Trados Object Reference not set to an instance of an object when adding/deleting a term after TB merge

Dear Community, 

I have been experiencing some problems with the term display in the Editor Window of Trados Studio 2019. Sometimes Trados doesn't recognize words contained in the TB but, as I read, this is quite common in long sentences. In my case, however, the problem occurs even in short sentences, especially after I merged some TBs. As a matter of fact, some months ago I merged some TBs, thus creating a big TB with numerous languages. TB weight so far: 45,000 KB. This solution is very practical to me, so I'd really like to keep it.

Now, when Trados doesn't recognize that a term is already in the TB and I search for it in the Termbase Search or I try to add it, I often get the message "Object Reference not set to an instance of an object". Because of it, I sometimes don't even manage to add new terms (that is, terms that weren't in the TB at all).

Even before the merge I experienced some problems with the Term Recognition in Trados 2019 (such as Trados doesn't show my TBs, only those from the AppStore - General - Translation Productivity - RWS Community (sdl.com)), but no solution was found on that occasion.

In conclusion, could it be that I used wrong settings during the merge? For instance, I merged the TBs in such a way that double entries had to remain separate (for instance, the word "driver" is used in the context of informatics, but it also indicates a person who drives. I chose this option to avoid that, e.g., "Fahrer" merged with "driver" in the context of informatics). I ask because I suspect that– despite not having proof of that–the message "object reference...." mainly shows up with double entries.

I reorganized the TB in Multiterm and also checked for updates, but it didn't help. Do I really have to split the TB again? And, if yes, what's the recommended max. weight for a TB? 

Thanks!

Parents
  • First of all, can you give us the full versions you are using?  You should have:

    Trados Studio 2019 SR2 - 15.2.8.3007
    MultiTerm 2019 - 15.0.6.56482

    A reorganization is always a good idea, but it may also be worth deleting all the files apart from the *.sdltb and then opening the termbase again so they are recreated (you won't lose any data).  Sometimes, this can help with odd behaviour.

    Also where is the termbase situated?  On a network drive, dropbox, one drive etc.  Or is it sitting on your local machine in a folder that is not connected to anything else?

    Does anyone else access the termbase with you?  This can also cause odd behaviour as these files are not designed to be shared like that.

    Another thing worth trying is to recreate the termbase from scratch.  So export it, create a new termbase using you termbase definition, then import the data back in again.  Maybe even spend some time cleaning it up before you import it again, especially if it's a simple structure as you could use Excel for this.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hello Paul, thank you for your answer and sorry for my late reply. 

    My versions are correct. I also deleted all files except for the .sdltb, but nothing helpful happened. 

    It might be that, when I created the TB, I also granted access to anyone working on this computer (I honestly don't remember the wording Trados uses), but even in that case, I am the sole person who has used this TB.

    Well, after exporting the TB through Multiterm (Termbase Management> Export > Tab-delimited export definition), I opened the file with Excel and noticed that there is complete chaos! Column A should contain the entry number, B the wording "glossaryconverter", C a date, D "glossaryconverter", E the same date as in column C, F terms in Czech, G "glossaryconverter", H a date, I "glossaryconverter", J a date, K terms in German and so on. The fact is that, for instance, some terms in column F are in English instead of Czech! In some of such cases, the term in Czech can be found in column G. This mix is almost everywhere to see and I don't quite understand how it could have happened. Since I can assure you that this hadn't happened while adding terms to the TB while using Trados, this must have happened during the merge.

    Do you know what could have gone wrong and how I could solve it—possibly without having to go through it manually? I still have a backup of all TBs before the merge but, of course, in time I added more terms to the TB...

    emoji
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  • Hello Paul, thank you for your answer and sorry for my late reply. 

    My versions are correct. I also deleted all files except for the .sdltb, but nothing helpful happened. 

    It might be that, when I created the TB, I also granted access to anyone working on this computer (I honestly don't remember the wording Trados uses), but even in that case, I am the sole person who has used this TB.

    Well, after exporting the TB through Multiterm (Termbase Management> Export > Tab-delimited export definition), I opened the file with Excel and noticed that there is complete chaos! Column A should contain the entry number, B the wording "glossaryconverter", C a date, D "glossaryconverter", E the same date as in column C, F terms in Czech, G "glossaryconverter", H a date, I "glossaryconverter", J a date, K terms in German and so on. The fact is that, for instance, some terms in column F are in English instead of Czech! In some of such cases, the term in Czech can be found in column G. This mix is almost everywhere to see and I don't quite understand how it could have happened. Since I can assure you that this hadn't happened while adding terms to the TB while using Trados, this must have happened during the merge.

    Do you know what could have gone wrong and how I could solve it—possibly without having to go through it manually? I still have a backup of all TBs before the merge but, of course, in time I added more terms to the TB...

    emoji
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