DNS 11.5 

According to an error messsage myuser profile is damaged.  This happeneda month or so ago and Nuance walked me trough a very quick fix.  That was my one free call.

Now it has happened again . . . so soon and I don't remember how to fix it.  

Can anybody help me.  I have two profiles. One with the same name plus "-restored"

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The restored profile is the one I have been using. I made it by following the directions of the aforementioned Nuance technical help.  Neither profile works. 

Here is a quick fix. Create a new profile from scratch. If you choose the no training option, the process takes 5 or 10 minutes. If you choose the short training option, add another five minutes. In either case, you will be up to speed in far less time than it takes to repair a damaged profile -- which can't be done anyways!

Hopefully you have a backup of your custom words and phrases to import into the new profile. If not... well, live and learn!

If you are running Windows 7 or Vista, your custom commands are here: (Substitute the name of your current user for XXXXX)

 C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking11\Users\XXXXX\current\mycmds.dat

Copy this to the "current" folder in your new user.

Dan777, 

As you probably know, your user profile is backed up automatically.  By default this happens every 5 times your profile is saved, although the frequency can be changed in the user options. 

I'm guessing the quick fix Nuance support talked you through was a restore of your user profile.  Usually you would do this when you suspect that your profile has become corrupted. 
The restored profile is given the name 'ProfileName-Restored' (which is what you have).  'ProfileName' is of course whatever your original profile name was.

First solution you should try is just to restore the user profile again, as follows: 
1. From the 'Profile' menu on the DragonBar select 'Manage Users'.
2. In the resulting 'Manage User Profiles' dialog, make sure the 'ProfileName-Restored' profile is selected (the one you've been using).
3. Select the 'Advanced' button, then 'Restore'.

Because you've been using 'ProfileName-Restored', the automatic backup will have the same name.  When you restore it therefore the restored profile will be given the name 'ProfileName-Restored-Restored'.  See attached screenhot.

Open 'ProfileName-Restored-Restored' and test it.  If all seems in order, you can delete the other two profiles, again through the 'Manage User Profiles' dialog.

I suggest you then rename the remaining profile, deleting the '-Restored-Restored' suffix.  To do so you'll first have to close the profile (via the 'Profiles' menu).  Then open Manage Users to access the rename option.

The automatic backup is useful simply because it's automatic, however for the same reason you can't rely on it as your only backup solution.  This is because the backup may happen before you realise that your user profile is corrupted, resulting in a corrupted backup, in which case a restore won't resolve the problem.

You should therefore periodically perform an export, which creates a stand-alone copy, preserving the profile it as it is at that point in time.  You will then always be able to go back to a known working copy if the restore doesn't work, rather than start again from scratch.  An exported copy can also be imported into a fresh installation of Dragon, eg. following a hard drive failure or a move to a new computer.

I recommend naming the export destination folder using the current date, eg. 09.04.12, so you know when it was exported.  Of course the export location should be on a different drive (not the local drive), and preferably an external drive or a network location which is backed up regularly.

If your restored user manifests the same problem, and you haven't got an exported copy already, your only solution is probably to follow Alan Cantor's advice re creating a new user.

Rog

ManageUsers.jpg  (15 KB)

Rog,

I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to look at your post until this morning.  It did the trick and I am back in business.  Thank you very much.  I will begin backing up regularly! 

Good to know it helped
Just to clarify regarding my reference to periodically performing an export, this is different to the 'backup'. A 'backup' can be done manually at any time but is also done automatically, but each fresh 'backup', whether manual or automatic, overwrites the last backup.

An export can only be done manually and saves a full copy of your user profile.  It's done via Manage User > Advanced > Export.  Name the folder with the current date (eg. 12 April 2012) .  I suggest doing a new export each month (or more often) into a new folder, again with the current date (eg 12 May 2012).  Ideally keep the April export in case the May exported copy is damaged (at the time of exporting you may not yet have realised it was).  In June do a fresh export, so you now have 3 exported copies from 3 consecutive months.  By now you will know if May's copy is good (not corrupted) so you can delete April's copy.

In the meantime Dragon will regularly be doing it's automatic 'backup'.  If your current profile stops working, but you try a restore (of the 'backup' and find that it also fails, you can then import the latest good exported copy, knowing that at the most you're losing only 1 mth of training/customisation.