Dreamweaver crashes apparently caused by corrupted cache file
October 29th, 2007
It seems as though the cause of the European clock change crashes on Dreamweaver CS3 is a corrupted file called WinFileCache-[random_numbers].dat. On Windows XP, it’s located at C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration. On Vista, it’s at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration. Simply delete the file and restart Dreamweaver. This still hasn’t been confirmed as the definitive solution, but it seems to work on most systems. It certainly fixed the problem for me.
[Update]: This has now been confirmed as the solution. Dreamweaver creates a new version of the file as soon as you relaunch the program.
Entry Filed under: Books, Dreamweaver
57 Comments Add your own
1. Musings of a code slave &&hellip | November 1st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
[...] The solution is to delete WinFileCache-********.dat, which was apparently corrupted by the clock [...]
2. Doc | November 7th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I experienced the problem when the clocks changed here in the US. Deleting the above mentioned dat file resolved the issue.
Thanks tons…sad that I had to get this info from a user and not from Adobe…
- Doc
3. Neil Eisenberg | November 7th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I had the same problem and spent hours trying to find out the issue. Its amazing that Adobe hasnt been more proactive about this but THANK YOU so much!
4. Rob Milne | November 9th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I also lost hours on this issue. Between endless automatic updates from MS and recent bloatware from Dell, I was ready to revert to an old backup of the entire system to try to get some stability back.
I hate to think how much time it took to isolate something as bizzare as this. Thanks a TON is an understatement.
5. Craig B | November 13th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Just wanted to add my thanks for sharing this tip which I was fortunate enough to find straight away with a quick Google search for ‘dreamweaver cs3 crash’. This info has saved me loads of time and frustration — cheers!
6. Chad A | November 13th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I’ve lost faith in the software companies to fix their own wares. It’s much easier to see what the masses have come up with and implement the solution.
Just started happing this morning, and within 2 mins, it’s fixed. Didn’t even bother hitting Adobe’s site.
7. David | November 13th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Chad A, don’t be too quick to condemn software companies. The fix for this particular problem came directly from Adobe. I reported it to the Dreamweaver team before anyone realized that it was triggered by the clock change. Within less than 36 hours, an Adobe engineer suggested deleting WinFileCache-********.dat as a possible solution. Over the following few days, an Adobe quality engineer (David Alcala) did further tests to confirm the findings. My only role after reporting the problem was to blog about the solution. I’m glad you found it here, but Adobe played a big part in getting to the bottom of the matter.
8. robert | November 21st, 2007 at 12:38 am
Delete the Caps folder if you are unable to delete the Adobe Creative Suite 3 product or they are not listed.
On Windows:
Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\caps\caps.db
Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\backup\caps.db
On Mac OS:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/caps
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/backup
9. Hans Grimm | December 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
thanks for this fix! i already started using DW8 again because of the crashes.. now I can fire up DW CS3 without a hitch! thanks again.
10. Gary | January 13th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
This worked for me. Thanks.
11. Mark | January 18th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Brilliant – this has been driving me mad for weeks.
Thanks
12. kevin | March 1st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hi
I have deleted the site cash files, the cab files, and it still crashing. I removed my site from dream weaver and the program will open, when I relink the site back ind it goes to update the site cache dream weaver crashes 1/2 way through it
any ideas ( could it be a bad file on my site causing this)
13. Eric | March 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hi,
I experienced the same problem as everyone here. However, when I navigate using the path suggestion for Vista I cannot find the folder beyond (e.g., AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration). I’m hoping you could provide me with another route. Doing a search for the folder and file turned up nothing. Help…please.
Thanks,
Eric
14. Eric | March 27th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Last post may be confusing. I can’t find the folder beyond . For me there is no AppData folder. There must be a way to get to this file. Thanks for your help.
Eric
15. Jacob | April 8th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Eric,
It may be that you need to show hidden files? In Windows Explorer, click on Tools -> Folder Options, then click on the View tab, and make sure Show hidden files and folders is selected.
I just thank my lucky stars that people DO blog about things like this, as I’ve been getting pretty worried about my CS3 installation too. It’s just been crashing completely, and just have to close it down. I’ve just done what the post said, and given it a quick test and it already seems to be working – fingers crossed it has fixed it for good.
My issue was brought on by Daylight Saving being switched off for winter down here in Tasmania. Who on earth would have thought that ending daylight saving would crash my Dreamweaver/??!!!
16. Luke | May 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 am
This fix does NOT work for me!
I use Dreamweaver CS3 on XP.
The error I received said the following file was corrupt.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\backup\caps.db
I ran chkdsk and it “truncated” the file to fix the “corruption”.
Dreamweaver still wouldn’t start.
Next I found the file mentioned here and deleted it.
ie. WinFileCache-********.dat
The splash screen stayed up for a bit longer but then it still all just closed.
Next I deleted both the /backup and /caps folders (thus deleting the two versions of caps.db).
Still nothing. The folders and files get recreated and Dreamweaver just shows the splash screen then doesn’t open.
Next I tried deleting those files again AND deleting the SiteCache files in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration.
Still nothing, except a little progress bar window pops up for a split second.
???
I will try uninstalling and reinstalling next.
Grrr…
Also, I only had the problem with a corrupt caps.db file today. I live in Australia and there is no daylight saving change today (May 2).
17. David Powers | May 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 am
Luke, if reinstalling doesn’t work, you need to get in touch with Adobe support. The caps.db file has something to do with licensing. When things go wrong with that, life can get very frustrating with Adobe programs. The clock change affected a huge number of people in the northern hemisphere last October/November, but the problem didn’t reoccur when the clocks changed again in March.
18. Luke | May 6th, 2008 at 8:12 am
I ended up having to reinstal Windows XP for another reason. I haven’t reinstalled Dreamweaver but hopefully there won’t be any more problems.
I have a legal copy of Dreamweaver CS3 but a while ago installed a not legal copy of Photoshop CS2. They both worked fine together for quite a while but maybe Adobe was smart enough to discover it and punish me for having a not legal Adobe product installed.
19. Claudia | June 27th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Thanks for the fix, it solved half of my problem with Dreamweaver CS3 crashing on Vista.
After reinstalling DW,deleting the “Configuration” file and renaming the last site I was working on I can now start DW flawlessly…
but I am unable to work on that last site in DW.
As soon as I create the site cache DW crashes.
My guess is that this issue is related to spry, as the crashes started when I removed spry data from the last page I was working on.
Do you have any idea on fixing this?
Thanks
20. David Powers | June 29th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Claudia, if one site is causing the crash, it almost certainly means that you are affected by a little known bug. Any file that is an exact multiple of 8,192 bytes causes Dreamweaver to crash. Examine the file sizes in Windows Explorer. Open any suspect file in a text editor, add a few blank spaces, and save the file. If it’s an image, move it outside the site folder. You should then be able to restart Dreamweaver without crashing.
21. Carol | June 30th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Wow. That is unbelievable.
I’ve been struggling with this for about 7 hours; been on the phone with Adobe; uninstalled and reinstalled Dreamweaver.
Adobe’s solution was to create a new user account and use Dreamweaver with that account, which would have caused all kinds of overhead with other apps installed & configured for main user account. This appeared to work because I had created a new site with a slightly larger .css and hadn’t yet opened the 8192 file. I am assuming that user account would have had the same problem eventually.
Nothing worked until I read David’s post above and put some whitespace into my .css file, which was exactly 8,192 bytes before.
THANK YOU, David – you just saved me from a nightmare!
Carol
22. Anthony | August 16th, 2008 at 1:29 am
You just saved my bacon! thank you so much! its 2.27 am here in the UK and ive been working flat out on a site to deadline. I too was hit by the 8192bytes css bug! thats so random i would have never found that file so thanks a million. If i could buy you a drink right now i would!
Ant
23. Victor | August 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I just started getting crazy when I found your post.
Thanks a lot,
Victor
24. Rob | September 12th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
David Powers, thankyou from the bottom of my heart.
Here I am working on a critical project at 1am, and Dreamweaver just dies and won’t come back up.
All because I hit save on a multiple of 8192bytes.
Unfuckingbelievable.
25. Neil | October 2nd, 2008 at 7:32 am
I have been up for hours trying to fix this, reinstalling and messing around with with the site cache with no success.
Sure enough the last file I was working when it crashed was css file at 8192….
Thank you David!
26. Ivan Chervenkov | October 26th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Thank you so much!!! Now I must reassemble my laptop…
27. shonk | October 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Same thing happened to me today, but bizarrely on XP but not Vista. Fixed it a treat, thanks
28. Shannon . | November 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
If you have this problem and cannot see the AppData folder or Application Data folder; Go to the folder you are supposed to see it in and type ‘Application Data’ or ‘AppData’ at the end of the URL field at the top of the Explorer window. This should take you to the hidden folder.
Reason being that sometimes, your workplace security policy might prevent you from seeing these folders even though you are admin; We had 16 DWcs3 developers crying this morning before I found this solution. Thanks a bunch, all of you!
29. Daniel | November 6th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Thank you! It solved my problem!
30. Holly | November 14th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Thank you so much! And thank you Shannon, that was the case for me.
31. Carla S. | December 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
WOWZA! I’m so amazed and glad someone figured the 8192/css issue out, and I am very appreciative along with the rest of the people here. All of a sudden, I couldn’t open one of my css files without Dreamweaver crashing, and I had no clue why. In Windows Explorer, the filesize did not appear exactly that, it was a tad larger. However, I removed a portion of the css I wasn’t using in Notepad, and voila, it opens again in Dreamweaver CS3 without crashing! It apparently had to be the same issue, though. How bizarre.
32. Angie | December 20th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
OMFG, thanks for the 8192 bytes-or-multiple issue! I had 24 older renamed versions of my Config dir already (Vista). Crashed randomly apparently. I even have DW8 installed back for certain sites 9 would crash on every time…
Really unbelievable, how does one find out something like that???
33. David Powers | December 20th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Glad to have helped, Angie. I discovered this particular problem with the help of an Adobe engineer in the final days just before Dreamweaver CS3 was released. I put it in my book about CS3, but it was too late for the software to be fixed before it shipped. Fortunately, the problem has been fixed in Dreamweaver CS4.
34. Chad | January 27th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Thank you, it worked!
35. Trip ALexander | February 1st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Holy mackerel Batman! Apparently I had the dreaded 8192Kb bug. You just saved my proverbial butt!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I would like to defend Adobe QA though. This would be an almost impossible bug to catch. I have run QA and Development teams in the past, and while this was really an issue for me, I would double the salary of the person who discovered this one prior to release!
36. Perra Jonasson | February 5th, 2009 at 9:27 am
That worked for me, thank you very much.
37. Very annoying | February 11th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I’m using Dreamweaver 8 where its still Macromedia. It crashes on the Splash startup, when it says “initializing Files..” it does not have error message, Just vanishes off the screen.
I’ve checked,
/users/{username}/appdata/roaming/macromedia/configation/ there is no .dat file there.
ah! I really need this on, just moved to a new pc, and now finding this ain’t working…
But Fireworks 8 still runs
38. David Powers | February 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
@Very annoying: Is your new PC an Acer? If so, there’s a known conflict between Dreamweaver and Acer eDataSecurity Management v3.0. You can find a patch at http://www.egistec.com/oem-acer001/program-update.html.
39. jimmyb | February 11th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
On Dreamweaver crashing at startup: Deleting the cache file as stated in previous posts did not work for me. Also could not find a file size of 8192 bytes.
I renamed my site folder from which I was working and having the the problem. Dreamweaver would then launch, however it was looking for the old site name, and it asked me to choose or add a new site. . So I started building the site again one piece at a time from the old folder, launching DW everytime I added something new. Turns out there was a corrupt CSS file which was 427KB. When I opened it, was all hieroglyphics. I removed that, and built the CSS again, and all is well.
40. Aaron | March 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I was getting sick and tired of Dreamweaver (and it used to be such a stable program) The thing was crashing on me over and over. No rhyme nor reason.
You could go in and out of code/design view… crash. You could load up a blank CSS file… crash.
You could stare at the screen and not even do anything… crash.
I was moments away from scrapping DW CS3 and going with a new product until I tried this out of desparation, and booyeah, no more crashes.
If you ask me, whoever found this fix is owed a paycheck by Adobe. Something in the neighborhood of $3000 would be appropriate, seeing as Adobe doesn’t even patch older software versions, leaving most everyone SOL in most cases.
41. David Powers | March 16th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I can’t remember who found this solution. It might have been me, but as you can see from the date of my original post, I first reported on it 18 months ago. The clock change certainly affects CS3, but this same technique solves most unexplained crashes with all versions of Dreamweaver, so it’s always worth trying if Dreamweaver becomes unstable.
Of course, if you’d like to send me a cheque for $3,000, I won’t object.
42. Jon | March 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Astounding – renamed the cache (safer than deleting) – everything’s working again
THANK YOU
43. Jason | March 19th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Another quick fix, after deleting the files is still did nor work for me. I was using comodo Internet Security. I had turned it off by exiting the program. After restarting the computer I turned off the firewall again, after more trying I turned it on after giving up on dreamweaver so i could browse the web. Later on I turned on dreamweaver and tried again Voila it worked but the firewall poped up a warning box. Try checking your firewall.
44. dora | March 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for the quick fix…it took me some time to find the folder…but eventually did find this awful WinFileCache-[random_numbers].dat
Thanks for making my day!
45. MJ7 | April 8th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Just a quick note to say I ran into the 8,192 bug in CS4 – so it looks like Adobe have NOT fixed this bug in CS4.
46. Brent in SD | May 21st, 2009 at 4:11 am
Holy Freak’en Fuch Man!! Thank you so much for this post!!! I think you should include the 8,192 byte comment on the main post.
Your Awesome Man!!
47. Jamon | July 11th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
This is the second time I’ve run into the 8,192 bug…just wasted a half hour fiddling with it. The last one was long enough ago that I didn’t remember it. Thanks for the reminder.
For search engines, here’s a few queries that may be looked up that would find their answer here:
Dreamweaver crashes on startup
Dreamweaver crashes after splash screen
Dreamweaver crashes on site
Dreamweaver crashes after opening site
Dreamweaver crashes randomly
48. danggee | October 15th, 2009 at 3:15 am
i have this kind of problem also. i cant find any file named: WinFileCache-[random_numbers].dat under this path C:\Documents and Settings\Karla\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration. Is there any other way to solve this issue for now?
49. richard | October 25th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
thank you so much! the clocks just went back here and this fix solved the problem straight away!
50. David | October 26th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
THANKS from me too. I just spent an entire afternoon trying to solve this issue. The solution (at the top of this thread) worked for me too. THANKS AGAIN now I can get on with some work !!!
51. Greg Hogan | October 29th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
MANY THANKS from me also. Dumping WinFileCache-[xxxxx].dat cured my problem too.
I thought I knew all the Dreamweaver “emergency recovery” tricks, but this is a real stinker.
I have both DW8 and CS3 installed on the same system and the same page that crashes CS3 on load, works perfectly in DW8.
Very confusing. THANKS AGAIN!!!!! and back to work.
52. Rob | November 4th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Thanks for this fix. Worked for me on Vista.
Yesterday, I was going to reinstall CS3 – glad I didn’t.
53. Alan | November 11th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Worked like a charm.
We changed our time the weekend before last and I was having various issues with pages to the point where I realized it was all the pages I had edited prior to the time change in the US.
For those that are worried about deleting files just rename the file “old_”. Which is exactly what I did and resolved the problem.
Thanks!!!
Alan
54. Nathan | November 20th, 2009 at 2:09 am
THANK YOU!
55. Bert from ANIMAGO | November 30th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Many thanks for this brilliant solution of this stupid bug!!!
56. PSDesign | December 17th, 2009 at 4:59 am
OOOO MY GAAAAAWD,
As the rest of the Congrats, this was truly a life saver, I was ready to put my head through the wall until somehow I came across this post. Holi crap lol still mind bottled over what the cause was. Thank you ever so much.
Peter,
Canada
57. Don | December 20th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Holy f’n mother of pearl… I only spent about 2 days on this fix but thank goodness I found this. I cleared it, and boom the menu now works again, magically… Magically delicious… And the 2 days was worth it now that I’ve found the cure…
Thanks all, especially David Powers… Now I know why I buy your books.
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