Can't open anything in Atom 1.63

[zurg3]

Prerequisites

• [ ] Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Reproduced the problem in Safe Mode: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/#using-safe-mode
  • Followed all applicable steps in the debugging guide: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/
  • Checked the FAQs on the message board for common solutions: https://discuss.atom.io/c/faq
  • Checked that your issue isn't already filed: https://github.com/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+user%3Aatom
  • Checked that there is not already an Atom package that provides the described functionality: https://atom.io/packages

Description

After updating Atom from 1.60 to 1.63 I can't open any file, even "About" menu.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Launch Atom Editor.
2. Try to open any file from the project.

Expected behavior:

Files should be opened.

Actual behavior:

Nothing happens.

Reproduces how often:

Always since I updated to 1.63.

Versions

Atom 1.63.0 x64 OS: Windows 10 21H2

Additional Information

...

[hwdsl2]

This seems a major regression in 1.63 on at least macOS. This version can't open any file (the file open dialog is not displayed). Please pause automatic updates to this version, or release a new version with a fix. @sergiou87

[hwdsl2]

Also pinging @sadick254, thank you for looking into this.

[sergiou87]

Thanks for your reports @zurg3 and @hwdsl2

@zurg3 I can open folders and files and files within a project normally from Windows 10. Could you uninstall and then install it again and see if that fixes your issue?

@hwdsl2 We'll try to get a fix soon, however I've noticed it does work when you use the keyboard shortcut (Command + O) and only fails when using the File -> Open… menu (and only on macOS, it works fine on Windows)

[hwdsl2]

@sergiou87 Thanks for the quick response. I can confirm that using the keyboard shortcut (Command + O) works, while using FIle -> Open menu fails. This is on macOS.

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 Thanks for your advice! But I decided to reinstall Atom 1.63 over the current installation. It didn't help, still have the same problem. So I tried to install version 1.60. This version works fine (as before). Maybe there are some breaking changes/compatibility issues in 1.63 when I update? This is the first time I had problems after updating Atom. So I'll stay on 1.60 for a while.

[sergiou87]

Weird 😕

Have you checked if any of this helps? * Reproduced the problem in Safe Mode: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/#using-safe-mode * Followed all applicable steps in the debugging guide: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/ * Checked the FAQs on the message board for common solutions: https://discuss.atom.io/c/faq

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 By the way, I couldn't open even "Settings" menu in 1.63. The only working way to open the settings menu was "Open Package Manager" menu item.

[sergiou87]

@zurg3 If you open the Developer Tools (View -> Developer -> Toggle Developer Views, or just the shortcut Control+Shift+I) do you see any messages when you try to perform any of those actions?

[Trixlight]

It only seems to affect the main window from session 1.60. Files open normally in new windows. File > Close Window or Ctrl + Shift + W fixed the problem for me.

[sergiou87]

@Trixlight do you need to File > Close Window every single time you open Atom? Or you just did it once and now it always works as expected?

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 I've tried to use atom --clear-window-state and atom --safe commands. This didn't help :( And I got no new messages in Developer Tools Console when I try to open "About Atom", "Settings" or any file.

[sergiou87]

@zurg3 I've tried doing stuff on 1.60 and then upgrading to 1.63 and it always works perfectly fine: the list of folders/repos and files opened remain, and I can open new files and other tabs like About/Settings normally. I can suggest renaming/moving your C:/Users/<your-user>/.atom (keeping it as a backup) and then open 1.63 and see if it works as expected. The consequence is all your settings are reset (but backed up) and we can know if any of those settings caused the problem.

@hwdsl2 We found the cause of that issue and will submit a fix shortly. It was a quite obscure bug 😅

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 After renaming my .atom folder to a backup folder and launching Atom, it works fine! So what from the configuration folder might be incompatible with 1.63? 🤔

[sergiou87]

I have no idea 😕 If you start recovering those changes incrementally (installing plugins one by one, changing your settings one by one) and you find that behavior again, we could pinpoint the problem to a specific setting/plugin 🤔

[zurg3]

I only had 5 installed community packages: atom-ide-ui, ide-php, ide-typescript, ide-json and sort-lines. But I tried to disable all of them, also launched Atom in safe mode. It didn't help. So I'm not sure that those packages might break something in 1.63.

[zurg3]

I'm comparing new and old .atom folders. I don't see any significant differences in config files. But the old blob-store folder size in bigger than new. And the old one has .node-gyp folder and some cache folders in .apm.

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 Finally I figured out what was causing the problem! I decided to make a copy of my old .atom folder and remove/backup files from it until Atom will work properly. After I made a backup file for .atom\storage\application.json, I can open About and Settings menu items! But why didn't I have problems before 1.63? 🤔

My application.json contents:

{
  "version": "1",
  "windows": [
    {
      "projectRoots": [
        "D:\\Atom",
        "D:\\Git\\arch-linux-info",
        "D:\\Git\\jekyll-blog",
        "D:\\Git\\my-stuff",
        "D:\\Git\\notepad",
        "D:\\Git\\test",
        "D:\\Git\\ut99-taunts-soundboard",
        "D:\\Git\\zurg3.github.io",
        "D:\\Pascal",
        "D:\\Python",
        "D:\\XAMPP\\htdocs\\zurg3.loc"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

[sergiou87]

@zurg3 interesting! Maybe it's related to those projects?

I think the last test would be removing one by one until Atom works (or add one by one until Atom breaks), and see which one is and if it has anything particular that could cause it 🤔 Once you find it, leave only that one and remove every other project. If Atom is broken with just that project, we have a "winner" and can investigate further 😄

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 I've tried several different combinations of added project paths. Every path was added at least once. Sometimes Atom worked properly, sometimes not.

[Trixlight]

@Trixlight do you need to File > Close Window every single time you open Atom? Or you just did it once and now it always works as expected?

I have to do this every time I close Atom.

[sergiou87]

@zurg3 that sounds crazy 😐 Thank you for such a thorough investigation. However, as you can imagine, I expected to see a pattern there but nope, it seems just random 🤯 What happens if you open and close the app many times without removing a project? Does it sometimes work and sometimes not work? 🤔

@Trixlight could you rename/move your C:/Users/<your-user>/.atom folder (keeping it as a backup) and see if that still happens?

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 I've opened and closed Atom 5 times with the same projects (Atom and jekyll-blog, for example). And every time it worked fine.

[Trixlight]

@Trixlight could you rename/move your C:/Users/<your-user>/.atom folder (keeping it as a backup) and see if that still happens?

No. But at what cost? :) Sorry for the late reply.

[zurg3]

@sergiou87 Could you consider a version that something's wrong with Atom's built-in Git/GitHub package in 1.63? Because when I created a new file in my Git-project (jekyll-blog), it wasn't shown in unstaged changes until I clicked "Fetch". Also switching active Git repository isn't work when I can't open anything in Atom.

[sergiou87]

@Trixlight if you keep it as a backup, you can restore it later. I'm just interested in knowing whether the bug you see is related to your settings, or to something related to the setup of your machine 🤔

@zurg3 I've considered that, yeah, but the last time the git library (dugite) was updated was 2 years ago: https://github.com/atom/atom/blame/3fb9d4dd116ed45aab41c02800c1156ad5c245c8/package-lock.json#L2856 😕

[paddotk]

I have the same problem, and what's worse, Atom is discontinuing its development as per now. Not only is it strange and bad that they leave it in a broken state, but I definitely don't get why it suddenly stops working without any updates. Opening a local file should not be reliant on an internet connection/service.