[SOLVED] Installation headaches, KiCAD 5.1.12 on Win10, symbol library inaccessible?

[John_Ladasky]

Hi folks,

I’m not new to KiCAD, but I have always used it on Linux. On my new job, I’m trying to install on a Win10 machine. I’ve downloaded the 5.1.12 installer package. It says that it includes symbol, footprint, and 3D libraries.

I opened a KiCAD file sent to me by another engineer. The first time I opened it, KiCAD complained about the need to rescue symbols. I approved the rescue so that I could look at his schematic.

I tried to open a new project. I was unable to add a single symbol. KiCAD does not seem to be able to find its own symbol library. I get error dialogs like the following: “Library file 'C:\Users\some_user\some_path\some_library.lib not found.”

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, and then I tried creating a new project without opening the other user’s project. I am still unable to create even a single symbol.

I am aware of this page:

I had KiCad 4 installed previosly. Now i updated to v5. Now i have some problems with the library setup

Recommended reading: Library management in KiCad version 5 KiCad does not automatically discover libs. Nor does it update the list of libraries on update. If you had KiCad 4.0.x installed previously then i would bet you still have parts of its configuration surviving. Most importantly the fp-lib-table. This file controls which footprint libs you use. If this is the case then you probably still run the on demand online footprint libs originally “distributed” with KiCad 4.0.x installations. The …

The instructions seem to refer specifically to the footprint library, but I haven’t even gotten that far. I’m contending with the symbol library, which is a much more fundamental problem in my view.

I also know that some hidden file has been held over during the reinstall, because KiCAD remembers all the project folders I have opened, even after I uninstall it. I am looking for it. The web page above suggests looking for an …\AppData\Roaming\kicad folder for files to clean up. I do not see any such folder.

I can see .pretty and .lib files in subfolders of C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad on my hard drive. KiCAD does not seem to be finding them though.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[John_Ladasky]

Answering my own question:

I did eventually find an …\AppData\Roaming\kicad folder. It wasn’t in the expected place! This may have something to do with my employer’s use of OneDrive.

Once I uninstalled KiCAD again, deleted the straggling folder, and reinstalled, I got the expected “KiCAD is running for the first time” dialogs. And once I passed through that dialog, I have access to my symbol library again.

[jmk]

Good!
Don’t forget to edit the title of your thread as “solved”.

[Piotr]

@John_Ladasky

Once I uninstalled KiCAD again, deleted the straggling folder, and reinstalled,

I suppose deleting the …\Roaming\kicad folder could be enough.

[marekr]

@John_Ladasky

I did eventually find an …\AppData\Roaming\kicad folder. It wasn’t in the expected place! This may have something to do with my employer’s use of OneDrive.

This is the normal place, this is the settings folder and it sounds like you ended up with a bad symbols table.