Error: specified data directory “\IP.Ad.re.ss\release\Folder"does not exist #25868

1. 
   card0384 commented at 7:33 pm on August 18, 2022: none

   I have the entire Bitcoin installation on a storage share. From \IP.Ad.re.ss\release\Folder\bitcoin-qt.exe i have a shortcut on my Desktop to start it and in registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bitcoin\Bitcoin-Qt\strDataDir is \IP.Ad.re.ss\release\Folder. This has worked well for several years. The last working version for me was bitcoin-0.21.1-win64. I have now updated to version bitcoin-23.0-win64. At startup, the error comes from the title. After copying back version bitcoin-0.21.1-win64 it works again immediately. I use Windows 11 22H2 - including all updates with Core I3 8100T and 10GB RAM.

   the release is on a QNAP. The release itself works because the bitcoin-qt.exe is also started by the same. I am using bitcoin-core from bitcoin-23.0-win64.zip website

   debug.log writes nothing to its error - only the dialog box on start bitcoin-qt in version 23.0 win64

   Many Thanks for fixing it. card0384

2. card0384 added the label Bug on Aug 18, 2022
3. maflcko added the label Windows on Aug 18, 2022
4. 
   fanquake commented at 10:15 am on September 2, 2022: member

   @sipsorcery any thoughts here?
5. 
   hebasto commented at 11:20 am on September 2, 2022: member

   Looks like the issue is related to Windows native format implementation of QSettings…
6. 
   card0384 commented at 11:33 am on September 2, 2022: none

   Unfortunately I can’t do anything with it - I use the ready-made bitcoin-qt.exe and it always ran without problems.
7. 
   sipsorcery commented at 6:28 pm on September 2, 2022: contributor

   @card0384 maybe it’d be worth mapping a network drive to your Qnap and using that instead of the UNC path? That might make Qt happier.
8. 
   card0384 commented at 12:12 pm on September 21, 2022: none

   Thank you very much for the tip, could you please restore the functionality in the next releases so that bitcoin.exe can be started directly from the network drive again? Many Thanks
9. 
   pinheadmz commented at 3:46 pm on March 20, 2023: member

   I wonder if this is related to #27246 and fixed by #27273 ?
10. pinheadmz assigned pinheadmz on Jun 2, 2023
11. 
    willcl-ark commented at 3:21 pm on April 10, 2024: member

    @ryanofsky are you working on this?
12. 
    willcl-ark commented at 3:56 pm on October 14, 2024: member

    Closing this as it has not had any activity in a while. If you are interested in continuing discussion on this, or you feel that it is sufficiently important, please leave a comment so that it can be reopened.
13. willcl-ark closed this on Oct 14, 2024

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14. 
    ryanofsky commented at 9:43 am on October 16, 2024: contributor

    re: #25868 (comment)

    Looks like the issue is related to Windows native format implementation of QSettings… @hebasto do you remember what this comment is referring to? I don’t see how the qsettings implementation would affect this, since the setting seems like it is read successfully.

    re: #25868 (comment)

    I wonder if this is related to #27246 and fixed by #27273 ?

    I think this problem is probably not related to those issues, because the error message ‘Error: specified data directory “\IP.Ad.re.ss\release\Folder"does not exist’” indicates Bitcoin is checking the right folder, so must be reading the setting, but for some reason it is not finding the folder. In current code and in 0.21 this error is triggered when the CheckDataDirOption function fails, which in 0.21 was checking fs::is_directory(fs::system_complete(datadir)) and in current code is checking fs::is_directory(fs::absolute(datadir)). These really should be equivalent, so it is unclear what causes the bug.

    The described behavior does sound like a bug if it is still happening.

Contributors
card0384 fanquake hebasto sipsorcery pinheadmz willcl-ark ryanofsky

Labels
Bug Windows