Issue Description
Archicad cannot save a project if the project file is located in a folder that synchronizes with a file hosting service (such as Dropbox, Google Drive etc.).
On very rare occasions, data loss or file corruption may occur.
Note: BIMcloud operation is also affected by synchronization utilities. It is not recommended to synchronize BIMcloud content with such services.
Explanation
Archicad's Save function is a complicated process involving the generation of temporary files, lock files and extensive disk I/O operations.
The most popular synchronization clients don't check for file changes periodically, and try to synchronize whenever a change is detected on a monitored folder. While the synchronization client is waiting to send file changes, Archicad is still performing the save operation. This results in a system lockup where Archicad fails to successfully complete the project file save sequence.
Solution
- Avoid saving Archicad project files in a folder monitored by a cloud synchronization utility. If you need to save project files to such a service, use a third-party utility that supports copying/synchronizing files and folders locally with scheduling features. In this way, you can schedule a folder synchronization task between your Archicad project folder and a backup folder in the monitored folder of a file hosting service. There are dozens of third-party applications for such tasks. For example, the Open Source FreeFileSync application is quite popular and supports such workflows.
- If you insist on saving directly to a monitored folder on a file hosting service, make sure the utility provides a function to disable real-time monitoring and use it before saving Archicad files.