"Dependent file not found" issues

I recently have been having repeated issues (with Studio 2019) with projects that were sent to me by the customer. When first opening them, everything is fine, when I want to carry on working the next day, I get a message "Dependent file not found" followed by a path. It seems like on closing the project some files get removed from the Temp folder and are then not found the next time the job is opened. Any solution on how to fix this?

  • This issue is caused because the file that was used by Studio to create the project cannot be found.  This can be for more than one reason, so here's couple of examples.

    Example #1

    The SDLXLIFF filetype has a setting on it to control its size:

    Trados Studio settings window showing the SDLXLIFF file type with a highlighted setting for embedding, indicating a size limit for source files.

    If a project is created using a source file that exceeds the limit set here then the source will not be included within the SDLXLIFF as an embedded binary file.  This means that if you are sent the SDLXLIFF on its own, or a project package that didn't include the source file, then you will not be able to save the target file because Studio won't have sufficient information available to recreate the original file format.  As a result you will get the "dependent file not found" message.

    The solution is to ask for the source file.

    Example #2

    When Studio creates projects it uses files in the temp folder in Windows.  Sometimes, the use of antivirus software, security or "cleaning" software will remove the temp files that Studio needed and as a result you can get this message even though you may have the source file available.

    The solution is normally to recreate the project and either:

    1. pretranslate from your TM, OR
    2. copy the target language sdlxliff files from the original project folders and paste them over the ones in the new project you just created

    Now you should be able to save the target files.

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 11:46 PM (GMT 0) on 28 Feb 2024]
  • If you still have this problem, check your disk space. If you're running low with 2-3G left on your C drive, this is an effective solution that may apply to you.

    I had the same problem while dealing with large packages received from a client, which I had no control over. None of the existing workarounds was feasible because of the very large number of files in the dependency list. Not only when Studio was closed, but also when the editor was closed within a Studio session all the relevant files under Temp would disappear. Then the dreaded "Dependency file not found" popups would take over.

    I found that the Windows "Storage sense" tool was the culprit. Although it was configured to delete temp files that have not been used for 30 days, because my C drive was low on disk space, the tool ignored that setting and would remove temporary files whenever the application lock on them was released. There were two simple and effective parts to the solution.

    1. I turned off Storage sense. Go to "Settings > System > Storage", then flip the switch to "off" (see below). From that point the temp files were no longer getting deleted and I was able to work normally, closing and opening Studio as I needed. For now, ignore Windows prompts about running Storage Sense to deal with low storage space. 

    Windows Settings menu with System selected and Storage option open showing Storage Sense is turned on with 164 GB used of 187 GB.

    2. While the above gets you going you without having to interrupt your work for cleaning up, etc. Having only a couple of Gig left on your system disk will eventually get you, and is probably bogging you down when you're working with large Studio projects. So, when I was out of the bottleneck, I looked around and found what had caused a sudden drop in disk space. Apparently, there was a significant Windows 10 update on Nov. 17, which MS treated like an upgrade, in the sense that it saved a spare copy of the old system on the C drive. This was kept in a file called Windows.old, which is supposed to be deleted automatically after 10 days. I decided that I was comfortable with deleting it at the time. For this I "right-clicked on the C: drive > properties > disk cleanup > advanced cleanup" and checked the box for "previous version of Windows".

    Of course, someone else could be running low on space for different reasons, which they have to investigate. However, the above is a very likely one that can be difficult to guess.


    Once disk space was reclaimed, I got an immediate performance boost on my large projects. I then turned "Storage Sense" back on, hoping it will work as configured. Happily, the "Dependency file not found" problem did not reappear.

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 11:46 PM (GMT 0) on 28 Feb 2024]