User Defaults Issue

[Primatebuddy]

Bug Description:
There seems to be an issue with filesystem access in Surge XT in Windows 10. I have encountered a number of problems:

1. could not create a "Surge XT" folder under C:\users<me>\Documents
2. could not open SurgeXTUserDefaults.xml for writing when switching skins from the default to Surge Dark
3. Exception occurred while creating category folder when saving any preset.

Surge XT Version

• Version: 1.1.2d3568a9 also NIGHTLY-2023-03-21-06a6c9e
• Plugin Type: CLAP, also standalone
• Bitness: 64 bit

Reproduction Steps:

1. install Surge XT from the main website

2. launch Surge XT from the start menu

3. observe the first error, unable to create Surge XT folder in C:\users<me>\Documents

4. create a Surge XT folder manually (if this is not done, Surge crashes upon selection of the skin)

5. click the menu button and select "Skins...Surge Dark"

6. observe the error "could not open SurgeXTUserDefaults.xml for writing"

7. create a SurgeXTUserDefaults.xml manually

8. close Surge XT

9. reopen Surge XT, notice that the skin is back to the default

10. attempt to change the skin to Surge Dark again, observe the error once more

11. notice that the manually created SurgeXTUserDefaults.xml is still 0 bytes

12. in the main Surge XT window, click "Save"

13. change the category from "Templates" to "abc"

14. leave the name "Init Saw"

15. change Author to "abc"

16. click save, observe the error "Exception occurred while creating category! Most likely, invalid characters were used to name the category..."

17. click ok

OTHER STEPS

1. click the patch name to open the patch browser
2. under Functions, click open user patches folder
3. nothing happens
4. click "open factory patches folder"
5. observe that the factory patches folder opens

Expected Behavior:

1. expected user folder to be created
2. expected user defaults file to be created
3. expected to be able to switch skins permanently
4. expected to be able to save user patches
5. expected to be able to open the user patches folder from the patches browser

Screenshots:
If applicable, add screenshots/GIF/videos to help explain your problem.

Computer Information (please complete the following!):

• OS: Windows 10 Home version 22H2 build 19045.2728
• Host: REAPER, standalone
• Version: 6.78 win64 rev f121cd

Additional Information:
I guess this covers it.

[baconpaul]

Not to be super obvious but: are toh running your daw with permissions to write to your document directory? This sounds like an os config problem nor a surge one; other than in macos we can’t explicitly ask for documents permissions

[mkruselj]

I cannot confirm over here on W10, and I'm pretty sure we'd get this sort of issue way more considering majority of our userbase are Windows users...

This definitely seems like a W10 permissions sorta thing.

[Primatebuddy]

@baconpaul @mkruselj it seems that way, but I have explicitly defined wide open permissions on the Surge XT folder that I created and it didn't make a difference. This is in standalone mode.

As to the DAW, there were no other issues other than with Surge XT, so it didn't seem like a widespread ACL issue.

In any case, I wiped the damn thing and reinstalled Win 10, then reinstalled Surge XT and it worked as expected. Some component must have been corrupted within Win 10 and didn't really have the patience to track it down, especially with the so-so logging in Windows (I am normally a Linux user).

I think this issue can be closed at this point. Appreciate the help though!