Software Bisque Knowledge Base Article – 1238

RESTORING THESKY‘S SETTINGS

ISSUE

At times you may wish to restore TheSky‘s personalized settings to their defaults, a previously backed-up state, or duplicate your settings on another computer. (For help with backing up your settings, see Backing Up TheSky‘s Settings.)

These settings include preferences, toolbar and window configurations, .SKYX documents, observing notes, custom horizons, imaging system profiles, field-of-view indicators, TPoint data and models, and more.

NOTE: If you wish to reset only the Sky Chart settings, while retaining others (including the site location), simply use TheSky‘s File > New command and respond Yes when asked, Would you like to restore the default Sky Chart settings as well?  If this achieves your goal, you needn’t read further.

RESOLUTION

This discussion refers extensively to TheSky‘s Application Support Files (ASF) folder. Note that this is a description of the folder, not its name!…follow the link for details.

If you merely wish to restore TheSky to its default settings, you can rename or delete your current ASF folder. The next time TheSky is launched, the default ASF folder is created, which requires that you enter of your name and serial number (so be sure to have your serial number handy). If this achieves your goal, you needn’t read further.

The following procedure may be used to restore a backup of your settings. It assumes that your destination computer already has an ASF folder in place. If TheSky has never been run on that computer, we recommend that you first install and launch it (even if you cancel the serial number and license agreement), which will create a default ASF folder.

1. Mac: Use Finder to open the drive and folder containing the backed-up ASF folder*.Windows 10: Use File Explorer to open the drive and folder containing the backed-up ASF folder*.Windows (pre-10): Use Windows Explorer to open the drive and folder containing the backed-up ASF folder*.*Don’t open the ASF folder itself.
2. Right-click on the backed-up ASF folder.
3. From the pop-up menu, choose Copy; it’s normal that nothing appears to happen.
4. Mac: Navigate to your Library/Application Support folder.Windows 10: Navigate to your Documents folder.Windows (pre-10): Navigate to your My Documents folder.
5. Right-click on (don’t open) the Software Bisque folder. If this isn’t present, read the paragraph before step 1.
6. From the pop-up menu, choose Paste to write a copy of the backed-up ASF folder to the Software Bisque folder. (If you’re asked if you wish to overwrite the current folder by the same name, you may do so, or use a different name for the folder being pasted.)
7. Open the Software Bisque folder and, if it isn’t already, rename the just-pasted ASF folder as follows (according to the edition):*    TheSkyX First Light Edition    TheSkyX Student Edition    TheSkyX Serious Astronomer Edition    TheSkyX Professional Edition*If a folder other than the one you just pasted already has this name, you’ll need to rename that folder first, such as by adding the word “backup” to its name.
8. Launch TheSky, and the restored settings—including name and serial number—should now be present. If not, see the tips below.

Tips:

• If TheSky asks for your name and serial number, verify that you placed the backed-up ASF folder in the correct location (steps 4-5) and that it is named correctly (step 7). If the ASF folder was supplied by another user, they may have removed their name and serial number(s).
• If the chart settings are not as you expect (appearance, site location, horizon, etc.), try using the File > Open command to open your preferred chart settings file (these have the .SKYX extension).
• If you restored the ASF folder to a non-original location (e.g. to a different operating system, different user account on the same or a different computer, or a different edition of TheSkyX), see Transferring TheSky‘s Settings.
• If TheSkyX reports an error about read-only or locked files, it may be that the ASF folder and/or its files have been given the read-only or locked property by the backup-and-restore procedure. In this case, you should clear this property (see the WikiHow.com article, “How to Change File Properties“).
• If TheSky does not remember settings, especially if the ASF files were copied from one computer to another computer (particularly to a Windows 10 computer), you may need to change the ASF’s folder and/or file permissions for the current account.

To check the file permissions on Windows:

1. Sign in to Windows as an Administrator.
2. From Windows’ File Explorer, right-click on the ASF folder to open the context menu.
3. Click the Properties command to open the Properties window.
4. On the Security tab, click the Advanced button.
5. On the Advanced Security Settings window for the folder, ensure the Permissions tab is selected.
6. From the Permission entries list, select the account name you’ll use with TheSky.
7. Click the View button (or double-click the account name) to open the Permission Entry window for the folder.
8. Ensure that Full Control is enabled in the permissions list. (If the list is grey and unchangeable, refer to step 1.)Please consult the Microsoft Windows documentation for details about file permissions.

APPLIES TO

• TheSky First Light Edition
• TheSky Student Edition
• TheSky Serious Astronomer Edition
• TheSky Professional Edition

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by  Matt Bisque.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by  Daniel R. Bisque.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by  Daniel R. Bisque.
• This topic was modified 2 years ago by  Daniel R. Bisque.