Leading and Trailing Spaces

Topics in this section:


Overview

Windows does not allow creating files or folders with names that begin or end with one or more whitespace (ASCII Space 0x20) characters. This is also true within the Desktop Connector workspace. In releases before Desktop Connector version 16.2.x these whitespace characters were not handled well and could cause crashes when syncing with the cloud.

Note: Desktop Connector 16.2.x begins handling these characters more similarly to Windows behavior.

Troubleshooting Whitespaces

In Windows, whitespaces refer to characters that are used to represent empty space or gaps between text or other characters. These characters include spaces, tabs, and line breaks and can be defined as a leading or trailing space.

  1. A leading space is defined as a space character at the beginning of a file or folder name. A file or folder with leading spaces occurs when the file/folder name begins with one or more spaces.

  2. A trailing space is defined as a space character at the end of a file or folder name. A file or folder with trailing spaces occurs when the file/folder name has one or more spaces at the end of the name. We know that files and folders with trailing whitespace (space character) in the name will not sync.

    Leading Trailing Spaces Image

Tip:

After removing the leading or trailing space, you may need to manually fix references to files that are in the renamed folder.

Important: During project subscription (select projects command) if you subscribe to a project that contains folders with a trailing whitespace then you will see a dialog that informs you that invalid folder or file names have been identified.

Why is this important? We know that files and folders with trailing whitespace (space character) in the name will not sync. In this scenario Placeholder files cannot be created on the local machine even though the file may be visible through the web interface.

What are the symptoms?

This message will continue to appear each time you restart Desktop Connector to remind you that Invalid Folders or Files have been identified.

Lean More Video

Selecting the link to "View list of impacted files and folders" will start Windows Notepad opening up a text file to display the paths where the impacted files/folders are located. You can fix the trailing space by renaming the file and/or folder in the web version of Docs.

Trailing Spaces Identified

Selecting the Learn More link will take you to the Leading and Trailing Spaces Help Page for additional information.

Selecting OK will close the dialog box and ignore the invalid folders and files.

The following behaviors are known problems when leading and trailing spaces have been encountered.

Duplicate Folders with a Trailing Whitespace

Important: If you are on v16.0/v16.1/v16.1.1 of Desktop Connector and having the duplicate folders created (one with trailing space character as shown) Desktop Connector is likely crashing on startup. The underlying issue has been resolved in 16.2.x but upgrading to 16.2.x will still crash on startup initially. The following steps outline how to resolve the crash and the underlying issue causing the crash.

Leading Trailing Spaces Image

Follow these steps to resolve the crash on startup:

  1. Upgrade to 16.2.0.2007 or greater (this is a required step)
  2. Shut down (Exit) Desktop Connector.
  3. Delete the workspace C:\Users\username\DC\ACCDocs.
  4. Restart Desktop Connector.

Location of Whitespace Logs

Desktop Connector will collect information on whitespace logs and place the information in a text file at the following location: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\Logs

White Space Log Location

There are two scenarios where a log file will be created.

  1. The log startup_whitespace.txt will be created at the time Desktop Connector discovers any whitespaces when subscribing to a project.
  2. The log Subscription_whitespaces_NUMBERS.txt will be created when Desktop Connector discovers any whitespaces that have been added since project subscription. The NUMBERS name refers to your specific client number collected within the logs.

Related Concepts: