Notepad++ doesn't show a normal text file

Cell Test

Hello,

I experience an odd problem:
I want to check a log file that contains pure ascii text, no formatting of any sort. It always worked with notepad++ but now, the screen just stays blank and the file is not shown at all. When something is added to the logfile, notepad++ asks if I want to reload it but also after reloading it, the screen is still blank.
I can check the log file with gvim, winmerge, wordpad, notepad, … without any problem and I can also check similar log files with notepad++, just not this particular one.
I’m using version 7.5.4 (32 bit).
Any ideas what might be causing this?

Thanks!

Cell Test

I uploaded a screenshot showing the properties of the file, the file in gvim and the blank notepad++ including version info.
Maybe this helps with finding the cause of the problem.

MAPJe71

@Cell-Test it might be helpfull to:

attach the actual logfile or at least part of the logfile which still gives the same problem;
include Notepad++ debug info (see ? menu)

Cell Test

Here is the debug info from notepad++:
Notepad++ v7.5.4 (32-bit)
Build time : Jan 1 2018 - 01:47:45
Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 7 (64-bit)
Plugins : AnalysePlugin.dll DSpellCheck.dll HTMLTag_unicode.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll NppFTP.dll NppTextFX.dll PluginManager.dll SpellChecker.dll XMLTools.dll

Since I didn’t see how to attach a file here, I uploaded it. You can download it here.

I copied the contents of the file to a file test2.log in the same directory and notepad++ displays that file as expected while it still just shows a blank screen when I reload test.log from disk. I copied the whole file from the original location to c:\temp\test and this copy is also not shown, so I have no clue what may cause the problem.

MAPJe71

Notepad++ displays the 22 lines of text and the one blank line of the linked logfile just fine.
Could you check by running Notepad++ without any plugins? i.e. rename plugins-folder or start Notepad++ with -noplugins command line option.

Cell Test

I run notepad++ without any plugins now:
Notepad++ v7.5.4 (32-bit)
Build time : Jan 1 2018 - 01:47:45
Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 7 (64-bit)
Plugins : none

and notepad++ still shows a blank screen with this file while it does show a copy of the file. I added screenshots to “blank screen” and “show”.
I can work with the copy but I find it quite odd and thought someone might have experienced something like this already. If not, I’ll just ignore it.
Thanks for your suggestions though.

MAPJe71

Yes, that’s strange. The last thing I can think off is an encoding mismatch.

guy038

Hello @cell-test, and All,

I uploaded your test.log file and I got, as expected, a displayable file, like @MapJE71 did !?

I just noticed that the Properties window of your file it gives a size of 2,264 Bytes. As for me, the size of the uploaded file is 1,501 bytes, only ! It’s an UTF-8 encoding file. where all characters code are under \x{0080}. So number of bytes = number of characters = 1501

Remainder :

To get the number of characters, of current file, looks at the length : zone, in the middle of the status bar
To get the number of bytes, of current file, choose View > Summary… and see the line File length (in byte)

I created a copy, with the UCS-2 LE BOM encoding ( which is the default Windows Unicode encoding ) and I got a file of 3,004 bytes. This is logical, as, with that encoding, each character is coded with two bytes + the invisible Byte Order Mark, in two bytes, as well => 2 x 1,501 + 2 for BOM = 3,004 bytes !

Unfortunately, this value is also different from the 2,264 one ! So, like @MapJE71, I’m at a dead end, too ! It could be interesting to open that specific file with an hexadecimal editor, which will give you the exact code point of each character !

Best Regards,

guy038