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Moving existing project files to a different location

Marie Lund

I read in an article by Paul Filkins <> that it is indeed possible to move existing projects to a different location. He says, "To add them back into the Projects View if you do move them all you have to do is open the SDLPROJ file from the new location and that’s it." However, several of my colleagues say that this doesn't seem to work. When you try to open the file, Studio will tell you, they say, that the project is already present in the project list.

Paul Filkins also says in his article that Studio writes the location of the projects into a file called the projects.xml. I am wondering if this file must perhaps be edited manually for the above procedure to work? And if I move (or copy) existing project folders to a new location, should I also copy the projects.xml file there?

By the way, I have worked in Studio 2011 so far, and I am about to upgrade to Studio 2015. I would like to be able to open my Studio 2011 projects in the new version. Can I move (or copy) them to the desired location before installing and then simply open each project file from the new location in Studio 2015? Will the Studio 2011 projects.xml file also be used by Studio 2015 to locate existing projects created in Studio 2011, or will they be included in a newly created 2015 projects.xml file when opened in Studio 2015?

Thank you in advance for any comments and explanations!
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  • 0
    If the project is indeed listed, just right click it in the list and remove. Then you can open it again.
    Moving projects from one computer to another or all around the place is trivial, as long the paths do not change.
    For example you have three drives in you PC:
    c:\
    d:\
    p:\
    Project is on p:\, but TMs and TBs are on d:\. So you can move the project to any newly installed drive on this pc and no problems will occur.
    However, if your TMs/TBs are on p:\ too within the project and you move the project elsewhere, you will get error messages, prompting you to point Studio to a proper TM/TB location.
    If you have two PCs with exactly the same folder structure, you can move a project from one PC to another with no loss (provided you have synchronized your TMs).

    I have been doing this for years with perfect results, synchronizing my TMs/TBs between desktop and laptop. Both have the same folder structure, so I just need to copy the project from A to B and open it by double clicking SDLPROJ file.

    Answer to your second question: as long the paths will be maintained, no problem. Should the paths change, you will need to adapt them. You can do that either manually in Studio when opening the projects or by search & replace with some decent application in the SDLPROJ files. The old projects will NOT be included in the Projects.xml of Studio 2015 by default. OTOH this is not a problem - and it is advisable to keep there (in the Projects.xml) as few projects as possible. Otherwise this file tends to get corrupt and prevents Studio from startup. So we finish projects here (right click and chose "Finish") and close them, so that my Projects.xml only shows the running projects.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Dear Jerzy,

    Thank you once again.

    I am sorry if I seem a bit dimwitted, but I don't understand. You say, as long the paths do not change, it is not a problem. But if I move the project folders to a different location (on the same computer), the paths will change per definition, won't they? Perhaps I was not being clear about the fact that I meant moving files to a different location ON THE SAME COMPUTER. Or perhaps the drive letter doesn't count as part of the path?

    I think I understand from you reply that the projects.xml file is not relevant here. Rather, it is the SDLPROJ files that should be edited if necessary. Do you mean specifying the TM paths and such things?

    Thank you for the tip about finishing projects. I never realised this had any practical value. But can finished projects still be opened? I sometimes have clients who want me to go back and update finished projects after client feedback, for instance, so I never really know for sure when a project is truly finished.
  • 0 in reply to Marie Lund

    I am sorry if I seem a bit dimwitted, but I don't understand. You say, as long the paths do not change, it is not a problem. But if I move the project folders to a different location (on the same computer), the paths will change per definition, won't they? Perhaps I was not being clear about the fact that I meant moving files to a different location ON THE SAME COMPUTER. Or perhaps the drive letter doesn't count as part of the path?

    No need to be sorry. You should know, that my education is mechanical engineering, so I may tend to simplify things which are possibly not so obvious like I think.

    So let us go for an example:
    Project path:
    d:\projects\customer a\project 1\... (project files) (NO TM, TB here)
    t:\TMs and TBs\path for TMs and TBs

    When you now move the project to p:\projects\customer a\project 1\... (project files), the path to your TBs and TMs won't change.

    In IT terms (more or less); Studio stores absolute paths and not relative paths, which would usually be a problem. But if you keep your folder structures exactly the same on your computers, this is not a problem anymore. Regardless the project location (within project Studio remembers the "relative paths") Studio stores the path to TMs, TBs as "asbsolute path".

    Example:
    Project location on drive q:\
    We have there folders like source, target and TM and Termbase
    Looks like that:
    q:\Project 1\Source
    q:\Project 1\Target'
    q:\Project 1\TM
    q:\Project 1\Termbase
    When you move this folder elsewhere, Studio will remember, that the TM and TB was in q:\Project 1\TM (Termbase) and will require it to be on q:\, even if the project will be now stored on d:\

    But when your TBs/TMs are in a different location, common for all projects you create, this location will not change for Studio, so when you move projects, the project location will change, but not the one of TMs and TBs - this is why Studio remembers them properly then.

    All this is a bit more complicated, when you use Project TMs, so I will not try to explain that here.

    Thank you for the tip about finishing projects. I never realised this had any practical value. But can finished projects still be opened? I sometimes have clients who want me to go back and update finished projects after client feedback, for instance, so I never really know for sure when a project is truly finished.

    Of course. Just reopen such project by double clicking the SDLPROJ file and then right click it on Studio list - you will see a "Revert to in progress" option.

    Just give it a try with a small project. You will learn how it works very soon - testing that on you own is much easier than describing.
    The only crucial thing is in my opinion the location of TMs and TBs. If they are always kept at the same place, all other things do not cause significant problems. But when you move TMs, Studio will moan as long as you specify all the locations again. So for this reason I never move TMs to other drives than d:\ - in all my machines TMs (and Tbs) are on d:\ in exactly the same path.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thank you, Jerzy. So the path change of the project files themselves is not a problem in any way? I thought all the time that this was the main problem.

    I do in fact keep my main TMs in a different place, so according to your explanation, they should not be a problem if I only move the actual project files.

    However, I do have lots of Project TMs involved as well (because of translating packages which come with project TMs) so I guess it will be a bit more complicated, then?

    Besides, I might in fact also want to move my main TMs (once and for all) into a Dropbox folder or the like in order to enable automatic backup of these too.

    So if TM locations do change, is there a solution for that as well - even if it is a bit more complicated?
  • 0 in reply to Marie Lund
    If you change the location of the TMs, they will be reported as missing when you call a project or template using them. Studio will ask you to point the program to the proper location and then will remember it.
    But if you just keep only the necessary projects in your list, this will not be a big deal.
    Please make yourself a decent file and folder organization, so that you can keep it in the future. When you have such system, you can easily adapt all other things to it. As SDLPROJ files are just plain XML, you can use any GREP search and replace program (or a text editor like Notepad++) to replace the paths. This is plain and simple.

    As for the project TMs: where the project TM is the only TM to be found within the project folder structure, moving the project will also move the location of this TM, but Studio will update it! This is what I meant with "Studio keeps relative paths for all project files". But if there is MAIN TM stored within the project folder structure and you move the project, Studio will NOT update the path to it! In this case the absolute path is kept...
    If you simply experiment with tow or three projects, you will easily see how it works. It is far less complicated as all my descriptions here.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thanks, Jerzy. It looks like it won't be a real problem.

    If I get you right, the best thing to do might be to simply remove all projects from the projects list before moving my project files. Should I just remove them by "finishing" them, or is there another way that would (for whatever reason) be better?

    If I get you right, using a GREP search and replace program to replace the paths in the SDLPROJ files is just an alternative to doing it from within Studio when prompted, right? I hope so, because I have never used a GREP search and replace program before and don't even know exactly what it is.

    In my projects, there is usually a project TM stored within the project folder structure plus another two TMs stored somewhere else (typically my "total TM" containing all translation units in that language pair from all projects I ever did + my "this client TM" containing all translation units in that language pair from all projects I ever did for that particular client). So if I get you right, these should all be found by Studio without problems after moving project files around as long as my "total TM" and my "this client TM" have not been moved. And if I do move those, I can simply tell Studio about it when prompted.

    As for a decent file and folder organization, that is exactly what I am hoping to achieve by thinking all this through before beginning. Thanks for helping me thinking!
  • 0 in reply to Marie Lund

    If I get you right, the best thing to do might be to simply remove all projects from the projects list before moving my project files. Should I just remove them by "finishing" them, or is there another way that would (for whatever reason) be better?

    If you don't remove the projects from the list and move them, the list will be updated automatically with the next start of Studio - projects, which cannot be found will be removed - so at least happened to me.

    To remove a project from the list it does not matter if it is finished or not. Just right click - you can remove at once or first finish and then remove.

    If I get you right, using a GREP search and replace program to replace the paths in the SDLPROJ files is just an alternative to doing it from within Studio when prompted, right? I hope so, because I have never used a GREP search and replace program before and don't even know exactly what it is.

    GREP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep - but this wasn't what I meant. I just meant a software for global search and replace. But it isn't necessary. You can also update by answering Studio questions.

    In my projects, there is usually a project TM stored within the project folder structure plus another two TMs stored somewhere else (typically my "total TM" containing all translation units in that language pair from all projects I ever did + my "this client TM" containing all translation units in that language pair from all projects I ever did for that particular client). So if I get you right, these should all be found by Studio without problems after moving project files around as long as my "total TM" and my "this client TM" have not been moved. And if I do move those, I can simply tell Studio about it when prompted.

    Project TMs within the project structure will always be recognized, regardless where you put the project. If the corresponding main TMs will not change their location while the project is moved, Studio will just open the project and you can work with it in the new location exactly the same as would it not have been moved at all.

    This is exactly what I meant previously: if your (main) TMs/TBs remain where they were, you can move projects with NO prompting in Studio, as it remembers the absolute path to TMs/TBs.

    And to what Paul says about using the Projects directory, created by Studio: I am a Studio user since the very beginning and NEVER put any projects there. This has not influenced Studio behavior in any way. Since over 5 years (so one or two years later than my Studio start) I put all my projects on a NAS, while the TMs and TBs are stored on an internal HDD. Studio accepts this structure - and my file and folder structure exists more or less since 1990! Some slight changes have been applied to it during years, but the way I organize my files remains the same for 26 years now :)

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thank, Jerzy. I think I pretty much know now what I have to do, then, and what behaviour I can expect from Studio. Thank you very much for your patience!

    And in the light of what you have just said about putting project files somewhere else than at the default location not influencing Studio behaviour in any way, and because of what Paul just said in my other thread about Windows updates possibly causing problems when having moved the Documents folder, maybe I should just leave the Documents folder where it is and only move my projects. (My main TMs are in a shared folder already and have been so from the very beginning, and that has never caused any problems whatsoever). Perhaps the stuff which must remain in the Documents folder doesn't really need to be backed up at all. Does it?

    If you think it should in fact be backed up, I could perhaps just move the Documents folder into my Dropbox folder on my Windows machine - that might be less drastic than actually moving it off the C drive. But if these few files don't really need to be backed up, I could perhaps just leave them where they are and not worry about them anymore. Or I could just back them up manually once in a while.

    So I guess the main question of this rather lengthy reply is: Do the files which must remain in the Documents folder need to be backed up - and if so, how often?

    By the way, I don't use my Documents folder for anything else at all, because I do everything else on Linux. That is another reason why I want to move my projects (and any other important files) to a shared folder, because that would mean only having to back up stuff from one location.

    Oh, and sorry about mixing topics here. The "other tread" I am referring to above is this:
    "Is it possible to choose another location of the "Studio 2015" folder than in the "Documents" folder?"
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  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thank, Jerzy. I think I pretty much know now what I have to do, then, and what behaviour I can expect from Studio. Thank you very much for your patience!

    And in the light of what you have just said about putting project files somewhere else than at the default location not influencing Studio behaviour in any way, and because of what Paul just said in my other thread about Windows updates possibly causing problems when having moved the Documents folder, maybe I should just leave the Documents folder where it is and only move my projects. (My main TMs are in a shared folder already and have been so from the very beginning, and that has never caused any problems whatsoever). Perhaps the stuff which must remain in the Documents folder doesn't really need to be backed up at all. Does it?

    If you think it should in fact be backed up, I could perhaps just move the Documents folder into my Dropbox folder on my Windows machine - that might be less drastic than actually moving it off the C drive. But if these few files don't really need to be backed up, I could perhaps just leave them where they are and not worry about them anymore. Or I could just back them up manually once in a while.

    So I guess the main question of this rather lengthy reply is: Do the files which must remain in the Documents folder need to be backed up - and if so, how often?

    By the way, I don't use my Documents folder for anything else at all, because I do everything else on Linux. That is another reason why I want to move my projects (and any other important files) to a shared folder, because that would mean only having to back up stuff from one location.

    Oh, and sorry about mixing topics here. The "other tread" I am referring to above is this:
    "Is it possible to choose another location of the "Studio 2015" folder than in the "Documents" folder?"
Children
  • 0 in reply to Marie Lund
    If you use Documents just for the most necessary parts and not store your own files there, so I do not see any need to move it somewhere. Put your projects and TMs to the shared folder as desired - Studio will work with that with no problem, as it does here with the NAS.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thank you both for your answers, and my apologies for suddenly disappearing.
    I am in the process of organizing my new folder structure, and I am just wondering: Now that I am going to move my project folders anyway, is there any practical reason for wanting to separate the projects from Studio 2011 and those from Studio 2015? What I mean is this:
    In the default structure, projects from Studio 2011 are saved in "Studio 2011 > Projects", and projects from Studio 2015 would be saved in "Studio 2015 > Projects". Is there any reason why I should not simply save all Studio 2011 and Studio 2015 projects in one single folder, e.g. "Trados projects"?
  • 0 in reply to Marie Lund
    Thank you both for your answers, and my apologies for suddenly disappearing.
    I am in the process of organizing my new folder structure, and I am just wondering: Now that I am going to move my project folders anyway, is there any practical reason for wanting to separate the projects from Studio 2011 and those from Studio 2015? What I mean is this:
    In the default structure, projects from Studio 2011 are saved in "Studio 2011 > Projects", and projects from Studio 2015 would be saved in "Studio 2015 > Projects". Is there any reason why I should not simply save all Studio 2011 and Studio 2015 projects in one single folder, e.g. "Trados projects"?

    I would say NO.
    In my case ALL projects are in q:\business\clients\client name\job number\...
    And this means Studio, MemoQ and Transit projects. No problems whatsoever.

    BTW, Q:\ is a network drive, a QNAP NAS.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.