Community
    • Login

    Suddenly Notepad++ repeatedly crashing on opening >250MB FASTA files

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Help wanted · · · – – – · · ·
    7 Posts 2 Posters 4.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • Kausik DattaK
      Kausik Datta
      last edited by

      It started happening this morning. The same files that I had opened until yesterday evening are crashing Notepad++ repeatedly. These are FASTA (plain text) files with protein sequence data. I haven’t changed or updated anything. Only four plugins seem to be installed (by default) - Converter, MIME Tools, NppExport and Plugin Manager. My computer is a Core i7 CPU with 16 GB RAM running 64bit Win10 Pro. Can someone please help with this issue? Thanks in advance.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • dailD
        dail
        last edited by

        You’ll have to provide more info. What version are you using? When does it crash? Define “crash”…is there an error message? Do you have periodic backups enabled?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Kausik DattaK
          Kausik Datta
          last edited by

          Thank you for answering, @dail. My apologies for the inadequate information. The version seems to be the latest, v.6.9.2.

          By ‘crash’, I mean that the Windows Crash Dialog Box comes up, saying “This Program has stopped responding. Windows is checking.[…] Close Program”.

          Even if a file opens after I relaunch Notepad++ several times, it crashes again the moment I try to select all the text by pressing Control-A (necessary for a file wide operation - removal of blank lines).

          I have no clue about the ‘periodic backups’ you mention, sorry. I don’t know why this is happening, especially since Notepad++ is apparently rated for ~2GB-sized files without any issue.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • dailD
            dail
            last edited by dail

            I have no clue about the ‘periodic backups’ you mention, sorry

            Make sure Settings > Preferences > Backup > Enable session snapshot and periodic backup is turned off. When working with large files this doesn’t play nice.

            since Notepad++ is apparently rated for ~2GB-sized files without any issue.

            This has never been the case. Depending on file syntax, etc I’ve never been able to open a file over 500MB.

            Couple things to try:

            • Most likely you have your settings saved in the %APPDATA% directory, so delete (or temporarily move if you want to save them) any XML files which has your settings.
            • Disable your plugins. You can rename your plugins folder (probably in C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++) to something else and restart N++
            • Open the file and run View > Summary to see if that works, if so tell me the file length.
            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Kausik DattaK
              Kausik Datta
              last edited by

              Thanks again, @dail. I have turned off the periodic backup, and also deleted the backup file I found in the backup folder in %AppData%.

              I was mistaken about Notepad++'s file opening capabilities then. In any case, my files are FASTA/text files about 250MB in size. Since you have opened 500MB files, mine shouldn’t be any problem.

              I moved the themes and plugins subfolders, as well as the XML files, from N++ AppData folder; I disabled the plugins by renaming the plugins folder. On opening the file (it opened this time), I ran the view summary. It took a little while (and I noticed it was using ~12.5% of the CPU to do so), but the summary box popped up. The file length is 273 651 070 bytes, which sounds about right.

              However, the moment I tried to select all the text (in order to run the blank line removal operation), it crashed again. So, no joy! :(

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • dailD
                dail
                last edited by

                Since you have opened 500MB files, mine shouldn’t be any problem.

                That isn’t a hard limit and there are other factors that play into this, but if the file is too large then you’ll immediately get a message when trying to open it that the file is too large.

                Thanks for the info. I’ll try a few things but really don’t know anything else you can do other than possibly trying an older version of N++.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Kausik DattaK
                  Kausik Datta
                  last edited by

                  Thank you for trying to help, @dail. I really appreciate it. However, since my need was immediate (I have to use these files at work today), I searched on the internet and found another text editing program - which opened the file without any issue and also handled the blank line removal smoothly. I really liked the N++ interface, but sadly, I must move on.

                  Best regards to you.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • First post
                    Last post
                  The Community of users of the Notepad++ text editor.
                  Powered by NodeBB | Contributors