Eagle hangs on 'new project' and 'open project' (SOLVED)

[mgrusinAJJCB]

Eagle 9.6.2 premium, Windows 10.

I have decades of Eagle projects in a directory called Github and until now have not had problems doing so.

Right now when I try to create a new project in that directory or a subdirectory, or try to open an existing project, Eagle hangs forever (spinning pointer, eventually have to quit by hitting the 'X', waiting for "eagle.exe is not responding", then "close program"). When I restart after trying to create a new project, a "New_Project" folder has been created, but if I try to "open project" on it, Eagle hangs. Github desktop is not open.

If instead of opening a project, I choose "file / new schematic", I get a blank schematic BUT a warning that "board and schematic are not consistent" (!). If I switch to the (should be blank) board, it has a few components on it left over from the last time I created a design block (many months ago; I've since worked on other boards without issue).

Annoyingly, if I try to create a project in Eagle's default projects directory (which I don't use), everything works fine. I can open and close the project. Creating a new schematic results in a blank schematic and a blank board; no leftover components. (If I drag that working "new_project" to my Github directory and try to open it, Eagle hangs.)

So my Eagle installation is for some reason in an indeterminate, brokenish state. Is there a way for me to reset things?

Thank you! -Mike.

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi @mgrusinAJJCB,

I hope you're doing well. The fact that you can create working designs in the default projects directory hints that something has changed with the Github directory. Has your Github client updated recently?

You could try re-installing EAGLE but my gut feeling is that the issue is more likely due to a software update on your machine.

[mgrusinAJJCB · Accepted solution]

Hi Jorge, thank you as always for your quick reply, it's very much appreciated.

I found the problem, but it took a while. Reinstalling didn't help. And projects worked everywhere except github which was very strange - there's nothing unusual about the github directory; they just add a few tracking files to each repository folder. But it turned out that in my github directory there was an old windows shortcut to documents, which is the parent of github. I can't remember why I made it or if I did so by accident, but the shortcut was dated 2019.

I'm guessing that when creating or opening a project, Eagle traverses the project directory for some reason (even when creating a project in a subfolder), and when it hit that shortcut it jumped up to documents and started traversing there. It would eventually hit github again, which includes the shortcut, and jump back to documents, and get stuck looping forever.

Once I deleted the shortcut, Eagle seems to be acting as expected when creating or opening projects. I can only guess that for recent work I haven't been creating real projects (maybe because it would lock up so I just skipped that part?) and I've been saving files to bare directories.

Thank you again for your help, and if someone else complains about this ask if they've got a shortcut in their project directory.

Best, -Mike