Preferences do not get saved for some weird reason

[rajkanneganti]

Here's the problem
I really have no idea why this is happening. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling Winamp and it still hasn't made any difference whatsover.

Is there anyone else facing this difficulty? Any kind of help would be greatly appreiciated

[PhranK]

hey there.
i'm having a similar problem, but with the opacity settings.
every time i start winamp, it's at 60% opacity regardless of what i had it set at last time i was running it.

i've changed it from the alpha blending tab on the modern skins preferences menu, as well as from the right-click windows settings menu, and it works fine for the current session but resets every time i restart winamp.

i haven't played around to find which settings won't save, but it seems some will and some won't.
at least the skin and the color theme don't reset, and a few others for sure.

i've been doing searches for my specific problem on here for about 30 minutes now without much luck, but if i find anything, i'll paste it here for you

so far, most of the suff i've found is regarding winamp3 and none of it has been relevant
mainly about the studio.xnf or winamp.ini files being set to read-only, which mine aren't.

hopefully some nice, well-informed person will happen upon this thread soon and save us both...

sorry i couldn't help, but at least you know you're not alone, huh?

[DJ Egg]

Well, more than often, this type of problem is caused by one of the following:

The preferences settings file, namely winamp.ini in the Winamp dir
has the read-only attribute, and therefore cannot be written to.
This would normally be the cause of rajkanneganti's problem.

The modern skin settings file, namely studio.xnf in the Winamp dir
has the read-only attribute, and therefore cannot be written to.
This would normally be the cause of PhranK's problem.

Make sure that none of the files in the Winamp dir are read-only.

eg. in WinXP, right click the Winamp folder, Select "properties",
and uncheck "read-only".
When prompted, say "yes" to applying this to all files within and all files in subfolders.

Alternatively, open the folder, select all files within except for SubFolders
(eg. Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+LeftClick to unselect the subfolders),
then File -> Properties -> uncheck: "read only", checkmark "archive"


If it's not this, then another reason could be that Winamp isn't closing properly,
so therefore the settings aren't being saved.
The usual cause for this is a slightly dodgy 3rd-party plugin,
or interference from some other concurrently running app/process.


Other possible reasons:

Not logged on as admin, and/or the Winamp folder doesn't have read-write permissions.

Some external system cleaning app (eg. Windows Washer or Tracks Eraser) is deleting the Winamp settings files (winamp.ini, gen_ml.ini, etc) and will need configuring not to do so. Try adding the Winamp folder to said app's exclusion list.

Or something weird like this

...and there's probably more!


Basically, the more info you can provide us with, the better chance we have of helping. Otherwise, it's all down to speculation.

Please provide system specs (pc or mobo make/model, cpu, ram, graphics & sound cards/chips, Windows OS, DirectX version) with every post that requires true technical support.

ie. a post asking how to enable/disable a winamp feature doesn't really require much info, but cases like this do.

Also tell us whether you installed on top of any previous version, whether Winamp 2.x or Winamp3, (as opposed to a proper clean install) and whether you've installed any 3rd-party plugins, etc etc.

[rajkanneganti]

DJegg thanks for your help.

Changing the file properties did not make a difference at all. The problem still persisted.

I tried the link you gave and Voila! its working perfectly. All I did is change the installation directory and now Winamp can save the preferences without any problem. Is this a bug? Should it be reported in the bug section?

Clean install Winamp 5.01
Running WinXP w/SP1 and all the latest hotfixes
Mobo is KT333
Running latest Cats for my R9700 Pro
Latest drivers for my AE as well

Thanks

Raj

[DJ Egg]

No, I don't think it's a bug, because if it was, it'd affect more people than just one or two. Many, if not most people have Winamp 5 installed to the default dir (C:\Program Files\Winamp), including me, and don't have this problem.

Naturally, it would be nice to know the cause of the problem though...

[alevine]

I think i've figured this one out. Its not a bug in Winamp, its just a security technicality in windows:

this probobly only happens to windows 2000/xp users because of the way the interface is set up in those OSs. If an administrator installs the program and then a non-admin tries to run it, windows has already set those files as read only so that the non-admin cannot tamper with them. The solution is to log into windows as an admin, and then right click on those files, go to properties, and uncheck the read-only box. Having done that all the users on the computer will be able to use the program correctly.

[rwwood]

A related problem is that different users are unable to save different settings due to the fact that Winamp uses a single .ini file to store all settings. Even after changing the read-only settings to allow other than admin to save settings, if user A changes settings, logs off and user b logs on and changes settings, user A will have to change them the next time he/she uses the machine.

This should be added to future version as current OS's are geared toward multiple users and usage tends to not be limited to one person.

HTH,
RWW

[DJ Egg]

Yes, multi-user support is planned for a later 5.x release.

For now, try the Winamp Profiler plugin v0.8 | Latest version v0.81

[edit --> 2006]
Old thread revived. This issue is resolved as from v5.2x where native multi-user support was implemented. [/edit]

[ahafeez88]

Hey dudes. After a whole 5 minutes of research i found out the problem. Well it fixed mine hope it does the same for you.

1. Open notepad
2. Click "Save As"
3. Go To C:/Program Files/Winamp
4. save the file as "winamp.ini"
5. Close Notepad
6. Open Winamp , apply all your settings / preferences
7. Close winamp and re-open. It should be the same. If you look at winamp.ini now it will be full of settings.

Good Luck and hope it works out for you

[PulseDriver]

Actually, 5.24 is the first time I experienced similar

When I save playlist, and try to open it again, it's empty..

None of the above did help :/
I even tried to re-install Windows XP.

I use single user (the old behavior) type of install, from the Full free install version of winamp.

[siebe83]

What exactly do you mean by "when I save playlist"? This thread is about Winamp settings (including the current playlist) not being saved.
If you are saving a playlist as m3u and it comes up empty when you open it, that may have a different cause. What type of entries are in the playlist?

If it's the current playlist that is not saved properly on Winamp exit, please provide system specs (read this!).

[RaceLunar]

Ive been having a similar problem... This happens about 50-75% of the time for me. For example, if I give 5 stars to a few songs (a crapload in my case), add new music to my library, edit my current playlist, even change the color of winamp's skin, then try to close winamp, everything I did would not save, and revert to the way it was before. it's like Winamp has amnesia...

Since I'm the only user on my PC (Admin), I'm going to leave that multi-user problem out of the equation. I have un-checked the "read only" mark on the folder (and everything in it), and I am going to try and close winamp... I'm scared because I've edited a Ton of ML data recently... hope this works!

There really needs to be some "Save ML Data" option or something somewhere... I don't want to have to risk closing Winamp everytime I want my data saved. besides, if Winamp's not the first thing in my taskbar then I go crazy, not function properly, and eat people. Winamp's my right-hand-man, I've loved it for years...

I think they call that "Obsessive Compulsive" or something.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.
Wish me Luck!!

[Artic Eddy]

Hi All,

Sorry for digging up an old topic, but couldn't seem to find a more recent version, maybe not looking hard enough? Checked greatest hits and that, but didn't show up.

On XP, limited account, none of my preferences save. Got the admin to uncheck the read only box on the Winamp folder, but no dice still.

My mate has winamp, and I got it installed here cause I like how his playlist was already there when he opened it up, but now my skin wont even stay the same after I close it.

Furthermore, I always get the box when it first opens up regarding the survey etc, and regardless of what boxes I tick or fill in, it always re-occurs.

Help!

[DJ Egg]

Do you have any cleanup apps installed like Window Washer or Tracks Eraser?
If so, then you'll need to configure said app to not delete Winamp's config files (winamp.ini, gen_ml.ini, studio.xnf, winamp.m3u, winamp.m3u8, etc) on Winamp exit.

If it's not that, then make sure you installed Winamp with 'separate settings per user' and not 'shared settings for all users' (screen 5 of the installer options).

A multi-user setup is required for limited user profiles, because Winamp cannot write to the Program Files folder under limited profiles, but can write to the user's profile folder (%appdata%\winamp).

[Artic Eddy]

If the option for "separate settings per user" was not selected, can that be changed?