All of a sudden, my hard disk started filling up.

I used TreeSize to find the source of the problem. There are 339 GB of Dragon log files. Dragon seems to be producing them at a rate of one or two per minute. Each file is about 10 MB. They are found in Program Data/Nuance/NaturallySpeaking14/logs/Charles.

I never had this problem before. Is there some remedy that anyone knows of. Can I turn off Dragon logging? If so, how? Can I safely delete these files? I assume I can, but I need to stop Dragon from producing them at such a phenomenal rate.

Dragon 14 Professional Individual

Windows 10 (Build 1803 -- latest)

Office 365 (Though I usually use Dragon with DejaVu X (Translation Memory Software), not Office.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

I believe I have solved this myself. I will note it here for anyone else who might have the problem. First I moved all of the log files except the active one "Dragon.log" to another disk for safe-keeping in case there was a problem. Then I restarted Dragon. I got the famous "the signal processing file could not be loaded" error. After restoring my profile from a backup, the problem seems have disappeared. Dragon.log has been sitting in the folder without changing. It seems that a corrupted profile was throwing errors or log lines, but not enough to shut Dragon down.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

I had this happen yesterday with an end user I support. I hadn't seen this before but found this post in my research. End user is running Dragon medical version 4 v.15.10.350.049, Windows 10 Pro, 64bit. I don't know what triggered the creation of 85 gigs of text files, each file 10MB.

I checked his nssystem.ini file for SavePerUserProfileUtteranceData=1, that wasn't there.
I checked his datacollector.ini but I'm not sure what I'd be looking for there.
I checked his nsdefaults.ini for Do Usability Logging=0/1, but I'm not sure if I'm correct in checking for that?

I've just gone ahead and deleted all but the last two log files and this freed the disk space and the log files haven't regenerated.

Is there a reason why these logs would have been generated and no upon deletion they seemingly have stopped?

Thanks.

                    Welcome to the World's Most Popular Speech Recognition Forum

You might want to double check with your reseller to see if a UK/Australian Ver. 4.3 is available. This fixes a number of bugs but we are not certain this is 1 of them. You are currently using 4.1 which has a few bugs.

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I found that it was a corrupted profile. Please see my message above for my solution.

Charles Aschmann

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

Just a report. DNS 15 also has this problem.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

Have you tried the following which is 5 of our 35 recommendations that you will find in your RECOMMENDATIONS chapter of your KnowBrainer Dragon Installation/Training Guide?  The following changes should prevent unnecessary dra files from collecting.

 

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Yes. I have all those settings from the manual, but the log files still started appearing.

I have to say that I consider DNS 15 DPI a real dog of a version. The macros are slower and I have to wait so much for them. Accuracy is no better and built-in mistakes are more common (DNS preferences for homonyms, etc.). The small gain in speed of the conversions is really not worth the downgrades that accompany it. Now that I have discovered that this problem has not been solved, it is another mark against this version.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

We don't recommend disabling the Dragonlog file because it can come in handy if you need Dragon level II or III support. It is a long file but shouldn't take up much space because it is ASCII (think Notepad).

DPI 15.3 should be nearly twice as fast as Dragon 12, 13 and 14 but macros can be a real dog because of Nuance's insistence on continuing to use SAX scripting which was officially discontinued in 2004. Note that KnowBrainer 2017 utilizes WinWrap Basic (from the same company that Dragon uses) which deploys about 5 times faster and is much more dependable. With the exception of boilerplate text commands, we had to discontinue using Dragon Advanced-Scripting commands; partially because we have nearly 3000.

Dragon 15 accuracy should not be any worse than previous versions of Dragon but it is an entirely different speech engine. If Dragon is suffering from substandard accuracy, your dictation will also slow down; while Dragon tries to figure out what you said. Not everyone can use the new auto-gain control where Dragon constantly monitors your vocal volume and moderates Dragon. This allows end-users to back off from microphones but doesn't work for everyone. We recommend disabling Dragon's auto-gain feature. Note that Nuance didn't realize how important this option is and didn't include an easy checkmark option until the group and medical versions were released. Fortunately 1 of this forum's members created a nice hack. Just look up “auto-gain” in the Quick Tips for details on this procedure.

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UPDATE: We just double checked your original question and noted something we missed.

We assume you meant for your log address to be C:\ProgramData/Nuance/NaturallySpeaking15/logs but noted that our log folder is only 123 Mb, over about 16 months. Something is definitely wrong with your log folder but it shouldn't do any harm to simply delete the contents of your C:\ProgramData/Nuance/NaturallySpeaking15/logs/Charles folder

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I appear also to have this problem starting sometime this summer (I have managed so far by deleting the near 7000 10 MB of log files created each time - it does not take long to fill up my 128 GB SSD).I run Dragon Professional Individual version 15.3 (I think the problem occurred before my upgrade to this latest version). In accordance with Charles' advice I have deleted user profiles and created (at least twice) brand-new user profiles (with different names). I had/ have also uninstalled and re-installed. The problem returns (although at least once the files were being stored in a different temp location but they now appearunder "Windows/Program Data ... Logs/dstoc" where dstoc is the first five letters of the computer user name (not the Dragon user profile name).

I run Windows 10 (64 bit).

There are some other features:
- the Modern Dragon Bar stopped working - there only appeared an icon in the system tray. Now I have to use one of the older "docked to " views;
- Dragon is not exiting properly when I exit - in Task Manager there will still be in Background Processes the following DNS processes:

DNS DragonBar (32 bit) (this moves from Apps down into Background processes)
DNS Logging Service (32 bit)
DNS Service (32 bit)

(DNS is my abbreviation for Dragon NaturallySpeaking)

and the logging files are still being created!

This is on my Home Office Computer (desktop) I have a v similar set up on my Work Computer but with Windows 10 32 bit.

Any ideas?

 

This is normal behaviour and nothing to worry about.

 

I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling once more, but this time, after uninstalling, additionally running the remover tool, and then restarting Windows prior to reinstalling.

Here is the link to the remover tool:

 

http://supportcontent.nuance.com/dragon/15/DPI_DPG_15_Cleaner.exe

 

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PS I meant to say the work computer does not have this problem.

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David,

There is no such animal as Windows 10 32-bit. Windows 10 is only 64 bit.

If you purchased DPI 15.3 from us, you already have a copy of our KnowBrainer Dragon Installation/Training Guide which is complementary to our customers. Considering how small your operating system HD is, we strongly recommend opening your Dragon Data/Options, adding a check mark to Conserve disk space required by user profile (for portability), changing Save recorded dictation with document to NEVER, changing Disk space reserved for playback from 100 to 0 Mb and removing the checkmark from Run accuracy tuning etc. We don't believe you need a new user profile but if you have created a new profile, you can delete your previous profiles.

PS: The term “NaturallySpeaking” and abbreviation “DNS” were retired in Ver. 13. You're using Dragon Professional Individual 15.3 which you can shorten to DPI 15.3. We're not certain why Nuance discontinued using the term “NaturallySpeaking” but suspect a possible name ownership violation. For example, “KnowBrainer” is software trademarked while “VerbalBasic” is patented. The term “NaturallySpeaking” has been around for a long time and it wouldn't surprise us to learn someone else owns this name. We wanted to use the term “speakeasy” and ran into a similar situation.

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Lunis,

 

I actually stopped reading your rant, just as many other times, when coming across this bit:

 

 

Which is just plain BS. It appears that, technically, you're completely lost ever so often.

 

 

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While you are technically correct, there is simply no practical reason for a 32-bit operating system which limits you to 4 Gb of RAM. From a functionality point of view, 32-bit operating systems are effectively nonexistent and we suspect you will not be able to find a real computer with a 32 bit OS unless perhaps you are also looking for 3.5 floppy disk support. We really miss our Commodore 64

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Where do you live? You should go out more often. :-)

 

32-bit Windows 10 does have its use cases, specifically when physical memory is limited for one reason or the other, such as in virtual machines, or in systems sold like this from the shelf, like it or not. However, just saying that Windows 10 32-bit doesn't exist is a major boo-boo.

 

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In DPI 14/15 make sure that Tools | Options | Data | Advance | Create usability log | is NOT checked.

I do not know if your version works the same way.

Sometimes (don't ask me why) things get wacky. Like when Windows (for whatever the reason) changed the time and year on my computer to the year 2053 and even Microsoft site became 'bad site'.

davidstp: I found the problem was created by a corrupted profile. Try restoring your profile from a backup. That is what worked for me. If you do not have a backup, try creating a new profile and working with that.


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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

 

He already did that. He also already uninstalled and reinstalled, to no avail. That's why I recommended running the removal tool in addition to this.

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Thank you all, esp RW - as that advice I think would have worked. As it happens whilst awaiting responses - and prompted by the fact that I had mentioned the install and uninstall - I decided to do it again (one last time). I uninstalled, checked all Registry entries, then decided to download IOBit Uninstaller (which I have used successfully in the past) and reinstalled (I was not aware of a separate removal tool). All working now. I agree re odd results sometimes, which is why I mentioned the problem exiting and lack of Modern View (which seemed to indicate some problem interfacing with Windows). All these resolved as well; wish I had done it properly a couple of months ago.

I have installed DPI on C drive (I have a larger D drive which I had installed DPI previously - and a good few other programs) but will take note of Lunis advice re disk space (some I do anyway).

I confess to not fully understanding the 64/ 32 bit debate but the desktop I have at the office say its System type is 32 bit Operating Sustem, x64 based processor.

My reference to Dragon NaturallySpeaking was to the names of the background processes you can see running in Task Manager so they have not completely stopped use of the word(s)!

I do not mind a new profile every now and again. It may be rubbish I am speaking but it seems like a spring clean. My business is law (not medicine) so not too many words to add to the vocabulary (we are not allowed in England these days to use much Latin!).

I have not disabled the log file. But this was the same problem as before. Many, many log files being created in rapid succession. This time the problem seems to have been solved by simply rebooting the computer, deleting all the extra log files (leaving only the Dragon.log file and starting DNS again.

I do not see that DNS 15 is twice as fast as DNS 14 in terms of recognition, perhaps 50% faster, but this is more than lost with the doggy macros. I might have to invest in Knowbrainer just for the macro engine. I think possibly the new speech engine has some design decisions that work against the kind of technical vocabulary I use, but also some preference decisions are pretty annoying -- preference for "four" over "for" even when context would totally indicate the opposite, and other homonym type problems. Seems that contextual matching has been reduced. In addition, learning is not as good. In fact, it is very difficult to overcome the built-in preferences.


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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

Addendum to this. It seems that Dragon continues to create log files even after you exit the program. The only way you can stop it is to reboot. That is what is happening. I will have to create a new profile and import all my settings and macros again.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

Have you tried opening your Dragon options to the Data tab and removing the checkmark from Store corrections and archive?. You'll also find a Delete data button.

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Thanks for the reply Lunis. Unfortunately, I already have that unchecked. I think that was the recommendation in the installation instructions or perhaps on this forum. Unchecking it does not prevent the log problem from occurring. It seems that profiles are easily corrupted and the corrupt profile leads to the problem. You can run DNS and just leave it sit, and no log files will be created. Once you dictate, the log files start piling up. Then even if you stop dictating and exit DNS, they continue to be created. I think is is a bug in the software that appeared a couple of versions ago and that Nuance has just ignored in the same way they were unwilling to address slowness in macros with their choice of scripting.

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Using DPI 15 on Win 10 (64 bit) with Speechware 9-in-1 TableMike

Hi all,

Posting here to say I have the same problems as davidstp reported in his post on 09/08/2018. I've only had Dragon under a month but everything was working fine until today. I had Dragon installed on my larger D drive to try to free up space on my SSD.

- the Modern Dragon Bar stopped working - there only appeared an icon in the system tray only

- I had a 39GB log file on my C drive under C:\Users\*myPCname*\AppData\Local\Temp that filled my C: drive SSD completely full in under a day

- after deleting that log file the same problem started with new 10MB log files being created every minute under C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\logs\*myProfilename*. This file creation continues even with the program shut down from task manager

- as well I noticed the RAM usage of Dragon nearly doubled (even with microphone off) causing my PC fans to kick in loudly.

I uninstalled Dragon, and did a full wipe using the file I found here http://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24743/~/how-to-completely-uninstall-dragon-professional-individual-or-dragon

After reinstalling Dragon fully on my C drive and restarting a few times everything seems to be working well.

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Unfortunately, Dragon includes, what we refer to as, 3 dozen sand traps; some of which are critical. Dragon has 4 virtual memory settings that we recommend disabling. This will eliminate these kinds of problems and additionally 86 most Dragon freezes. These details are included in our KnowBrainer Dragon Installation/Training Guide, which is complementary to our Dragon customers but includes too many details to list here.

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I ran into the same problem today, 120GB of log files! I am using version 14. I decided to look in Admin tools, which Dragon indicated all profiles would be closed. I did not find anything interesting in Admin tools, so I exited. The profile was reloaded and all of the 10MB files were gone! So maybe just exiting the profile will resolve the problem.

Jeri

I also keep getting large Dragon.log files (like in the couple of GB range). Where in the settings can the Dragon.log file be disabled (I am aware that it is not recommended).

Thanks

Is there an actual fix for this? Launching DNS now just causes the drive to fill up with thousands of 10Mb files. I can get it to stop on a temporary basis by killing off dragons processes, but it starters up filling the drive on reboot.

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Can you confirm that are using NaturallySpeaking Premium 12. We haven't seen Ver. 12 in quite a while but your Dragon Options should include a Data tab. Try adding a checkmark to Conserve disk space required by user profile

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Look, writing a 10MB log file every few seconds isn't a user preference, it's a bug in DNS. It's been reported by many people. All I am interested in is what the fix for this but bug is.

Version is 13 Premium.

Lbutler,

 

You have one more possible option. DPI 15.61

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Well, I'm not throwing money at a program that has serious bugs that have been reported for years and still aren't fixed. C'est la vie.

There is no option, and not even a hack, to stop Dragon doing this. It is either a corrupted user profile, or a corrupted installation. Either try creating a new profile, or try running a repair of Dragon, or try both.

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How do you know those bugs haven't been fixed unless you check it out. You will find a trial in our signature tag. If you're using Ver. 13 and complaining, you're not giving Dragon 15 a fair trial. Premium 13 is a consumer version of Dragon that isn't even fully Windows 10 compliant. Version 15.61 is not a pre-release; it's a full release which fixes a lot of problems in Ver. 15.3. Dragon 15 includes an entirely different speech engine that included a lot of problems. Ver. 15.0 never should've been released and while Ver. 15.3 fixed a lot of problems, it didn't fix the freezing issue which admittedly was a nightmare. Version 15.61 is very stable (no freezing) and includes a 30 day customer satisfaction guarantee so you have no risk.

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Basically Rüdiger (RWilke) is correct. However, you can stop the DragonLoggerService. That will stop logging altogether. It is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I admit.

 

FWIW, the bug is known to Nuance and has been fixed in Dragon Medical Practice Edition 4.3, European version. DPG 15.6 and DPI 15.6 came out later and should have the fix, too, but I can't really tell. 

HTH, Stephan

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@Stephan. Had similar problem with DragonLogn in EventLog; high CPU, lots of entries. Stopping the Dragon Logger Service did help.