Troubleshooting

Find the message or the problem you see, then follow the fix. Messages are quoted as Vaste shows them; N stands for a number, and name for a file name or path.

Opening files

“Failed to open name: …”

Vaste could not read the file. When you open a file while another file is open, the message starts with Failed to open file: instead. The rest of the message is the system’s reason, for example that the file does not exist, that access is denied, or that another program is using the file. Check that the file is still at its path and that your account can read it.

A folder dropped on the welcome screen fails the same way. Open a file inside the folder, or search the whole folder with Find in files. In the recent files list, a file that no longer exists shows Missing and cannot be selected.

The first open of a large file takes a long time

The first time you open a file, Vaste reads all of it to build its line index. While it does, the window shows Opening with the file’s name and a progress bar; Cancel or Esc stops the open. The next time, Vaste uses the saved index and opens the file quickly, unless the file has changed. See The first open of a large file.

Nothing happens when you drop or open a file

When you drop several files, Vaste opens the first one. While Vaste is opening a file, another open shows Still opening the previous file and does not start. See Open a file.

Files are missing after a session restore

Vaste skips the files of the session that no longer exist, without a message. If the first file fails to open, a notification shows Failed to restore with its path. A file that fails in one of the other windows shows Failed to open with its path in that window. See Restore your last session.

On Windows, another program cannot truncate a file in place

While Vaste has a file open that has not changed since it opened it, other programs can rename or delete the file but cannot truncate it in place. Once Vaste has reloaded the file after a change, with Auto reload or Ctrl + R, it no longer blocks truncation. Close the file in Vaste if a program needs to truncate it before then. See Deleted and rotated files.

Compressed files

“insufficient disk space for the decompressed file”

The message continues with the space needed and the space available, in bytes. Vaste writes decompressed copies to its data folder, so it checks the drive that holds that folder, not the drive of the archive. Free space on that drive, or decompress the archive with another tool onto a drive with room and open the result.

When Vaste does not know the decompressed size in advance, it starts without this check, and a disk that fills up stops the decompression with the system’s error. See The size prompt and The decompressed cache.

“… Password required to decrypt file” or “… Compression method not supported”

Vaste opens files in a zip archive that are stored without compression or compressed with Deflate or Deflate64, and not encrypted. Extract any other file with another archive tool, then open the extracted file. See Supported formats.

“Decompression failed: …”

The archive is damaged or incomplete, for example because a download stopped. The message ends with the reason, such as corrupt deflate stream. Vaste deletes the partly written copy. Download or copy the archive again.

“already decompressing this archive”

Another Vaste window is decompressing the same archive. Wait until it finishes, then open the archive again: Vaste uses the decompressed copy and opens it at once.

Cancel does nothing after the decompression finishes

After the decompression finishes, the overlay stays open while Vaste reads the decompressed copy, and Cancel no longer stops the file from opening. See Open a compressed file.

Text and encodings

A UTF-16 file opens in Hex view

UTF-16 text contains NUL bytes, so Vaste opens a UTF-16 file as binary unless its extension is a known text extension, such as .txt or .log. Press Ctrl + H to switch to Text view. If the text has gaps or looks garbled, select the encoding in the status bar and choose UTF-16LE (the usual choice on Windows) or UTF-16BE. See UTF-16 files.

Text shows � or odd characters

The file’s bytes do not match the encoding Vaste uses for it. Vaste detects the encoding from the start of the file, so a file whose first part is plain English can open with the wrong one. Select the encoding in the status bar and choose the right one, for example windows-1252 for a Latin-1 file. See Encodings and line endings.

The encoding cannot be set back to automatic

After you choose an encoding for a file, Vaste uses it every time you open that file, and the list has no automatic entry. To go back, choose the encoding that Vaste detected at first. See Change the encoding.

Long lines are cut off

Text view shows the first 2,000 bytes of each line. To copy a longer line in full, right-click it and select Copy line. For a JSON payload, use JSON in a line. See Long lines.

A .json or NDJSON file opens as text

Vaste opens every .json file in Text view. A file with one JSON record per line and another extension opens in NDJSON view only when its first records are short. Rename the file with the .ndjson or .jsonl extension to open it in NDJSON view every time. See How Vaste chooses a view.

Search

^ERROR finds only the first line

In a regular expression, ^ and $ match the start and end of the whole file, not of each line. Add (?m) at the start of the pattern: (?m)^ERROR finds ERROR at the start of every line. See Regular expressions.

“Invalid regex: …”

The regular expression has a mistake, and the rest of the message describes it. Some familiar syntax is not supported, for example \p{…}. See Regular expressions.

“Regex search is not supported for UTF-16 encoded files.”

Regular expressions do not work in files that Vaste reads as UTF-16. Turn off .* and search for the literal text.

Ignoring case misses accented letters

Aa ignores case for the ASCII letters A to Z only, so élan does not find Élan. Search for each form separately. See Search options.

“Invalid hex pattern: …”

With 0x on, type the bytes as pairs of hexadecimal digits, with or without spaces, and without 0x or commas: FF D8 FF E0. See Hex byte patterns.

“Showing first N of M matches”

The results list holds 10,000 matches, and the count covers every match in the file. To see all the matching lines, use Grep view or Export…, or narrow the search. See The 10,000-match limit.

“Too many matching lines”

Copy works for up to 10,000 matching lines. Select Export… to save the lines to a file instead. See Copy or export matching lines.

“Cancelled, N matches so far”

You closed the search panel, or pressed Esc in it, while the search was running. The listed results are the ones found before the stop. Run the search again with Enter for the full result. See Cancel a search.

Count shows 0 matches

When the pattern has a mistake, such as an invalid regular expression, Count shows 0 matches instead of an error. Run the search with Enter to see the error. See Count matches without listing them.

Find in files shows “No matches found”

Check the folder path: a folder that does not exist also gives this result, without an error. Find in files skips binary files, which include UTF-16 and compressed files. To search one of those, open it in Vaste and use the search panel. See Which files are searched.

Tables and CSV

All values are in one column, or the header row is wrong

Vaste guessed the wrong delimiter, quote, or header row. The dialect item in the status bar turns yellow when Vaste is not sure. Select it and correct the dialect. A text file with commas or tabs, such as a .txt export, opens in Text view: use CSV dialect… to read it as a table. See CSV dialect.

Sorting does nothing

A file with more than 10,000,000 data rows cannot be sorted. The header shows no arrow and a notification reports the limit. Sort with ORDER BY in an SQL query. See Sort by a column.

A filter on a second column shows rows that do not match

On a large file, a filter on a second column can leave the table showing rows that do not match either filter. Filter one column at a time. See Filter more than one column.

The table is empty after you type a filter

The regular expression in the filter has a mistake. Vaste shows no message, and the table shows no data until you correct or clear the filter. Select Clear filters in the table state bar to start again. See Filter operators.

“Analysis failed: File is not CSV/TSV”

Data quality checks work on CSV and TSV files only, not on an NDJSON file opened as a table. See Data quality.

“Only the first 1,000 columns are shown.”

Table view shows the first 1,000 columns of a file. Select the other columns by name in an SQL query. See Limits.

SQL

There is no SQL button

The SQL button shows in Table view and NDJSON view only. In Text view and Hex view, More actions (…) → SQL query is dimmed and shows Available in Table view and NDJSON view. Switch to Table view or NDJSON view. See SQL queries.

“Query error: …”

The query failed, and the rest of the message gives DuckDB’s reason. Check the query for these causes:

• Parser Error after a ; at the end. Write one SELECT query without it.
• Permission Error: Cannot access file or SQL statement contains blocked keyword: the query reads another file, a URL, or a folder, writes a file, loads an extension, attaches a database, or changes a setting. A query can read the open file only. See What a query can access.
• More memory than the 2 GB that a query can use. Select fewer columns, or group and count rows instead of listing them.

See Run a query.

Copying and selecting

Copying a large selection does nothing

Vaste copies a line range of up to 100,000 lines and a block of up to 10,000 lines. Over the limit, it copies nothing and shows no message, and the clipboard keeps its previous content. Copy smaller parts, or use Export… in the search panel to save matching lines to a file. See Selecting and copying.

“Select some text in the viewer first.”

Send selection in the scratchpad shows this message when the selection is over the copy limits, even though lines are selected. Right-clicking a line and selecting Send to scratchpad then sends only that line. Select fewer lines. See Add text from a file.

“Selections over 65536 bytes cannot be copied yet”

Hex view copies up to 65,536 bytes at a time. Copy a larger range in parts. If Vaste shows Scroll the selection into view before copying, scroll to the selection, then copy again. See Select and copy bytes.

Live reload

The view does not update while a log is being written

Auto reload waits until the file stops changing for 300 milliseconds, or 2 seconds at most while the writing continues, so a busy log updates at most every 2 seconds. Press Ctrl + R to reload it sooner. See Automatic reload.

Search results disappear after a reload

Every reload clears the search results and leaves Grep view, even when the file has not changed. The pattern stays in the search box: press Enter to run the search again. See What a reload keeps and clears.

“File changed on disk, N lines”

The file changed in a way other than lines added at the end, for example it was rewritten, truncated, or replaced by a log rotator. Vaste read it again from the start; N is the new number of lines. See When the file changes in other ways.

“Reload failed: I/O error: …”

The file was deleted or moved after you opened it. With Auto reload on, the message appears as soon as the file disappears; otherwise on the next reload. Vaste keeps showing the content it loaded last. Open the file from its new place. See Deleted and rotated files.

NDJSON view shows old records after a reload

After a reload, NDJSON view can keep showing the records it loaded before. Switch to Text view and back to see the current records. See What Vaste keeps and clears.

Logs, filters, and highlighters

The status bar shows “No timestamps”

Vaste found no timestamp format it knows in the first lines of the file, or the file is not plain text. Until a format is set, Go to time (Ctrl + Shift + T) does nothing. Select No timestamps and choose the format. See Set the timestamp format.

“No timestamps recognised in this file” or “Not a time. …”

Go to time shows these below the box. The first means that no line of the file has a timestamp in the chosen format: choose another format. The second means Vaste cannot read what you typed: use one of the forms in Go to a time.

“Could not save highlighters: Maximum of 200 highlighter rules reached”

Vaste keeps up to 200 highlighter rules, and it does not save the rule you just added. Delete rules you no longer use, then add the rule again. See Manage highlighters.

OK does nothing when you save a filter

Vaste keeps up to 100 saved filters. When you have 100, selecting OK saves nothing and shows no message. Delete a saved filter you no longer use, then save again. See Delete a saved filter.

Settings, themes, and shortcuts

Settings are back to their defaults

Vaste could not read its settings file when it started, so it renamed the file to settings.toml.corrupt- followed by a number and started with the default settings. It shows no message. Saved filters, highlighters, and a file’s bookmarks and encoding are reset the same way when their files cannot be read. The renamed file stays in the data folder, so you can compare it with the new one. See How Vaste saves settings and Data and cache locations.

“Theme import failed: …”

The rest of the message gives the reason:

Reason	Fix
Theme files must end in .json or .jsonc	Import the theme’s .json file. Vaste cannot read .vsix extension packages.
That file is too large to be a theme (max 2 MB)	Check that you chose the theme’s .json file.
The file is not valid JSON.	Check that the file is a complete theme file, for example that it was fully downloaded.
Not a recognizable VS Code or Shiki theme.	Choose a VS Code color theme file.
This theme has no “colors.editor.background”	The file has no editor background color to build a theme from. Choose another theme file.
Could not find any theme color to use as the accent.	Choose another theme file.

See Import a VS Code theme.

A shortcut does nothing

• Twelve commands do not respond to any shortcut, even one you assign. Run them from the command palette. See Change a shortcut.
• While Settings is open, no shortcut works. Close Settings with Esc first.
• On a Mac, some default shortcuts are taken by macOS. See Keys on macOS.

Checksums and long tasks

A checksum does not match the published one

For a compressed file, such as a .zip or .gz download, Vaste computes the checksum of the decompressed content, not of the file you downloaded. Check the archive with your system’s tool instead. See Checksums.

A search, reload, or open waits without progress

Vaste runs up to 4 long tasks at the same time, across all its windows: searches, opens, reloads, copies and exports, sorts and filters, statistics, data quality checks, SQL queries, and checksums. Any other task waits, without a message, until one of them finishes. Cancel a search, a Find in files search, or a checksum you no longer need. File statistics and column statistics cannot be canceled, and they keep running after you close their dialog until they finish. See Limits.

Terminal app (vaste-tui)

Before the screen opens, vaste-tui prints an error and exits. While it runs, it shows messages on screen. These messages have a fix:

Message	Fix
Failed to open file: followed by the reason	Check the path and that your account can read the file.
has several entries; pass --entry <name>: followed by the names	Pass the name of the file to open with --entry.
no entry named followed by a name	Pass one of the names in the archive with --entry, exactly as listed.
Decompression failed: followed by the reason	The archive is damaged or incomplete. Download or copy it again.
delimiter must be one printable ASCII character	Pass one character, such as ;, or tab, to --delimiter.
Unknown command: followed by the command	Check the command. To quit, press q: :q is not a command.
No CSV index available. Switch to text view with [t]., after a reload in the table view	Quit and open the file again.

See TUI commands and Run vaste-tui.