Essentials does not start or is unresponsive (4235824)

Rebuilding the Workspace

1. If the tool is not responding, please make sure to give it enough time. Sometimes when the tool goes into an unresponsive state, the tool is just waiting on some information or processing a large amount of data. For instance, if you ask the tool to give you permissions or a list of users, it may be grabbing all those users from the environment and it can take a long time. In some instances, the tool may go into an unresponsive state and recover. In this case, you do not usually need to rebuild the workspace.
2. If the tool is still unresponsive after some time, restart it. End the task with Task Manager. Restart the tool and observe whether it is experiencing instability. If not, you may need to do the steps below in order for the tool to run well again.
3. If the tool won't start or routine operations experience instability, rebuilding a corrupted workspace usually fixes these types of issues. In order to do this, do the following:
   1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\{UserDirectory}\Essentials\.metadata
      • Note: The directory may differ based on the operating system (OS) version.
   2. Delete the .plugins folder.
   3. Re-launch Essentials as an administrator.

Notes:

• You will need to re-enter the activation key.
• You will need to re-create your project or reload them from the original workspace. To reload projects, use the Load from File option in the Home Ribbon. See below for more instructions.
• For customers using Backup, please use the Import From Local and/or Import from Cloud to restore the backup information.
• Some customers have reported that their workspace becomes corrupted due to anti-virus scans. If you do have an anti-virus program installed and complete disable is not possible, please strongly consider adding exceptions to the following locations:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Quest\Essentials
• C:\Users\{UserDirectory}\Essentials
• C:\Users\{UserDirectory}\AppData\Local\Temp
• Essentials for Office 365 backup location.  If you are storing backups locally, please add this location(s) to the exception list as well.

How to reload your projects:

Importing projects into a workplace is useful if you want to move a project between installations of Essentials. This operation connects Essentials with the project folder that is generated when you connect to a site collection, farm, or tenant. It can also import collected data projects, google drives, and backups.

1. Right-click on the Navigation pane and select Import.
2. Select Existing Projects into Workplace.
3. Click the Browse button next to Select root directory.
4. Select the folder that you want to import the projects from. Generally, this will be the folder called "Essentials"
5. Select the projects that you want to import. If you check the Copy Projects into Workplace option, Essentials will copy the projects from wherever they are into the current Essentials workspace folder. Sometimes, it makes sense to have a reference to an external project, such as when you have a backup and, sometimes, it makes sense to copy the files into the new workplace so that you have all your projects in one place rather than linking back to the original location.
6. Your projects should now be imported in the Navigation pane.

If you have scheduled jobs, you should move the folder from the old workspace called Tasks to the new workspace. Locate the C:\Users\UserDirectory}\Essentials\.metadata\tasks folder in the folder that you renamed and move it to the new workspace if it has files in it.