I had the following error take place and am hoping someone can help: I was chatting with a contact and decided to look back on what was said (local log) while actively chatting. The log came up and showed last thing said (as expected). However, with the log OPEN, when the contact wrote something new, the open log file crashed. It seems as though there was an issue writing to the log file while attempting to do so in real-time. In any event, all the history for that contact in that month up-and-disappeared never to be seen again.

I attempted to find the data (.ple files, etc.) through various methods to no avail. Any ideas on where the temporary file could have gone or how to retrieve it?

Thank you!

I can't reproduce this problem like you told it. Opening logs of the same chat you're chatting in goes fine and it updates (after pressing on the refresh button of course) like it should. No crashes while that log is opened in the Log Viewer while chatting further.

But there is unfortunatly no temporary file if you use local logging.

The log is opened directly from the file on disk (it is not copied to a temporary file first). The same goes for writing to the log; it is written to directly (not first to a temporary copy and then merged to the existing file).

As for the crash. This is a big bug indeed! And it is sort of crazy that it wasn't found before. As such, I do hope this is fixed ASAP.

Your log file however will mostlikely be lost, unless you can 'revive' it again using tools which search for removed files on disk. Maybe if you're lucky, portions of the log can be found like that.

Another option would be if you had online logging enabled: in that case the log may have been saved to your MyPlus!-account.

And even if it didn't (it failed to upload for some reason), you can maybe find the temporary file (online logging does create a temporary file) in a folder named 'plusTemp' in your TEMP folder of Windows or in the Plus! log directory (depending on how your Windows user account is set up). However, note that this temporary file is encrypted. In order to have the decrypted version you need to close Windows Live Messenger. Messenger Plus! should then tell you that not all log files have been uploaded and should ask you if you want to preserve them to try again later. You should answer yes. The log file will then be decrypted and saved in a subfolder named 'Backup' in your Messenger Plus! log directory.


PS: Also note that due to maintenance on the servers, it can take a while for the Log Viewer to show all the logs (it tries to connect to the server but it can't). During this time it may appear as if the Log Viewer has crashed though because it doesn't react on anything (depending on your internet speed of course). But in reality it is simply trying to connect. After a while it will give up and you would be able to continue viewing the logs.

I appreciate your reply, thanks. I'm sorry it can't be recreated, but I assure you this is what took place. I lost all my chat info for that contact from the beginning of April until the 16th of that month when the error took place. I guess there's not much that can be done, sadly. I just don't see how, if it's already written to the file, it can simply vanish without record!

Oh, and thanks for all the info! I'm glad you guys are following these posts so closely! It's a GREAT product and I've been using it for years without any issue. It's just unfortunate as the info I "lost" was kind of important. Again, I should mention that I had been reading portions of the log in April as it was all there. Nothing was lost until I opened the log file and received a new message while viewing that log. I may have F5'd for a refresh, I can't recall, I just know that all text was gone from April 1st to the 16th. The logging started fresh from that date onward and I still have from the 16th on.