I now had something quite strange the other day. I added a new indicator to the folder and then wondered why my indicators in the MT no longer worked. After restarting the MT the indicator folder was empty. Does anyone have any idea what could have happened there? The templates, scripts etc were all still present so it didn't matter as I only had to re-add the indicators and all my settings were still intact.

pail1217 wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:59 pm I now had something quite strange the other day. I added a new indicator to the folder and then wondered why my indicators in the MT no longer worked. After restarting the MT the indicator folder was empty. Does anyone have any idea what could have happened there? The templates, scripts etc were all still present so it didn't matter as I only had to re-add the indicators and all my settings were still intact.

What? All your indicators just vanished? As in EX4 and MQ4 files disappeared from your Indicators folder?

What happens if you go to go to File -> Open Data Folder?

Did you move the indicators folder by mistake? Check if the indicators folder is now a subfolder of another folder.
Also, did you look in the recycle bin if you deleted it by mistake?

pail1217 wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:59 pm I now had something quite strange the other day. I added a new indicator to the folder and then wondered why my indicators in the MT no longer worked. After restarting the MT the indicator folder was empty. Does anyone have any idea what could have happened there? The templates, scripts etc were all still present so it didn't matter as I only had to re-add the indicators and all my settings were still intact.

One thing that could be the problem is if you have too many indicators in your indicator folder, I don't know about the other, but in my case, when I put too many indicators in one MT4 directory folder, it won't load the latest one if it passed it limits. The other thing that might happen is your broker mt4 or mt5 have an update or you install a new mt4 or mt5 from your broker. My broker used to have the program installed directly in program files. But now, the new mt4 software from my broker installed it in a different directory. In case of the latter, you can check the local disk and then go to user, in the user window, just add \AppData\Roaming in the directory bar right next to the search function and then check metaquotes. Sorry that this is the only thing that I could think of. Hope you resolve your problem soon.

If you are using the dreaded windows OS, have you tried opening explorer and looking at the Users file?

C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\biglongalphanumericnumber\MQ4
Xard777

thx for your answers. I have already fixed the problem in the meantime by copying the indicators back to the folder. It's been a few days since this happened, so I can't see if any of your tips would have helped, but I didn't do anything to the folder. The folder itself was not deleted, but just empty. That would mean that I would have marked all indicators and then deleted them. I was but not directly in the folder, but have the folder been clicked on, the indicator pasted, went back to the MT to restart it and have already seen that the indicators were no longer running. After restarting the MT, I have then opened the folder and it was empty. I just wanted to know if anyone has ever experienced something similar.

pail1217 wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:59 pm I now had something quite strange the other day. I added a new indicator to the folder and then wondered why my indicators in the MT no longer worked. After restarting the MT the indicator folder was empty. Does anyone have any idea what could have happened there? The templates, scripts etc were all still present so it didn't matter as I only had to re-add the indicators and all my settings were still intact.

sounds like a critical error in programm execution that led to unexpected behavior,
did you checked your log files from that day? (mt4 folder/logs/) or maybe in (mt4 folder/mql4/logs/) MT might rec it,
beyond that a poorly coded [ bool DeleteFileW(string path);] can have the same result,
you should check from that day wich indicators need to write and delete files with unconventional ways (using windows api)

regards

Xronos__ wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 8:52 am sounds like a critical error in programm execution that led to unexpected behavior,
did you checked your log files from that day? (mt4 folder/logs/) or maybe in (mt4 folder/mql4/logs/) MT might rec it,
beyond that a poorly coded [ bool DeleteFileW(string path);] can have the same result,
you should check from that day wich indicators need to write and delete files with unconventional ways (using windows api)

regards

that was also my guess, that it was actually due to an incorrectly programmed indicator. Unfortunately, I can no longer check the log files, because I had a problem with my Windows in the meantime and have reinstalled this and therefore also had to reinstall MT. But it is good to know that it is possible that this could be caused by an indicator. Thank you for for your detailed explanation.