• Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Topic: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder (to edit it):

(1) Click the 'Open Gallery...' button on the 'Start' tab (or select 'Gallery -> Open...' from the drop-down menu at the top of the application).

(2) In the pop-up 'Select Gallery Folder...' dialog window:
Mac - Navigate towards and then double-click the gallery folder.
Windows - Navigate towards and then select (with a single left-click) the gallery folder (not a file within the gallery folder) and click the 'Select Folder' button.

In the 'Select Gallery Folder...' dialog window, it is important that you select the gallery folder itself (and not a file within the gallery folder).
The gallery folder must contain the gallery's configuration file which must be named 'config.xml' (this is what JuiceboxBuilder-Pro looks for).
If you have changed the structure of your gallery since saving it (and use a configUrl or baseUrl to rename or move the configuration file), then JuiceboxBuilder-Pro will not be able to open the gallery.

NB
In the 'Select Gallery Folder...' dialog window, you'll just see folders (that you can navigate within to find the gallery folder, if necessary) but no files.

  • Registered: 2025-02-20
  • Posts: 8

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

At first, I couldn't open a new gallery.  That problem was solved by replacing the latest version of Adobe Air with the suggested one.  The program still doesn't delete the .tempGallery, so I have to clean up after it every time I need to create a new gallery -- part of a large project that is coming along quite well.

However, I am unable to open an existing gallery, whether or not I have deleted the left-over the temp file.  The behavior is as reported by others, the open gallery dialogue lets me navigate to the gallery folder, which I select, but then just returns me to the select new/old gallery screen.  What I'm doing is quite simple, all of the required captioning is already in the source image files, but I would like to be able to tweak gallery information or settings or even work with individual photos, rather than deleting and recreating them in the event a minor change is required.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

If you continually have to delete the .tempGallery folder, then double-check that you are not saving or trying to load galleries from a location being synced to an online file-sharing service (e.g. Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive).

If you have already gone through the list of suggestions in this forum thread (which I'm sure you have by now), then I'm not sure what else to suggest.
I don't know what is causing your installation to fail to open your gallery and just bounce back to the Start panel. I've never actually seen this happen myself.

The only troubleshooting tip that I can think of is for you to zip your gallery and send it to me so that I can try to open the gallery myself and see what happens. If you don't want to post it publicly here in the forum, you can send it to me at steven@juicebox.net. If the zip file is too large for an email attachment, upload the zip file somewhere (maybe your website or a file sharing service) and email me a link.

Maybe there's a problem with the gallery's configuration file. If you open the gallery's 'config.xml' file directly in a browser and there's a problem with the file's XML syntax, the browser should let you know what and where the problem is.

Maybe your gallery sets the captions or titles to use IPTC data and there's a problem with the embedded data in one of your images that is causing JuiceboxBuilder-Pro to fail.

Unfortunately, without being able to see the problem for myself, troubleshooting is tricky. Having your gallery to inspect is the best chance I've got of being able to replicate your problem.

The problem may not be with the gallery itself but it's something we ought to check.
Unfortunately, other than all the possibilities in the forum thread I linked to above, I'm not sure what else to suggest.

  • Registered: 2025-02-20
  • Posts: 8

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

I had already noticed that the JuiceBox files ended up in the Windows Documents folder, and that, although I have no recollection of asking for it, OneDrive is in fact trying to manage that folder. 

But OneDrive is on a fool's errand here.  All of my computer activities are project-based, so I don't have a meaningful use for the Documents folder.  Instead, I use my own directory structure across two drives, with high-level folders for specific projects.  Seeing that whatever OneDrive is doing with the Documents folder is irrelevant to my actual requirements, I will need to disconnect OneDrive from that location, or else arrange somehow to host the JuiceBox files somewhere else.  What's the most straigntforward way to accomplish that?

If that change happens to fix the issues I've noticed, that would be great.  I think it should be tried before I dig deeper.

  • Registered: 2025-02-20
  • Posts: 8

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

PS:  At least under Windows 10, disconnecting the Documents folder from OneDrive isn't an option.  Not possible, the documentation says. 

So, the issue is to reconfigure JuiceBox so the files now in the Documents folder end up somewhere else, in a way that can be protected from OneDrive or other synchronization programs.  Since the whole point of such programs is to provide secure backup and recovery, an application that depends on files that can't be backed up seems somewhat out of step.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

I think the fact that your Documents folder is being backed up by OneDrive is most likely the cause f your problem.
It's a personal preference but one of first things I do when I install/reinstall Windows on a system is uninstall OneDrive.

The ultimate solution would be for JuiceboxBuilder to pick a different location for the .tempGallery folder but, unfortunately, this is hardcoded into JuiceboxBuilder and not user-changeable.
All you can do is persevere to try to exclude your Documents folder from OneDrive (or disable/uninstall OneDrive completely).

There seems to be a lot of people online wanting to exclude Documents from OneDrive. Maybe these links will help:
https://www.tenforums.com/general-suppo … drive.html
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/290 … -10-a.html

Even if you cannot exclude the entire Documents folder from OneDrive, maybe you could exclude the JuiceboxBuilder-Pro folder inside Documents.

7 Reply by realmac (edited by realmac 2025-03-07 22:59:16)

  • Registered: 2025-02-20
  • Posts: 8

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

At least for the moment, SUCCESS!

Navigating to "OneDrive-Personal" in File Explorer, I selected Settings.  Under the "Sync and backup" tab, I selected "Manage backup" and turned off everything.  Then, still in the Settings, I selected "Account" / "Choose folder", where I was able to deselect Documents.

That process left me with two Documents folders, one under OneDrive, the other, now without much of anything in it, under "This PC".  I still had the Juicebox install file in my Downloads file, so I reran the install, which ended up in the "real" Documents folder under "This PC".  I was able to open an existing directory, and the hoped-for editing options appeared.  Meanwhile, there is no longer a Documents folder in OneDrive, but as far as I know, there really wasn't anything significant in it before I disconnected the link with OneDrive.

This experience tells me that OneDrive is structured in a way that is fundamentally at odds with putting the user in control of the PC.  It gets in the way of ordinary management of what is on your PC.  I think it may be designed for too many, contradictory purposes that are entangled, when logic would dictate that they ought to be separate but able to communicate with each other when requested by the user.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

At least for the moment, SUCCESS!

That's great! Thank you for posting back to let me know.

  • Registered: 2025-03-19
  • Posts: 1

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

realmac wrote:

At least for the moment, SUCCESS!

Navigating to "OneDrive-Personal" in File Explorer, I selected Settings.  Under the "Sync and backup" tab, I selected "Manage backup" and turned off everything.  Then, still in the Settings, I selected "Account" / "Choose folder", where I was able to deselect Documents.

That process left me with two Documents folders, one under OneDrive, the other, now without much of anything in it, under "This PC".  I still had the Juicebox install file in my Downloads file, so I reran the install, which ended up in the "real" Documents folder under "This PC".  I was able to open an existing directory, and the hoped-for editing options appeared.  Meanwhile, there is no longer a Documents folder in OneDrive, but as far as I know, there really wasn't anything significant in it before I disconnected the link with OneDrive.

This experience tells me that OneDrive is structured in a way that is fundamentally at odds with putting the user in control of the PC.  It gets in the way of ordinary management of what is on your PC.  I think it may be designed for too many, contradictory purposes that are entangled, when logic would dictate that they ought to be separate but able to communicate with each other when requested by the user.


Thanks for sharing your solution, @realmac!
I ran into a similar issue with OneDrive interfering with file locations, and your step-by-step fix helped me understand how to take control of where Juicebox stores its files.
It's frustrating when cloud services override user preferences, but at least there's a workaround. Hopefully, a future update will allow users to manually set the .tempGallery folder location.
Thanks again for the detailed breakdown!

  • Registered: 2018-11-09
  • Posts: 6

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

Similar problem on a Mac 6,1 using 15.3.2 operating system. The last Mac OS update, from 15.3.1 to 15.3.2 might have changed something. Open JuiceBoxBuilder-Pro, get opening screen, will not open an existing gallery or let me create a new one. Was working a few days ago before the latest OS update.

Have tried all the tips, turned off iCloud Drive, removed JuiceboXBuilder-Pro, installed Adobe Air update, downloaded most recent version of program (1.5.1) and reinstalled everything.

Was able to open one gallery just fine and thought problem was fixed. Went to open another gallery and same problem...won't open or create a gallery.

Went to Activity Monitor application with program running and found files in /private/var folder and /Users/my name/Library  and tried deleting those files. (Can send a specific list if you like.)

No change. Have tried so many things now I can't remember all, but did remove a .plist and a JuiceboxBuilder-Pro folder from my user folder which I later restored from a backup.

Any ideas of what to try next would be appreciated.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

@jerryfields

I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble with JuiceboxBuilder-Pro on your Mac.
I wish I could be of more help but it sounds like you might already have tried everything that I'm aware of.

Over the years, I've been able to collate all the problems and solutions that users have run into and I've documented them here in the forum.

You've no doubt seen and tried most of (if not all) the suggestions but, for the sake of completeness, here are the two threads/posts I think might be most relevant to your problem.
Unresponsive New Gallery and Open Gallery buttons in JuiceboxBuilder - https://juicebox.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5295
Troubleshooting JuiceboxBuilder installation and usage problems - https://juicebox.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5114

... installed Adobe Air update...

It's also worth noting that you'll need to be using AIR v33.1.1.744 (and not the latest version, AIR v51. See here for details: https://juicebox.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5318

Also, if you have a Mac which uses Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4 hardware), you may need to open JuiceboxBuilder-Pro using Rosetta.
This is noted as a Known Issue for Mac users on the AIR download page: https://airsdk.harman.com/runtime

Launch failure on M1 hardware. Some AIR applications will fail to launch when run on a device using Apple Silicon (M1 / ARM hardware). To work around this, please right-click on the application icon within Finder, choose "Get Info", and on the resulting dialog, select the checkbox "Open using Rosetta".

It's also mentioned here in our forum (with instructions and further links): https://juicebox.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5289
Here is the Apple support page regarding Rosetta 2: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527

I don't think the AIR or Rosetta issues will be relevant to your problem (I don't think you'd have made it as far as JuiceboxBuilder-Pro's 'Start' panel otherwise) but I thought I should mention it.

Once again, I'm sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you but maybe other Mac users reading this can chip in and help out.
If I think of anything else that might help, I'll be sure to post back to let you know.

12 Reply by jerryfields (edited by jerryfields 2025-03-20 17:48:21)

  • Registered: 2018-11-09
  • Posts: 6

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

Today I uninstalled Adobe Air and JuiceboxBuilder-Pro. I click on the application(s) in the Applications folder then select See Package Contents. Generally there will be one folder called contents. I delete that folder then delete the application. I did this for Adobe Air and JuiceboxBuilder-Pro. Note for Mac users: Go to Users folder and find yours. Inside there is a Documents folder. In there you will find a JuiceboxBuilder-Pro folder. Delete that folder as it remains after deleting Air and Builder-Pro.

Reinstalled Air 33.1.1.744 as specified. Installed Builder-Pro 1.5.1. Program now opens as it should. Opened a couple small existing galleries OK. However,, when I tried to open my largest gallery, I had the spinning circle that indicated the gallery was loading but then it quit as did the program...no more opening the galleries I had previously opened and could not create a new gallery.

Went through the uninstall - reinstall process again and all works as before but I will not try opening the gallery that crashed the program. Have no idea why program crashed; if there is a log I should be looking at or a .plist that may give a clue I would like to examine it. Gallery is large, nearly 70 images, but it had opened before after a fairly long delay. Other galleries that opened contained around 40 images.

I could be a unique problem as my Trashcan Mac 6,1 (late 2013) is running Mac OS 15.3.2 via OpenCore legacy patcher and I have run into memory allocation problems with other programs, notably the web browser Vivaldi which is based on Chrome. I do have an 8-core processor and 64gb of ram.

For now I will try to recreate my large gallery from scratch and see how many images I can load until the program crashes again. Should be interesting.

The config.xml files for all the galleries I tried opened fine in both Safari (18.3.1) and Dreamweaver 2021 (21.4) so I don't think file corruption is the problem. Likewise, the index.html files open fine in both programs.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

It's interesting to hear that you are having trouble opening one particular gallery.

Two things spring to mind...

(1) There could be a corrupt image in the gallery that JuiceboxBuilder-Pro is choking on.
Even something as seeming innocuous as badly formatted metadata (which might not be enough to cause a visible problem when opening the image in a regular imaging program), could potentially cause JuiceboxBuilder-Pro to fail when adding the image to a gallery.
If you try to recreate your gallery from scratch and add your images in small batches, you should be able to find out if there is a rogue image.

(2) It could be a memory allocation problem.
If you try to add too many images to JuiceboxBuilder-Pro at once (maybe when opening a very large gallery), then Adobe AIR may not be able to allocate enough memory for the task at hand (causing JuiceboxBuilder-Pro to crash or hang). Even if your computer has plenty of free RAM, I seem to remember that Adobe AIR applications are limited to around 1GB of memory allocation.
The workaround for this is to add your images to your gallery in smaller batches. Trial and error will help to determine a safe number of images per batch (it will depend on your own images).
Having said that, I've seen this happen when adding images to a gallery but not when opening an existing gallery. Also, this usually only happens when trying to add hundreds of images at a time (and not just 70). I thought I should mention it, though.

To help with troubleshooting, you might like to send me your 70-image gallery to see if I can open it on my own computer.
I have a Windows 11 PC (admittedly nothing like your own setup) but I'll try to open the gallery using AIR v33.1.1.744 and JuiceboxBuilder-Pro v1.5.1.2 and let you know if it works for me (or if I find anything amiss). If you'd like me to try this, just zip your gallery, upload the zip file somewhere and send a link to me at steven@juicebox.net. Thank you.

  • Registered: 2018-11-09
  • Posts: 6

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

Steven:

Thank you for your replies. Yes, I had intended to add small batches of images as I recreate my gallery and see if the rebuild can be accomplished.

I have zipped the gallery in question. I will send you a link via e-mail. Look for a message from Gerald Fields with a subject line of Gallery that crashes JuiceboxBuilder-Pro.

Thank you for taking your time to help with this issue. I don't use galleries as much as I had in the past but would like to keep that option as long as possible.

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 5,945

Re: Instructions to open an existing gallery in JuiceboxBuilder

[Conversation continued via email. No Problem with gallery. I'll post back here if a solution to the problem is found.]