studio 2017and added to the project list". But I can't see the project in the project list. 

I tried several methods to open the file and I always get this message.

Do you have any idea to help me?

Thank you.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I'm having the same problem. Just finished seven large files for a project and everything disappeared. Would love to know how to restore everything.

Make sure no project filter is activated. If so, just select "Open project" from the Projects view and go to your project location on the HDD, then open the project. It's quite simple.

Yeah, no filters on. So, I would have to manually put them back on the list one by one? This seems rather laborious.

...especially since I have hundreds of projects, if not thousands.

And you really need them all there?

The file where projects are stored is this one: ...\Documents\Studio 2021\Projects\projects.xml
Make sure Studio always has access to this path. Also make a daily backup of this file (and of course of all your working files too!), this way you will never lose anything again.

Well, it's really a question of how I am used to working. I refer to old projects all the time and I am used to seeing them all in the Projects tab. This simply means changing my working habits, which is also time-consuming and less simple compared to earlier. I have read a lot of posts about this problem and all mention the filters and that projects.xml file. I changed nothing in Trados and woke up the next day to the software resetting itself. I got the "welcome to Trados, see what's new" window. I despise Trados as it's so damn complicated - now I have to do all my settings all over again, and that was not an easy task, as I don't know what I'm doing. I would love to make sure Studio always has access to that path, but how!? My files are all backed up, as I have been a translator for 30 years, but Trados/Studio 2021 or whatever it's called just decided to wipe the slate clean. 

Studio is not complicated, there is software of much more complexity level...

If you have read so much about filters and projects.xml, you should also have seen some of my comments here and there. Long time experience with Studio says, that projects.xml gets damaged from time to time, not even due to Studio. The bigger the file is, the more likely it will get damaged. It is not a good idea to keep all the projects in this list. You can return to any of your projects at any time by adding it to the list and removing it afterwards.

I do not know how to restore your projects.xml for now without having a backup of it (which I have on daily basis), but you could try to use an undelete software to get an older version of your projects.xml and restore it that way.

Did you install any Windows update recently? Maybe this caused the problem. Have you installed Studio as admin? Have you now logged in as a different user? Do you have many users on your computer?

Studio is by far the most complicated software I am forced to use.

I probably did read all your comments, as I read all comments, but didn't remember who posted them. Is there really any use for this projects.xml file then? If you said in your first comment that it's easy to open the projects, then why bother with this XML file? I'm confused, especially since it's that important that you back your's up daily.

I don't keep track of Windows updates as these are installed automatically and happen relatively frequently. Not sure about admin, how do I check? Always use the same user. Nobody else uses my PC.

I also asked you how to make sure trados has access to the XML file? Nothing has changed, only trados behaviour.

If you are the only user, so you most probably has also admin rights there. Installing as admin is right-click on the installation file and choosing "Run as admin" or similar.

The purpose of the projects.xml is to keep a list of all your projects, a list of modified batch tasks (only Pro version), a list of your templates, and some more settings like users. I do backup it daily, because it has been damaged some times in the past, so I was not able to start Studio.

Opening projects is as easy as opening documents—just use the command "Open project" and go to the folder where the particular project is stored. There you will find a *.sdlproj file with the project name. Click it and the project is opened and listed in your projects view.

As for complicated software: InDesign is complicated in a different way. Excel is much more complex than Studio, provided you try to use all its functions. Studio is pretty straightforward for translating. You need to know how it works in terms of the process behind like creating projects, using templates and so on, but in fact all this follow a quite logical step by step process. When using Studio a process-oriented thinking is of a huge advantage.

If you are the only user, so you most probably has also admin rights there. Installing as admin is right-click on the installation file and choosing "Run as admin" or similar.

The purpose of the projects.xml is to keep a list of all your projects, a list of modified batch tasks (only Pro version), a list of your templates, and some more settings like users. I do backup it daily, because it has been damaged some times in the past, so I was not able to start Studio.

Opening projects is as easy as opening documents—just use the command "Open project" and go to the folder where the particular project is stored. There you will find a *.sdlproj file with the project name. Click it and the project is opened and listed in your projects view.

As for complicated software: InDesign is complicated in a different way. Excel is much more complex than Studio, provided you try to use all its functions. Studio is pretty straightforward for translating. You need to know how it works in terms of the process behind like creating projects, using templates and so on, but in fact all this follow a quite logical step by step process. When using Studio a process-oriented thinking is of a huge advantage.

Thanks for this advice. I know I can open projects, one by one, but they were all in a nice list before. It is simply too laborious to add them again. This is the second time this has happened with trados and it's rather annoying.

Talking about complicated software, I spoke to Paul Filkin about this who said: Trados/Studio is much more complicated than Excel. :) Even the company agrees on that! Anyway, I don't have to, or want to, use InDesign or Excel unless forced to. Trados I have to use. I don't want to have to concentrate on having a process-oriented approach to trados - it's supposed to be intelligent software and should do that for me. Oddly enough, I use a wide range of different software, Trados is the only one that repeatedly gives me grief. This stance is shared by many who have set up social media groups like "I hate trados", etc. It also seems rather ridiculous that everyone has so many problems that there are plenty of forums to help users. Something's not right here, in my opinion - the competition doesn't suffer from any of these issues.

I value the input you have given me, thank you. However, I am still having the same problem and no advice has helped so far. Starting from scratch, once again.

Sorry to hear this. I wish I could help you better, but I have no clue what and why happened there. In fact you are right, that any software should run without any glitch. Unfortunately, there is no such software. Some are better, some are worse. But to state, that competition does not suffer from glitches is very naive. I could start many groups "I hate xyz"... Does not help either. The main competitor of Trados is in my opinion much worse, I have problems with it. But if you ask many other, they don't have problems there. The reason for me is quite simple: I am not very familiar with the other software and don't like the way it works. This causes me to use it in a way the software doesn't like. With Trados the situation is exactly the other way round. I seem to use it in a way it likes to be used. So the best advice I can give is a process-oriented approach when using Trados. This approach is in fact the best one for all the work a translator has to fulfill. And it helps really.

For the future configure your backup to include the projects.xml daily. This way something like now should never happen again.

I am not saying any software should run without a glitch - well it should, but doesn't. The problem I have is that I use a wide range of different software pretty much equally - the only software that repeatedly has problems is trados/studio, or whatever it's called. I expect the software to be improved to be at least as stable as any other widely used software. I'm not after perfection, just trying to minimise the grief that shit software gives me. Out of all software, trados causes me the most grief and extra hours trying to fix it - just like in this case - without a successful solution. It's paid for itself a thousand times over, but it's still crap software, because it does this occasionally (last time was January 2020).

I have to admit, I'm confused with this XML file. First, you asked me why I would even want a project list and told me it's unnecessary, then you tell me how much effort you go into to backup the XML file. I don't know which to follow now. Should I go to all the trouble you do or not? This is actually another good point. Did Trados advise you to make a backup copy of that file? I haven't seen instructions like that anywhere. If you haven't received instructions such as these, then you are creating your own solutions for the shortfalls in the software. This in turn says a lot about the software. E.g. MS Office applications can be set to make backups of just about everything.

Thanks once again for your time on this issue - pity there was no solution though! :) 

There was no advice to make any backup copies of the projects.xml file. I do this, because I have had trouble with it in the past. As it keeps not only project list, but also the list of project templates (I have plenty of these) and user names, so I started to backup it.  I asked you about the huge number of projects listed there, if that would be necessary. I use Studio since 2009, so there would ten thousands of projects in my list, would I not keep it short and limit to only the projects being in work currently. All other projects will be closed and removed from the list. I simply do not see any purpose in keeping so many projects there. This does not mean the projects.xml file would be unimportant. Seems like my way of working is completely different from yours.

Fairy Nuff. My first Trados was 2007! :)