Repair option for 2022 / 2023 products?

[Simon_Weel]

Up to product version 2021, there was an option in Add / remove programs to Repair or Reinstall a product. For 2022 / 2023 products, it's no longer there - the only option is Uninstall. Which is a bit drastic.

There was a problem with Revit 2023 and since there's no longer a repair option, I tried re-installing the program using the original deployment. The installer ran for hours after which I killed the process. That didn't make things better, so I opted to Uninstall Revit 2023 and then re-install from scratch. Uninstaller also ran for a pretty long time and then I ended up with a program folder mostly empty, but the program was still listed in Add / remove programs, although without the snazzy logo. Clicking it again ran the uninstaller, with the same result as the first try.

I was curious what would happen if I now tried to reinstall Revit 2023, so I gave it a try. The installer takes it's time, so I had Program Monitor run along to see what's going on. It looks like the installer first checks every file in the deployment, which adds significantly to the install time. Anyway, kept an eye on the program folder and at some point, it started populating the folder with files. And after a while, it started removing those files. Several hours later, I ended up where I had begun. Sigh.

Now the repair option in older versions didn't always resolve all problems. But it did a pretty good job in solving small problems. So for the newer versions I wonder, where has it gone? And is there some other repair method? 

[DarrenP]

the repair/reinstall options were removed with 2022 & higher the only option is uninstall

then do a clean uninstall if needed: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Clean-un...

[mdavis22569]

It's been removed .. but a few people at Autodesk have been looking at this as an option to maybe bring back. 

it was a discussion I started on LinkedIn Autodesk page. They are now seeing that sometimes this is needed and I've been told that it's being looked at for some kind of option or workaround ... 

[Simon_Weel]

So I managed to re-install Revit 2023, but not without serious effort.

It all started with this message:

Missing schema folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Revit Schemas 2023.
Repair your installation or contact Autodesk Support.

I should have searched for this in the first place, but decided instead to try a repair, as described above. The first attempt to repair Revit failed. So I followed the 'clean install' KB article. Second attempt. Installer runs forever. So I have Process Monitor running along to see what happens. Well, basically, nothing. That is, there are a couple of processes very busy writing to log files in C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Autodesk\ODIS; installer.exe writing to DDA.log and DDA-UI.log and DownloadManager writing to DLM.log. If I check those logs, they are crowded with identical lines. For DDA.log:

2022-11-10T17:25:49.463 [DDA: 9984, single] [Installer INFO] [Autodesk::DDA::BaseHandler::{ctor}::<lambda_20a742db0dddb05b9a2b39e951593bef>::operator () ]   [IPC] UI ChannelWin::Listen: WaitForSingleObject timeout. error_code: 997, pipe_name: \\.\pipe\adsk_dda_sdk

For DDA-UI.log, this line is listed over 3000 times:

[2022-11-10T16:25:56.617Z] [10656] [debug] processing pending data: {"command":"POST_INSTALL_COMPLETE","request":{"AllUPI2":"{B4E35F04-D559-35E9-AB70-E0131AF7AB5B}->{93A4555F-658F-398D-B266-5F3DDAE498ED}","eventSource":11,"eventTarget":1,"restartRequired":false},"source":"DDA_CORE","target":"DDA_UI","version":"DDA_V1"}

DLM.log only lists this over and over again:

[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:31] (10564) network speed vector : [ 151,45,22,22,45,22, ]
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:31] (10564) network statistics, mean speed : 51 : median speed : 45 : absoluteArea : 102 : datapoints : 6
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:31] (10564) current download worker count : 1 active download worker count : 0
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:31] (10564) baseline [0,0,0,0,]
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:31] (7176) current network speed is : 151
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:34] (7176) current network speed is : 23
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:34] (7176) Current CPU utilization = 9
[info]::[2022-Nov-10 17:27:37] (7176) current network speed is : 45

I  don’t see the installer copying any files to the program folder.

See this screenshot. I filtered out all logfile actions. Over a time of about 13 minutes, nothing happens. I had the installer run for 24 hours and it had progressed to about 48%. Killed it.

Attempt number three.

Re-created the deployment off of the Account Page. Ran the installer. Took about 15 minutes to finish this time. Tried to run Revit. And 'Missing schema folder'. Finally did a search for this: Missing Schema Folder | Revit 2021 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

Searched the deployment for RevitUnitSchemas.msi, executed it and... 'There's a newer version installed already'. Really? Then why nag it's missing? Iv'e seen this 'newer version' thing before, so I searched the Registry for RevitUnitSchemas.msi and found  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\13F6CCDC32023094E8B95D267B60796B]. renamed this key to .old, retried to install RevitUnitSchemas.msi and this time it ran fine. Once installed, Revit also runs fine again.

Lessons learned. I'm not exactly sure what I learned? Maybe to create a fresh deployment and re-install it when problems arise? Don't spend time digging log files?

What I do know: the ODIS installer is, let's say, immature. For example, it shouldn't idle along for hours, just writing useless information to log files. And I'm sure there's plenty of other flaws that need addressing.

And I do wonder why Autodesk has introduced this installer in the first place? Why not stick with something that's been proved over decades of use? And if you really must use a different installer, then it should be significantly better as existing methods. For example, I would like a Docker-like thing. Pull in an image, unpack it and off you go.

[mdavis22569]

Little bit of work ... sorry to see you having this much issue.

[mdavis22569]

@Simon_Weel 

Were you able to get this resolved ( I know it's a lot of work seeing from what you posted) '

You know also now they removed the repair/reinstall  - I'm working to get it back!!  

Mike 

[Simon_Weel]

@mdavis22569 as mentioned, I solved the problem. For now. Not very eager to install updates for 2022/2023 products - they seem to do more harm than good.

[mdavis22569]

I'm verifying as that ticket was on a list that Autodesk had me checking the status on