Tickstory

Yes, I confirm that the 4 steps are just as I have outlined with nothing else being done in between those steps. Had there been any other steps, I would have stated them.

Yes, the Data store is on the same drives as the installation, and both S: and D: are fixed internal hard drives (not removable) and formatted as NTFS.

However, what does the Data Store have to do with it? This is not an export problem, but to do with the "MT4 Data Editor"!

Just as I have stated before, with the help of the "Unlocker" tool, "TickStory" is the only application accessing the file. There is no other access to the file by any other application/process. The fact, that by unlocking the "TickStory" process from the file (with "Unlocker"), allows it to continue with the save operation, clearly indicates, that "TickStory" is the one locking the file for some unknown reason under particular conditions. No other application is to blame.

However, I do agree that some particular environmental differences may be causing "TickStory" to behave is this peculiar manor. If you have a debug version of TickStory which produces a debug log, I would be happy to run it for you on my systems in order to find the problem.

Hi FMIC,

Thanks for the clarifications. We just need to clarify as much as possible just in case we've missed something. We have never seen this issue occur unless some other applications are involved in the mix somehow. For example, if MT4 is running, it is still a potential candidate for fully reproducing the problem since it can be using the file and causing a knock-on effect somewhere in Tickstory. If you can confirm that no other applications that potentially use the FXT are running, then this would be appreciated. Tickstory does not open any FXT file on a fresh start, so it is a bit confusing how a single instance can be locking a file it reportedly cannot open for writing.

Re: "Data store", apologies, what I was referring to was the MT4 data location and whether it was on the above-mentioned drives. Obviously if you are exporting MT4 data, there is a potential that the files are still locked for some reason. However, since you have confirmed you are only performing the 4 steps described from a clean start, then this shouldn't be the cause.

We can only determine at this stage that the lock may be due to either 1) An error that occurred while writing the file, causing it to be left open (although this does not appear to be the case) or 2) The operating system not having flushed the file to the disk yet, causing the file to be locked.

At this stage, we still cannot reproduce the error with the mentioned steps. Thanks for the suggestion to review the issue further on your machine. We will need to review the code to see if we can trouble-shoot with the information you have given us first.

Thanks.

I am now confirming for the THIRD time, that no other application is running and that no other process is locking the file!!!!

With regards to disk cache flushing, I've previously tested that possibility by forcing a complete system file cache flushing of all drives, but the lock remains active on the file by "TickStory".

However, If I leave "TickStory" and the "FXT Editor" dialog box window open for approximately 5 to 10 min and then check on the lock status again, by then "TickStory" has release the lock on the file and is then able to save it properly, but as soon as it does this, it locks it again and is not able to save changes for a second time without waiting another 5-10 mins for the lock to be released.

PS! I am a software developer and IT consultant by trade!

Thanks for the last piece of information. It sounds like there's something O/S-related that we'll need to see if we can work around and let you know.

Could it be related to .NET version and not OS?

What .NET version are you targeting?

It could be the case - some reports are suggesting the .NET framework is not releasing the file until an explicit garbage collection is done. Certainly appears to be symptomatic to what you describe - Tickstory does not have any in-built 5-10 minute delay to release any file locks. All our tests are done on the most up-to-date NET v3.5 SP1.

Hi FMIC, we have PM'd you with some details about running a test version for us.

Thanks.

I have exactly the same problem. When I try to click SAVE it complains every time and MT4 is not running. I too managed to confirm that it was Tockstory itself that locked the file and managed to unlock it with a that mentioned tool, and then I could save the file. But, now the file seems to be corrupt. When I run my backtests on that one timeframe I changed they are super fast and my model quality becomes N/A.

Hi Gostahulden,

We are going to release a fix for this shortly in v1.7.1. Thanks to FMIC we have been able to identify and resolve the issue.

Regards.

Hi all,

The latest v1.7.1 provides a fix for this issue. A big thanks to FMIC for assisting us with trouble-shooting the problem.
More information can be found here:

http://tickstory.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=766

Regards.