[SOLVED] (1st Person Ever to Have This Bug/Error?) Strange Graphical Bug That Makes MS Store + Certain Apps Open but with UI Blank Except for Text

Apr 14, 2022
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Strange Graphical Bug That Makes MS Store + Certain Apps Open but with UI Blank Except for Text but when I hover over it and move my mouse in certain areas it sometimes shows it for a second then goes back again.

So I'm not sure when this started but can't be more than a month and a half ago, maybe after I installed MSEdgeRedirect, basically makes the windows programs that force default to Edge browser redirect to a browser of your choosing, however, it was working fine after the install so I don't know if that could be the reason why because it had to have happened sometime afterward and not to mention I uninstalled it and I am still having this problem! It is hard to explain my problem so let me show you (check out the YouTube Video below), it's basically a visual bug where some/all Windows 10 Microsoft Store apps will open but be blank mostly, even the little news section on the taskbar. Also, it's odd because when I hover over certain parts they sort of like change graphics or sometimes adjust back to normal but flickering, it's very hard to explain so I'll put a link to a YouTube video I uploaded showing it. Yes, I have tried to reset/repair the programs, did not work. Also, I really do not want to reset/reinstall windows if at all possible, that would be the worst-case scenario and honestly, if it does come down to it then I will most likely not even do it and just leave it as is just because I'm not too sure how to reinstall/reset properly to where my PC will be back to 100% the same as it was before the reinstall (drivers/specific settings) even though I have my computer backed up on several things like my external SSD as well as on my OneDrive, I feel like even with those I won't have the same exact replica of my PC as before doing it, especially the drivers and the specific settings I have for gaming and such. Thanks so much for any help, I'm desperate!

Some other things I've messed with in the past month and a half: Messing with registry things, with Services and Startup tabs in Task Manager, with my Nvidia Control Panel (DLDSR, Resolution Changes, Refresh Rate Changes,etc) some options were changed through a program called NVIDIA profile inspector because it shows more advanced settings that you could play around with, also installed MSI Afterburner and did a tiny bit of overclocking but then decided to just auto-tune overclock it with the Nvidia Auto-Tune Performance option. One really major thing I did that gave me many problems is messing with Security permissions for certain folders that I should not have just to delete some folders I thought were unnecessary so that might be a clue but I could not tell you which ones because I also reverted them as far as I know by using Powershell and a nice little program that somebody made specifically for the problem I had which was the Microsoft Store completely not opening and giving me an error instead of starting along with all other preinstalled Windows Apps like Photos, Mail, News, etc, even after doing wsreset it did not fix but using his Powershell command tool that he made did. So many things that I did in the past month and a half so it's super hard to figure out what the heck could've caused it since I did not notice it until a couple of days ago.

Thanks for any help, I'm praying somebody has come across this problem before.

YouTube Video of Bug:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PaCLIpuKQ0
 
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Solution
Permissions could have been cause, I guess. Something you did fixed it, it may be impossible to be certain what. Lets not retrace steps and recreate it again :)

I write long replies too, being concise is difficult for me as well. It was 3.30am when I answered previous post, if it hadn't been a reply to a thread I was already in I may have just closed it again. Its a lot to ask at that time of morning. Hence I added spaces.
One really major thing I did that gave me many problems is messing with Security permissions for certain folders that I should not have just to delete some folders I thought were unnecessary so that might be a clue but I could not tell you which ones because I also reverted them as far as I know by using Powershell and a nice little program that somebody made specifically for the problem I had which was the Microsoft Store completely not opening and giving me an error instead of starting along with all other preinstalled Windows Apps
Sounds like this is where it started?
which version of win 10

  1. right click start
  2. choose run...
  3. type winver and press enter
  4. current version is 21H2

see if this helps
right click start button

choose powershell (admin)

copy/paste this command into window:

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter

Then type SFC /scannow and press enter


First command repairs the files SFC uses to clean files, and SFC fixes system files

SFC = System File Checker. First command runs DISM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/what-is-dism?view=windows-11

So many things that I did in the past month and a half so it's super hard to figure out what the heck could've caused it since I did not notice it until a couple of days ago.

Another option is just clean install and start from a fresh working version of windows.
 
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Sounds like this is where it started?
which version of win 10

  1. right click start
  2. choose run...
  3. type winver and press enter
  4. current version is 21H2
see if this helps
right click start button

choose powershell (admin)

copy/paste this command into window:

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter

Then type SFC /scannow and press enter


First command repairs the files SFC uses to clean files, and SFC fixes system files

SFC = System File Checker. First command runs DISM - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/what-is-dism?view=windows-11



Another option is just clean install and start from a fresh working version of windows.
I really, REALLY, do not want to do a clean install and lose all my files and have my computer end up not functioning the same exact way because I love the way this PC has handled itself and have come to really love all the programs and pre-installed functions/settings that the previous owner whom I bought it off, put on the computer himself because he built this PC originally from scratch with the parts he bought. So, I feel like by doing a clean install, I'm going to end up losing all the little specifics of the PC (mostly worried about the settings and drivers I guess, and like certain programs that came with it originally that he had messed around with and optimized the PC for gaming.) I'm nowhere near as skilled at computer setup as he is, that's why I'm scared to do so. I do have a 100 GB Full Image backup file of my whole C:\ drive on my external SSD (D:\) though, but only really did that for a worst-case scenario, where my HDD just up and dies, then I'd have no choice but to use it.
P.S. I don't even know how to fully use that backup to restore/reinstall my PC 😳😗.

I probably should have posted my specs, (Yes, I am on version 21H2 of Windows 10.) sorry about that! Here's a DropBox link to the .txt export from my "System Information" program which contains all the specs and more info about my PC.

Lastly, those two commands did not end up helping, refer below for the results.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth

Path :
Online : True
ImageHealthState : Healthy
RestartNeeded : False



PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> SFC /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
 
clean install was offered as its easy answer. For many anyway.

try doing this - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
all it does is replaces windows, it doesn't touch anything else. It removes the last few cumulative updates so you will need to get them again but it might fix this.

Another thought is try making a new user and see if the same problems happen for it
create a new local user and make it admin - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-20de74e0-ac7f-3502-a866-32915af2a34d

if you want it to have same access to folders as current user, while logged onto normal user, go to
C:/users folder
copy the folder contents of older users folder onto the new one.
this will give them all the same programs etc and mean you don't have to install anything
logon to new user and see if it has same problems. You need to set up its logons to some things as you go, its new after all.
 
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clean install was offered as its easy answer. For many anyway.

try doing this - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
all it does is replaces windows, it doesn't touch anything else. It removes the last few cumulative updates so you will need to get them again but it might fix this.

Another thought is try making a new user and see if the same problems happen for it
create a new local user and make it admin - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-20de74e0-ac7f-3502-a866-32915af2a34d

if you want it to have same access to folders as current user, while logged onto normal user, go to
C:/users folder
copy the folder contents of older users folder onto the new one.
this will give them all the same programs etc and mean you don't have to install anything
logon to new user and see if it has same problems. You need to set up its logons to some things as you go, its new after all.
First solution you offered I have already attempted and it failed and didn't work, as for creating a new user, I did that as well and it resulted in the same bug. How is this even possible I don't understand, the situation that is happening to my computer seems like won't be fixed even if I do a clean install... Could it be possible this bug is coming from a hardware problem or maybe a problem with internal registry (regedit) errors I might have touched and messed up on accident? What could you predict this is from after hearing all the facts and situation? Thanks for any further help, sorry for the late response. 🙁
 
2 users having same problem shows its probably windows.

try running the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter?

Try the following steps and see if that helps:
  • Press Windows + R keys to open Run command
  • Type wsreset.exe and hit enter
  • Now try to open store and see if it works.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...0/dd3ae34b-242d-4f44-98a7-9cebe3b9765a?auth=1

So its the store & Feedback hub? everything else seems to work on video.

I can't seem to find anyone with problems like that with feedback hub, troubleshooter above might fix it.

if you don't want to reinstall windows and lose everything, you could buy a new SSD and put windows on it, as then you won't lose anything your have now, and can also see if a clean install will fix it.
 
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2 users having same problem shows its probably windows.

try running the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter?


https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...0/dd3ae34b-242d-4f44-98a7-9cebe3b9765a?auth=1

So its the store & Feedback hub? everything else seems to work on video.

I can't seem to find anyone with problems like that with feedback hub, troubleshooter above might fix it.

if you don't want to reinstall windows and lose everything, you could buy a new SSD and put windows on it, as then you won't lose anything your have now, and can also see if a clean install will fix it.
Troubleshooter does not help unfortunately :/.
Problem is, mine isn't blank like the others have gotten, the text is fully visible, graphics is not but it flickers back and forth, I've searched all similar titled threads. x_x
 
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sounds like an app bug. I would turn off the msedge prefetching and see if it helps.
Microsoft Edge: How to Disable Preloading Pages Option? (gizchina.com)

might have to clear the prefetch cache also. google on how to do that.
data will be in hidden directory:
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data /prefetch (with some number)

see the list of issues with app:
Latest Windows 10 Preview (19044.1679) is causing problems · Issue #121 · rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect · GitHub
Thanks, I will try this now and let you know how it went! This seems a bit promising.

EDIT: Darn, I was really hoping this is it. However, I have a eerie suspicion it has something to do with C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Packages\(folder name), for some stupid reason I tried to move all my files onto my D: drive a while back and I have a feeling that those particular apps are trying to access particular files that are just broken/bugged/corrupted from that endeavor even though I tried reverting what I had done I suppose I could've messed some things up or missed some particular files? Any more clues? Thanks so much, your post is the best "out of the box" advice I've gotten so far.
I will dig through the list of issues, that one issue you linked sounded similar but it was regarding a webpage on Chrome browser being blank and not system programs themselves.
 
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Also, check this error out, because this is something super strange and might give a clue to the problem!
Could not fit it in one GIF so had to do two, sorry.
Part 1
Part 2
No one has probably noticed that tiny little icon in the Windows 10 Search Bar Area that says, "Search with a screenshot", but upon using it, the image comes up blank! Not to mention, no Microsoft Windows profile picture is shown on the top of the Search Bar tile area neither, although when hovering over it, does show my user/computers linked Microsoft account/profile email!
 
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hope john can see the errors, a 480 x 269 gif is a little hard to read on a 1440p monitor

However, I have a eerie suspicion it has something to do with C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Packages\(folder name), for some stupid reason I tried to move all my files onto my D: drive a while back and I have a feeling that those particular apps are trying to access particular files that are just broken/bugged/corrupted from that endeavor even though I tried reverting what I had done I suppose I could've messed some things up or missed some particular files?
how did you revert them?

I wish I had known this before I asked you to a repair install. As you may have been able to run system restore and if you had a restore point prior to changes, you could have rolled back. Its too late now. Good chance the repair install removed any. And it wouldn't be safe to use any now, if they did exist prior to the repair install.

So SFC/DISM doesn't fix, a repair install doesn't fix... two different users have same problem.
I do have a 100 GB Full Image backup file of my whole C:\ drive on my external SSD (D:\) though, but only really did that for a worst-case scenario, where my HDD just up and dies, then I'd have no choice but to use it.
I wonder if putting the image back on would fix it. Since you are adverse to a clean install. It might be one fix.

you could try uninstalling the store and reinstalling it again - https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/content/en-us15779991/
 
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hope john can see the errors, a 480 x 269 gif is a little hard to read on a 1440p monitor


how did you revert them?

I wish I had known this before I asked you to a repair install. As you may have been able to run system restore and if you had a restore point prior to changes, you could have rolled back. Its too late now. Good chance the repair install removed any. And it wouldn't be safe to use any now, if they did exist prior to the repair install.

So SFC/DISM doesn't fix, a repair install doesn't fix... two different users have same problem.

I wonder if putting the image back on would fix it. Since you are adverse to a clean install. It might be one fix.

you could try uninstalling the store and reinstalling it again - https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/content/en-us15779991/
I did not have a system restore point anyways so no worries, but I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling as well, and I think I did that with all "app package" commands, did not fix it. I've discovered something else that is interesting and might also be of help with figuring this out. So, check this out, when I go to choose the accent color from the Personalization settings, not only is the button to apply the color not showing up but also check out the preview of how it will look on your PC that it shows you, then look at my Start area, the accent color is supposed to affect the tiling colors as well as the program list but it is completely not registering with it, no wonder I've had this funny feeling something feels a bit off but I could not for the life of me figure out what it was until today! This is just so bizarre, I doubt it has to do with the individual programs themselves now seeing how its affecting my entire Start area itself! Anything else come to mind? Also, does this reply also show up for previous people who commented on the post or at least bump my thread to the top of the thread list on the forums? I ask because it would be great if anybody else were to notice these bugs, maybe someone might have specific knowledge with what has happened to my PC. Thanks for all the help, I super appreciate all the work, effort, and advice/suggestions you've given me!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, when ticking the checkbox on for "Start, taskbar, and action center" it applies onto the start menu but not when I've only got "Title bars and window borders" ticked on, ALSO, I completely forgot, whenever I would use the Windows Screen Snip feature it brings up a blank image, so basically it's like it does not recognize the screenshot I'm taking of my desktop at all so I'm forced into using a 3rd party program called Gyazo which, pretty much works the same, as in I could select the area of the screen I want to capture, and it works just fine! What is going on!?

EDIT 2: So, I decided to run sfc /scannow command in Admin Powershell and this is what happened. If the CBS log file will help at all here is the Dropbox link. Even though it says it repaired whatever was corrupted, it still did not fix the issue that I am having.
 
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try a restart after running SFC to make sure changes are saved. Some changes can't happen with windows running

so you can color start menu but not title bars as well. that is unusual. I had to look on a VM on 10 to see menus you meant - they have renamed them in 11


snipping tool was meant to be able to be solved with SFC.

your windows is ill. that 100gb image might be best choice to escape

You could ask on here, they might have an idea - https://www.tenforums.com/ (share link here so I can follow along). Not giving up but if they can figure out a fix I wouldn't mind knowing how.
 
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try a restart after running SFC to make sure changes are saved. Some changes can't happen with windows running

so you can color start menu but not title bars as well. that is unusual. I had to look on a VM on 10 to see menus you meant - they have renamed them in 11


snipping tool was meant to be able to be solved with SFC.

your windows is ill. that 100gb image might be best choice to escape

You could ask on here, they might have an idea - https://www.tenforums.com/ (share link here so I can follow along).
Not giving up but if they can figure out a fix I wouldn't mind knowing how.
Thank you so much, sorry for the late replies, I've been super busy with work and IRL. I believe I did restart, but if I did, not right after using SFC. I know I did later on that day, I don't know if that would make a difference and revert the SFC repair?
I will post on those forums, thanks so much for all the help! I'll put a link on this reply so you could follow along. Worst case, might have to use that system image to reboot everything, but to be quite honest, I did that when I already had stumbled onto this bug/error, from what I remember, so I don't know how much help it would even be.

EDIT: I have a question that may not pertain to this bug, but it seems super sketchy lol, when I opened up the defrag program to "Optimize Drivers" it shows my two drives along with a "PortableBaseLayer" Virtual hard drive, I'm assuming because I play around with Windows Sandbox but that aside, it is showing the C: Drive, which is my main drive where the PC has been running on since I purchased it, as a SSD (Solid State Drive) all the while saying that my D: Drive is a HDD (Hard Disk Drive)!? Which is not correct, it is the other way around, my main drive is a HDD while the additional D Drive I added is an External SSD, is this something to be worried about?
 
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I have a question that may not pertain to this bug, but it seems super sketchy lol, when I opened up the defrag program to "Optimize Drivers" it shows my two drives along with a "PortableBaseLayer" Virtual hard drive, I'm assuming because I play around with Windows Sandbox but that aside, it is showing the C: Drive, which is my main drive where the PC has been running on since I purchased it, as a SSD (Solid State Drive) all the while saying that my D: Drive is a HDD (Hard Disk Drive)!? Which is not correct, it is the other way around, my main drive is a HDD while the additional D Drive I added is an External SSD, is this something to be worried about?
can you share some screenshots? Of both the disk optimization screen and Disk management

To get to second, right click start
choose Disk Management
when next app open, expand to show all details of top and bottom areas
take screenshot and use an image sharing website to show both shots.

"PortableBaseLayer" Virtual hard drive
that is indeeed a sandbox drive. I wonder what it would see on my PC. I don't use the base defrag program, I use defraggler.
 
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can you share some screenshots? Of both the disk optimization screen and Disk management

To get to second, right click start
choose Disk Management
when next app open, expand to show all details of top and bottom areas
take screenshot and use an image sharing website to show both shots.


that is indeeed a sandbox drive. I wonder what it would see on my PC. I don't use the base defrag program, I use defraggler.
Just wanted to chime back in because I never got around to posting on that forum website you had linked me to, I sort of had given up hope of my problem getting fixed so I just put the thought of it in the backseat of my mind. Then, all of the sudden, literally a minute ago, notice that the problem is now fixed and everything is back to normal, I have absolutely no idea what I did for it to work again because I don't know when exactly it got fixed since I don't pay attention to it usually since it's sort of subtle unless you open up MS Store or look at a certain part of the Start Menu.

All I've really changed though since we last spoke has been the paging file size for my PC but after doing so, I reverted it back for it to be automatically managed by the system rather then a custom minimum/maximum. I honestly cant think of anything else I have really done besides that, I guess I had also changed some options via Nvidia Control Panel, since I was using DLDSR (Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution) I had set the smoothness option for it to a higher number, something like 70% if I recall correctly, I lowered it down to below 10% but, I don't see how that could have affected anything.

The only other thing I could think of doing different is, using this program called Nvidia Profile Inspector that allows me to tweak settings for certain games AND also general graphics profile of the PC, messing with some settings with that such as turning an option named "Antialiasing Compatibility" to the default, which is none or off, I had set it on a specific preset although I forgot which exactly but basically the options are all presets that are titled as games. (e.g. Diablo III). I also changed couple more things to do with Antialiasing method which I had set to I believe SGSSAA or just SSAA, can't remember but either way, I set "Antialiasing - Mode" to Override any application setting, then for "Antialiasing - Setting" to Application Controlled / Off for the Setting, then "Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling" to Disabled as well as changing "Enable Maxwell sample interleaving (MFAA)" to Off, and the last thing regarding Antialiasing was setting the "Antialiasing - SLI AA" to Disabled.

Next part I changed was the Anisotropic Filtering options, all to Off or back to default. I might have also turned "Shadercache" on, but that might have already been on, can't remember for sure. Other then those settings using the Nvidia programs as well as the Paging File Size changes which I reverted, I don't believe I touched anything else so I'm completely mind-boggled as to what in the actual hell is going on with my PC. I wanted to mention the changes I had done in case theres something in there that you or anybody would recognize as being something that could maybe, be the cause of the problem.
Any ideas? Thanks for all the help so far, you've went above and beyond for me!

EDIT: I forgot that I had also done these steps from this guide on optimizing and setup of a Gaming PC.

[mod edit - spacing added for readability]
 
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I added some spacing to the reply as 20 lines with no breaks is hard to read. Meant I also read most of it too.

often I find unexplainable problems just go away again and we left wondering what cause was. I think we should just accept that one of them or possibly a combo or side effect is it seems to work now.

also, since I guessed it was windows, its possible a fix was released that fixed it unnoticed.
 
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I added some spacing to the reply as 20 lines with no breaks is hard to read. Meant I also read most of it too.

often I find unexplainable problems just go away again and we left wondering what cause was. I think we should just accept that one of them or possibly a combo or side effect is it seems to work now.

also, since I guessed it was windows, its possible a fix was released that fixed it unnoticed.
I'm so super sorry >_< I was in the heat of the moment and just went into typing mode and wrote out an entire story while ignoring the spacing.... I feel absolutely guilty as hell since you read it all too.😳

Your a champ man, I hadn't really even noticed that your a moderator until just now when I found out your the mod who fixed my reply, I freaked out for a second lol. Honestly, even though we couldn't find a fix at the time, all the tips you gave me were very helpful regardless in one way or another. Basically cleaned up my computer and did lots of fixes using your steps! Wish I could give ya something for taking the time out of your day(s) to do that for a stranger like me. I will update this post if it ends up being reverted or something, I'm hoping I can figure out what fixed it in the end so that the next person who stumbles onto this absolute nightmare of a bug will solve it without the mountain of struggle I had to climb. Sucks not finding out the actual reason, after all this time and effort that went on changing/modifying almost everything we could think of.

You mentioned how Windows could have fixed it, if that was the case wouldn't the Windows Update window on my PC show the last and newest update as the last couple of days?

EDIT: Oh my goodness! I think I found out what could have solved it. So I think I mentioned how I messed with my PC's permission groups and ownership while moving around files over to my external drive and blah blah blah. So, the other day I looked up some videos about file ownership, permission groups, inheritance and the likes, then I went ahead and put "Everyone" as a permission entry in the security tab>advanced of my main C:\ drive, and left the Owner as "Trusted Installer", felt like I shouldn't mess with that. Went ahead and did the same for my external D:\ drive, as well as added my Microsoft account that's linked to my PC as another group to both drives. I also went ahead and gave Full Control under the permission settings for the group(s).

That being said, I am almost 99% positive that must have been what solved my problem! I feel like when I had tried to move all my files over to my D:\ drive that had really messed up my PC, so much so that reverting the process didn't even fix it. Even in the first place when doing that, my Microsoft/Windows programs + apps stopped working completely and would not open at all, turns out that was because when doing the move, I had messed with a whole bunch of groups and their permissions for certain folders/files regarding MS Store and such. I was only able to fix that after reverting the move process because of a super awesome fix that someone had made which reverts all of the "Security" group permission settings back to default, at least most of them anyways. ( I guess it must have missed some and that's how my Windows Programs ended up breaking ) If needed I could link the tool/fix I used for the original problem, the one that reverts the perms + groups to default if needed.

What do you think? You think that could be the reason? I feel like I've figured out the answer!!! I'm super stoked to be honest, I really hope I'm right lol. No way of really checking unless I mess with it again and no way in hell am I doing that! Thanks again ❤ and sorry for such long posts, I write whole essays as responses. 😅😊
 
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Permissions could have been cause, I guess. Something you did fixed it, it may be impossible to be certain what. Lets not retrace steps and recreate it again :)

I write long replies too, being concise is difficult for me as well. It was 3.30am when I answered previous post, if it hadn't been a reply to a thread I was already in I may have just closed it again. Its a lot to ask at that time of morning. Hence I added spaces.
 
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Solution
Permissions could have been cause, I guess. Something you did fixed it, it may be impossible to be certain what. Lets not retrace steps and recreate it again :)

I write long replies too, being concise is difficult for me as well. It was 3.30am when I answered previous post, if it hadn't been a reply to a thread I was already in I may have just closed it again. Its a lot to ask at that time of morning. Hence I added spaces.
Your simply the best. Thanks again! ❤❤❤