This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about CoffeeCup VSD to me. Time and again I can open folders and files that are on the desk top or other locations and they show up fine. Then, I open VSD and click Open Website. I navigate to the same folder and start clicking. File > Open Website (I navigate and locate the folder.) > Click on the folder > See the files > Click the file > Keep clicking deeper and deeper till I see nothing but "Files" and then it's empty. "No items match your search."
I can shut it all down, come back, open the folder outside of VSD, and all the folders and files are there. I can click on them and they open and look just like the website. I go back to VSD, and I can never find them. This happens all the time.
Where are the files hiding? I had a site to crash and I have to start all over. I have all those files saved in a folder. But VSD doesn't seem to recognize it, and I can't start re-building my site. It should be a simple matter to just upload all those files. I can see them outside of VSD, but I can never see them when using VSD. So, until I do and can start uploading them again I can't rebuild my web site.
Please help before I get the hammer.
Thanks!
Don

Hi Don,
Are you sure your looking in the correct user folder on your pc? I had this happen to me after a hard drive problem.

Yes, I'm sure. In fact all of my web site info, even the info for other sites I have, disappears when I try to find it through Coffeecup.
I just made a special folder called "Coffeecup" and put it on the desk top. I went to my web site folder and opened it and saw all the files. I moved the folder straight to the new "Coffeecup" folder. I opened it again and saw all the files. I opened VSD, went to Open WebSite, went to the folder and the first icon shows that there are files in the folder. But the more you click, going deeper into the folder, nothing shows up. They all disappear again.
I'm sure it's something simple. What do you suggest now?
Thanks!
DS

My desktop has plenty of files with lots of documents and pictures. When I go through Coffeecup everyone of them shows to be empty. Actually, it says "No items match your search." Nothing will show up using Coffeecup to navigate to it.

CoffeeCups VSD does not look for, nor display, ordinary files. It will ONLY display and load a file ending in .VNU

When you create a site using VSD and 'save' it, it saves as a .vnu file. This is the file you 'open' to open your website. Other directories will show, but not the files. This is normal.

Once you create a file in VSD, if you 'move' the directory that it is located in, or any of the directories where the graphics were originally located on your computer, VSD will not be able to find them. You should decide where on your computer you want to save files for VSD, then create a 'Graphics' directory and move all graphics and images to that directory prior to creating your VSD site. You don't have to do it that way, but it makes it easier in the long run.

I thought every time you Saved something when working in Coffeecup that it Saved it as .VNU.

Is there a way I can go to the folders on the desk top and go through all the files inside and start saving in .VNU or does that have to be done through Coffeecup?

The other weird things is that after my site crashed that I got several things to go on line to begin reconstructing the web site. This is a site I've had on GoDaddy and I could find the files through GoDaddy and upload them again, but I had to do them one at a time and it's taking a long time to do.

Thanks!
Don

I use GoDaddy all the time. No problems.

You do not have to do anything special for VSD to save your website as a .vnu

After you create your website, save it. VSD will save the site as a .vnu file. The files needed for your site are also saved in various formats. HTML, CSS, JPG, PNG, etc ...

These are the files I think you are looking for. You do not open these files in VSD. You ONLY open the .vnu file. It will gather the other files. If you want to view your website on your computer, you can navigate to the directory where you saved them and double click on the index.html file. It will open your browser and display your site. You cannot edit it from here. You edit the site by opening the .vnu file in VSD.

After you save you site, if you move any of the files, then opening the .vnu file will result in graphics being missing and possible format issues. Don't move any files. What most users do is create a directory in which you want to save your website, then create a directory within that for website resources. Put all your files, logos, photos, whatever, within that directory BEFORE you add them to your website. Then don't move them. That way, when you open the .vnu file, it will find all the necessary files.

If you have lost your site (can't find the .vnu file) or have moved photos, logos and/or other graphics around, then you will have to reconstruct your site. If you published your site from with VSD there will be a copy of the .vnu file on your server. This will give you the basic layout. You can also download all your graphics. Then you can reconstruct your site.

I had two sites crash on GoDaddy. No one there can tell me why. One day the sites disappeared, and all the files did too.

I've saved everything I've ever done in VSD. I was very careful about that. So, how do I find them? What kind of search would I do?

As to GoDaddy, according to my memory and their records, these sites were renewed and paid in full, in advance back in February or March, I think it was. The sites vanished and all the files. After quite a few phone calls, no one at GoDaddy has an explanation. The only way I can get the site back is to start uploading everything, file by flle, picture by picture. I was hoping I could upload the whole folder with all the pictures and every thing else with Coffeecup and get it all done at once, and not have to spend hours uploading all this, one picture and file at a time.

But again, I've hit "Save" countless times in Coffeecup, being extra careful to save everything I did. Where are those files now and what kind of search would I have to do to find them? When I do a search for .VNU it shows some crazy organic farm files for that website, and I have no idea what that is or where it came from.

Thanks!
DS

That 'crazy organic farm' file is probably a theme file. Don't worry about it. For now.

There are many reason for sites to crash on a server. Even GoDaddy. Mine never has, but that doesn't mean it won't. You should always backup your site files, graphics, and any databases. Just as a precaution. I realize that doesn't help now, but in the future . . .

Okay, on your computer...I assume (and you can check) that you are using the latest version of VSD. Should be v7.0 Build 26. If this is not correct then you need to download and install the latest version. Make sure when you run VSD that you 'Run as Administrator'.

Start VSD and navigate to where you saved your web site on your computer. Click 'File/Open Website'. You should get a popup window ( speaking of which...which version of Windows are you using?) that may or may not show other directories and may or may not show any files. If files are shown ( and there should be at least 1 ) then under 'type' it should be listed as a 'vsd document'. This is the file to open your website as it was the last time you saved it. If that file is not there, you'll have to find it, or start over and re-create your website.

If that file is there, double click to open it. You should see your website in VSD. Do you? If not, or if there is some content but pictures, logos, text is missing then those files have been moved and VSD cannot find them. You'll have to add them back to the website again. Be sure to save all changes.

Once you get the website looking the way it should (in vsd) then it is time to publish your website to your server. Click on 'Publish/FTP Account Settings'. Add or modify the settings for your GoDaddy server account. If you are publishing to your root directory ( yourdomain.com) then leave the Remote Folder option blank. Use Port 21 and check to use Passive Mode. Make sure you save any changes. Then click Publish/Publish to publish your website. You may be asked to 'Choose a publishing location'. Make sure you select your GoDaddy account if you have more than 1.

Your website should now be live on the web.

Having said all that ... if you do not have the .vnu file, and you do not wish to start over ... you mentioned that you can upload all files 1 at a time but it takes a while. If you have the website files (html, css, graphics and such) on your computer, then you can upload these to your GoDaddy root. Don't use VSD to do this. Use DirectFTP from CoffeeCup. You will not have to do each file by itself. You can tag and upload entire directories. If you do not own DirectFTP then download and use the FREE version from CoffeeCup. It works just fine.

Hope this all helps. If all this fails, you will simply have to start over and re-create your website. Make sure to create a specific directory to save it in. Make sure to create a directory for all your site graphics and other files. Put those files in that directory BEFORE you add them to VSD and do not move them or that directory. Use VSD to publish the finished website to your server.

Let us know how it goes and if you still need more help. Thogh I'm not sure if there is anything more we can do. Good luck.

Again, it's not showing any files. I'm using Windows 7. This may take a phone call to CC to straighten out.