Change Ninjatrader Folder Location

[NinjaTrader_PatrickG]

satoyama, we haven't seen other cases like what you're reporting, so we'd like to gather as much information as possible to ensure we can provide accurate support. Unfortunately, I suspect OneDrive and NinjaTrader will never coexist harmoniously so the general recommendation is simply to not use OneDrive, but I understand that's not an ideal solution for you.

After the clean re-install of Windows, did you double-check OneDrive settings to ensure NinjaTrader folders or the entire Documents folder was excluded from OneDrive?

[satoyama]

@_PatrickG
Only NT8 folder is excluded, I am sure of that. I regularly do a clean (wipe everything) re-install once (sometimes twice) a year so I am used to doing this. I am curious though, to those (or you) that can still use "this de-select method", are you using a local account or a microsoft account as your login?

After I installed NT8 and ran it for the first time, it did not do anything. When I checked the documents folder, there were only a few NT8 folders in it, as if the installation did not complete (this is while OneDrive is running which is the normal routine that I do).

So I disabled OneDrive and reinstalled NT8 and ran it while OneDrive is off and everything was fine. So I copied my recent data to NT8 (document folder), and it ran fine (still with OneDrive off).
Once I enabled OneDrive I noticed the Recycle Bin icon change to "not empty" (I usually empty this) and when I opened I saw files from "NinjaTrader 8\db\tick\^TICK" being deleted.

It will not delete everything, but enough so as to make NT8 not run again. It is a strange behavior, especially now that it seems like it is only happening to me.

By the way, when I mentioned "last week" that was after Friday (the last time I was able to run NT8 before the clean re-install on Monday morning). When I ran NT8 on Sunday morning, it did not run and the Recycle Bin was full of deleted NT8 files.

Anyway, I will try a clean re-install again once I have the time, this time I will use a local account, which I normally do, before a year ago when I started using a microsoft account.

Thanks for replying Patrick, at least I know the "de-select NT8 folder" method still works.

[RCGregg]

Since you can only run two instances of Ninja why don't they put the license keys for both computers in the same file? That way the same file can be used for both computers and there will be no conflicts. I am not about to quit using OneDrive because it poses problems in one single application. I use my computers for far more things than just Ninja.

[seykool]

Is there any solution so far to use both, OneDrive and NinjaTrader? To me it looks like either or. There is no way to disable the documents folder from synchronization. The NT folder though, can be unchecked but OneDrive starts to manipulate stuff immediately before you can uncheck the folder.
Any suggestions or has someone found a way to use both?

Greetings

[tullips]

This issue is WAY more serious than someone might think. I am a programmer since 1975, so an old fart programmer. I stopped last year.

Now just looking at this, the LOG is updated each ....and it is UPLOADED after each Update to the cloud. Now de-activating onedrive is just fixing the issue with a hammer, that is NOT a solution guys, sorry. I even now (because I have 2 accounts running on the same OneDrive cloud) got my 1st Ninjatrader corrupted with this.

Now, for me was SPEED is always a huge and important thing in developing websites, programs. So, giving the user the option where to set the database is really important, and should totally be in NinjaTrader their high priority list, as it makes a HUGE difference in speed !!

I also have TradeStation and ThinkOrSwim, and there you can set the database locations, so guys, serious?? You are really having a great product but this part was just forgotten??

[Roller51]

Has any solutions to this been found. I want to be able to use Onedrive and NT? It seems to be more than 1 or 2 users.

[tullips]

Not that I know off. And it is a mystery to me why not. If you look at what NinjaTrader is doing in OneDrive it is completely nuts. They update OneDrive all the time, and as UPLOAD is the weaker link with most internet connections....I am baffled. NinjaTrader is a great platform, I think it is very clean, but not being able to select the drive where the LOG FILES and DATA FILES are set is really amazingly dumb. Sorry guys, I am a programmer myself and speed was always one of the most important parts of my programming.
But perhaps 1 day they wake up....or perhaps they did and are working on it (I still can have hopes)

[Roller51]

Yeah ok thanks. My Onedrive keeps flagging issues with this and today NT8 actually crashed. Hopefully a solution is found soon.

[kevinenergy]

Yeah it doesn't work. At the end of the day Ninjatraders Data/Config folder is in the wrong place. It is not a user document. App data should be stored in %USERPROFILE% which for me is C:\Users\Kevin

You'll just need to remove your Documents folder from Onedrive. Until Ninjatrader realises that we are not in the Windows XP Era anymore and apps don't install their config to the Documents Fodlder.

You can change it after Windows is installed. There is a guide here: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-m...ive-windows-10

I could never get the move to work, and had to resort to editing the registry to move my folders out of Onedrive.

https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-and-user-productivity/how-can-i-move-my-documents-and-my-pictures-folders

To be honest, I'd quite like my documents folder backed up to Onedrive, but I need to do without this feature due to Ninjatrader.

It is a pain, and Ninjatrader are wrong in their approach to placing their AppData and cache in the Documents folder; its not what it is intended for.

[Roller51]

NinjaTrader_PatrickG Do you know if anything is planned to resolve the issues. As has been mentioned here it is a issue for a number of users. I would imagine all onedrive users?

[NinjaTrader_PatrickG]

Roller51, we are currently tracking interest in allowing relocation of the NinjaTrader install files from the Documents folder to another location. I have no other news at this time.

We have not received any reproducible reports from users who cannot un-sync the NinjaTrader folders to resolve this symptom by following the instructions in the first post in this thread. Here is an article from Microsoft on those steps.

If those steps don't work, please contact through your platform by going to the Control Center > Help > Email Support window. Include a link to this forum topic "2396435 ATTN Patrick G" in the body of the message.

[StevenL]

Thank you for the suggestion.

Keep in mind that the Documents location is perfectly functional unless another program (like OneDrive) interferes with NinjaTrader's use of its own files. OneDrive is particularly invasive in that it literally changes the file structure of your entire Documents folder.

I have submitted this as a feature request to the Development Team. The internal tracking number for your feature request is SFT-1740. Please reference this internal tracking number if you ever have questions regarding this feature request.

When a feature request is implemented, you'll find it in the release notes:

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/?release_notes.htm

Please add my vote after dealing with this last year and other trader friends losing days of trading this year.

[carnitron]

Was this every resolved? I'm running into issues now. It slows down and often stops my compile. I have to force quit NT8 and restart it to get the compile to work.

With the current version of Windows 10, you can no longer exclude the Documents folder from OneDrive using the methods described earlier in this thread.

As far as I can tell, this a serious issue that should be fixed ASAP. It slows down NT8 and breaks core functionality (recompiling code) in an unavoidable way.

Like I want to be doing an iteration loop where I have live data going, and I am making changes to my code and recompiling it as I work with the live data. I would think most people would want to develop this way. But if I do this, whenever I make a change and save it, this forces a recompile, and that recompile will take a very long time and/or hang entirely -- particularly if I do something during the long compile (like make another change, try to close the editor window, etc.) Either way, I almost always have to force quit and restart NT8 after each change.

This is lethal to productivity, obviously. What is the latest on this issue?

[StevenL]

Was this every resolved? I'm running into issues now. It slows down and often stops my compile. I have to force quit NT8 and restart it to get the compile to work.

With the current version of Windows 10, you can no longer exclude the Documents folder from OneDrive using the methods described earlier in this thread.

As far as I can tell, this a serious issue that should be fixed ASAP. It slows down NT8 and breaks core functionality (recompiling code) in an unavoidable way.

Like I want to be doing an iteration loop where I have live data going, and I am making changes to my code and recompiling it as I work with the live data. I would think most people would want to develop this way. But if I do this, whenever I make a change and save it, this forces a recompile, and that recompile will take a very long time and/or hang entirely -- particularly if I do something during the long compile (like make another change, try to close the editor window, etc.) Either way, I almost always have to force quit and restart NT8 after each change.

This is lethal to productivity, obviously. What is the latest on this issue?

I doubt this has been or will be resolved.

The goal should not be to exclude the Document folder entirely, but to only exclude the NinjaTrader 8 folder. Then you can keep the benefit of OneDrive protecting from ransomware, and prevent it from updating file in the NT8 folder causing these catastrophic issues.

If you are having trouble doing this, then completely uninstall OneDrive. If you want OneDrive on your computer, then reinstall it to a different path. I have mine pointing to C:\Users\username\OneDrive.

Good luck!

[carnitron]

I doubt this has been or will be resolved.

The goal should not be to exclude the Document folder entirely, but to only exclude the NinjaTrader 8 folder. Then you can keep the benefit of OneDrive protecting from ransomware, and prevent it from updating file in the NT8 folder causing these catastrophic issues.

If you are having trouble doing this, then completely uninstall OneDrive. If you want OneDrive on your computer, then reinstall it to a different path. I have mine pointing to C:\Users\username\OneDrive.

Good luck!

Thanks for replying. I have tried excluding the NinjaTrader 8 folder, but the issue is that when I exclude it from one drive, the local directory gets hidden. The metaphor for this whole directory structure on OneDrive is that it resides on OneDrive and can be seen from the local PC. So if you exclude the directory from OneDrive, what you are really saying is "don't let it show up on my PC" (NOT: "I don't want this folder synced to the cloud).

I considered reinstalling NT8 with the Ninja Trader 8 directory hidden in this way, but thought all hell might break loose if I did so, and I cannot afford to take risks like this with my PC. Since you can no longer exclude the Documents folder in its entirety, I presume reinstalling NT8 would simply recreate those shared directories all over again, or worse, the install would fail, b/c it could NOT create them b/c OneDrive would prevent it, given that those directories are hidden locally by OneDrive when they are not synced. (Hope that makes sense.)

It's nuts if this bug is not under consideration for being fixed. I cannot just uninstall OneDrive, I need it for other apps and use cases.

I guess I will investigate reinstalling it to a different path, as you suggest, thought that scares me too, lol.