Problem in invoking footprint editor in KiCad V5

[Starter99]

Hi everyone,
I am using KiCad V 5.1.4-1 on Laptop under Windows 10 with latest updates installed.

I have the following problem: I can work with schematic entry and symbol editor but when I try to invoke “Footprint editor”, KiCad attemps to load footprint lib, then an error message “Footprint editor not responding” appears and then KiCad closes altogether automatically…

I have two questions:
Q1. Can the current KiCad installation somehow be repaired or do I have to deinstall and run a new installation?

Q2. If I have to reinstall the KiCad, would the schematics and symbols that I have created to date still be readable under new installation?

Thanks for your help in advance.
Best regards
starter99

[eelik]

First you can try cleaning up the configuration and starting from scratch. See Where are the configuration files (settings, library tables)? and Library management in KiCad version 5 (section “Resetting the library tables to default settings”).

In any case this is a serious bug - KiCad shouldn’t freeze or crash under any circumstances. It would be interesting and important to know why this happens.

[Piotr]

@Starter99

Q2. If I have to reinstall the KiCad, would the schematics and symbols that I have created to date still be readable under new installation?

I have found KiCad 5.1.5 today (yesterday it was not there). In a moment I will reinstall KiCad.
All symbols and footprints I have created I put into my libs. I located them in my working directory (which is what I backup every day).
The library lists are not deleted when uninstalling KiCad and are not overwritten when installing new version. At first run each KiCad application checks if there are your library list and if yes it does nothing but if not then it copies the default library list (containing all libraries).
As my library lists contains only my libraries after installation of 5.1.5 I will not notice any change (I hope ). If your lists contains some KiCad libraries and there were some changes in those libraries then you will see those changes.

[eelik]

@Starter99

Q2. If I have to reinstall the KiCad, would the schematics and symbols that I have created to date still be readable under new installation?

Piotr already said something, and it’s not very simple. Schematics are like normal documents in all programs, they can be opened as before. Your own symbol libraries are intact in the file system, but whether you can see them after reinstallation or cleaning up configuration depends on how you have set them up. You may have to set up a path variable again with Configure Paths. If you have added your libraries to the global library table and deleted that table file, you have to add them again.