What causes the issue?
During an OS upgrade, Windows (e.g. Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 or Windows 10 to Windows 10 Anniversary Update) creates the directory "Windows.old" in the System drive and moves everything from the existing "Windows" folder, and replaces the existing folder with a new folder from the new Windows OS installation image.
This is a problem because the "C:\Windows" directory often contains essential information for applications like Nx Witness.
After an upgrade, the Nx Witness database is inadvertently moved to the new location which results in the Nx Witness Media Server application losing the ability to connect to the original Nx Witness database that contains licensing and login credentials.
How to Fix the Problem:
- Stop Nx Witness Media Server by right-clicking on the Nx Witness Tray Tool (located in the system tray on the bottom right-hand corner of the taskbar)
- Navigate to the following Windows directory:
C:\Windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Network Optix\Network Optix Media Server
- Copy files ecs.sqlite and ecs_static.sqlite
- Paste these files to the following directory:
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Network Optix\Network Optix Media Server
- Start your Nx Witness Media Server (using the tray tool)
- That's it - you're done. Confirm your system licenses have been recovered by logging into your system, opening the System Settings dialog, and viewing the Licenses tab.
If you're using HD Witness or Nx Witness 2.2.1 version or lower make sure to upgrade to the latest version of Nx Witness.
Questions
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Comments
4 comments
What if i can't find the old sql files in windows.old? I lost the licenses and settings after some sort of update
Hi Vincent.
Likely it's something different that should be investigated.
Please feel free to assign a separate ticket at the portal:
http://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Does the newer creators updates v1703 create a Windows.old folder, or has Microsoft named it something different this time?
Hi Jeff Jones,
We have missed your question so probably you got the answer already, but I'll answer is anyway.
The windows.old folder is created when you upgraded from Windows X to Windows Y, for example from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Since Windows 10 is around for quite some years now and a lot of hardware was 'born' with Windows 10 on it, you won't find the windows.old folder, since it never upgraded from Windows X to Windows 10.
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