Lost all settings when deleting trial version

[jscowsert]

I am running Photo Mechanic version 4.6.8 and I run Mac OS X 10.7.3 on my Intel-based MacBook Pro.
Yesterday while cleaning up my HDD I deleted an older trial version of PM that resided in my Applications folder.  I used a program called "ZapIt" to delete the programs which moves all the program files and associated files to the "Trash".
I then tried opening my registered version of PM and I was prompt for my license and registration.  When PM opened all my saved data is missing including my saved ftp's, saved IPTC's, and custom look. I tried moving the Trial version back to the Apps folder, but this didn't help.
Not sure if all is lost, but here's a screenshot of some of the files that were sent to the Trash Bin.  For some reason, I am unable to use the "put back" function on these files.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

You'll want to put the 'com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic' folder and all of its contents back in the Preferences folder contained in the Library folder in your home folder.  Unfortunately Apple has hidden the Library folder from users in version 10.7 of Mac OS X.  You can still open your Library folder by switching to the Finder and choosing 'Go to Folder...' in the 'Go' menu and entering '~/Library' as the path.  Then find the Preferences folder and drag the 'com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic' folder back into the Preferences folder.

As for your registration, you'll just have to re-enter it and register again.

HTH,

-Kirk

P.S. No need to use programs like 'ZapIt' on Photo Mechanic files if you're still going to run some version of Photo Mechanic.

[jscowsert]

Outstanding, that worked!  You saved me a big headache. Thanks!
Jim

[FVlcek]

Just some hindsight on what happened - all properly written OS X software saves its settings (or most of them) in "associated files" in your ~/Library/Preferences (and some also ~/Library/Application Support) folders. If you use programs like ZapIt, whose main feature is that it removes exactly these files, you should expect to also loose your preferences for the removed software. Which might be a good thing in some cases, but like Kirk wrote, not exactly when you expect to use the software again in the future. PM is a very well writen OS X application (at least IMO), and it doesn't store any crud there except your preferences. So if you ever need to uninstall PM but expect to use it some time after again, no need really to use ZapIt or similar uninstallers. Just simply drag the PhotoMechanic.app to trash, after you clear your caches inside PM. ZapIt and similar are really only useful for software that leaves huge amounts of unwanted data in these folders and if you want to remove most traces of the installed software - but even so if the program leaves some data elsewhere, there is high chance ZapIt won't be able to find it. PM seems to be written quite to OS X specs in this regard, so there is no need for that.