An error appears during operation: cannot DELETE from contentless fts5 table

Issues
#1

Problem:

You may see the error cannot DELETE from contentless fts5 table: doc_fts while editing or saving a data frame, working with a chart, or publishing. This can happen after you upgrade from a version earlier than 16.4 (such as 16.3.2) to 16.4 or later.

Cause:

The search index files for your projects are still in the format created by the older version of Exploratory. The newer version cannot use them properly, so the error occurs.

Normally the newer version rebuilds the search index files automatically when it starts. If the files are in use at that moment, the rebuild cannot happen and the old files stay in place. The files can be in use when, for example, the older version of Exploratory is still running, or antivirus software or OneDrive is accessing them.

Your data and projects are not affected. Restarting Exploratory alone does not fix this.

Solution

[For Windows]

  1. Quit Exploratory completely. Close all of its windows, and quit any older version of Exploratory that is also running.
  2. Delete the following files in the C:\Users\(username)\.exploratory\ folder (ignore any files that do not exist):
    • search_index.db
    • search_index.db-shm
    • search_index.db-wal
    • search_index.db-journal
  3. Start Exploratory and open your project; the search indexes will be regenerated automatically.

[For Mac]

  1. Quit Exploratory completely. Close all of its windows, and quit any older version of Exploratory that is also running.
  2. Delete the following files in /Users/(username)/.exploratory/ (ignore any files that do not exist):
    • search_index.db
    • search_index.db-shm
    • search_index.db-wal
    • search_index.db-journal
  3. Start Exploratory and open your project; the search indexes will be regenerated automatically.

Notes:

  • If a file cannot be deleted because it is in use, restart your computer and then do step 2.
  • On Mac, Finder hides the .exploratory folder. Open your home folder in Finder and press Command + Shift + . (period) to show it.
  • If you start an older version of Exploratory (such as 16.3.2) after this fix, the problem may come back.

This problem will be fixed in a future version. With the fix, Exploratory will repair old search index files automatically.