How To: Report a Problem with PokerTracker 3

[WhiteRider]

Reporting a problem in PokerTracker 3

In this guide:

• This post - Before creating a bug report
• Submitting a support ticket
• PokerTracker 3 log files
• Hand History files
• Taking a screenshot
• Compressing files
• PostgreSQL log files
• How To: Attach files to a ticket

Before creating a bug report
If you have a problem with PokerTracker 3 there are a few things to check:

1. Check the PT3 Build History / Release Notes to see if your issue has been fixed.
   
2. Search the forums as often your problem will have been addressed before and you may find a solution.
   Use the Search function to the top right of the forum.
   
   

   

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3. You should also look through the Frequently Asked Questions forum as there are FAQs and Tutorials for most common issues.
   In particular, check the PT3 Importing FAQ and PT3 HUD FAQ.

If you don't find a solution post your question in the appropriate forum - ALL PT3 issues should be posted in the PT3 section, including HUD issues (PAHud is a separate application which only works with PT2).

If you have a specific problem, or if you have been asked to by support, you should report it using the Support system.

If you experienced a crash and the PT3 application requested that you send your crash log please attach it to a support ticket in the same way.
If you had logging enabled at the time please attach the normal PokerTracker.log and PokerTrackerHUD.log files (BEFORE restarting PT3) to the ticket along with the crash log and describe what you were doing just before the crash happened. The more information you can give us the easier it will be to establish and fix the problem.
Crash logs are written to "My Documents" in Windows and "Documents" on a Mac.
If you have a crash on the native Mac version please also attach the Apple crash logs from the /Users/*username*/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports folder.

For help creating a support ticket click here.

For help attaching files to a ticket click here.


Again, ALL PT3 issues should be created in the PokerTracker 3 section, including HUD issues.

[WhiteRider]

Submitting a support ticket

When you create a support ticket please give as much detailed information about your issue as possible.
Make sure you specify your operating system and the exact version number of PT3 that you are using - you can see this in the title bar of PT3.

version number.png (2.75 KiB) Viewed 81864 times

If this isn't the latest version please try updating to the latest version before reporting your problem.

See the PT3 Build History / Release Notes and the Download page - Betas are nearly always newer than Builds and will contain fixes and new features that the Build does not.
Beta versions are shown below Build versions on the Download page so you will need to scroll down to find the latest.

What you should include in the ticket depends on exactly what the problem is, but please explain clearly what the problem is and what steps you take to reproduce it (if you are able to) or what you were doing just before you experienced the problem.

As well as describing your issue in words, you can attach files to the ticket to illustrate the problem.
Which files you should attach depends on your problem.

• The most useful files are the main log files.
  
  • PokerTracker.log
  • PokerTrackerHUD.log
  Click here for information on generating and finding these log files.

• If your problem involves importing hands you should attach the hand history files too (details).

• In some cases a screenshot of the issue will help to explain what the problem is (details).

• If you have problems related to PostgreSQL please attach the relevant PostgreSQL log files (details).

Before attaching files please zip/compress them (details).

To attach files to a ticket click the Browse button and select the file you want to attach, then click the Attach button.
You now need to wait for the file to upload and appear in red before you continue.

Click here for more help attaching files.


When submitting log files please keep them as simple as possible - restart PT3 to reset the log files then reproduce the problem as simply as possible and send the log files soon after this.
Note the time you see the problem and any other useful information like table or player names affected.

For example, if you have have problems with the HUD please enable logging and restart PT3.
Play a short session (maybe 20 or 30 hands) on a single table (or as few tables as you need to show the problem).
At this point, and BEFORE you restart PT3, attach your log files along with the hand history file for the session and a screenshot of the table to illustrate the problem.
Please tell us your player name and identify any other players that are affected by the issue.
Also note the time you see the problem and what table(s) it was at if you need to have multiple tables open.

If you were previously discussing the issue in a thread on the forum please include a link to the thread so that we can find it.


When you are ready to send your ticket please re-read it to make sure that it explains your problem clearly and then click the Submit button.

When you have submitted your ticket you will get an email confirmation.
From here you can link back to your ticket.

Alternatively you can look up any of your existing tickets by clicking My Tickets in the Support section of the Side Navigation bar on the main site.

When you view your ticket in the web page you can reply in the same way that you originally created the ticket.

Please reply to the same ticket if you have more information to add.

(If you want to report a separate issue please create a new ticket.)

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[WhiteRider]

PokerTracker 3 log files

To generate the log files you must enable logging.
You can do this in one of three ways:

1. In PT3 go to Configure > Options > Logging Enabled - make sure there is a tick next to the option.
   
   

   

   
   Once you have enabled logging you must restart PT3 for the setting to take effect and logging to start.
   
   
2. You can start PT3 with logging enabled using a new option in the Start Menu.
   This will not enable logging for future use - it only applies each time you start PT3 using this option.
   
   

   

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3. The final option should no longer be necessary as you can launch PT3 with logging enabled via #2 even if you can't get it to run properly, but you can enable logging by editting the following configuration file:
   
   
   • C:\Program Files\PokerTracker 3\Data\Config\PokerTracker.cfg
   • On Mac, the file is /Users/*username*/Library/Application Support/PokerTracker/PokerTracker.cfg
   You can open this file with notepad.
   
   

   

   
   Find the [General] section and change the line which says "Logging=N" to say "Logging=Y", like this:
   
   [General]
   Logging=Y
   
   

   

   edit cfg.png (34.96 KiB) Viewed 81870 times

There should only be one "Logging=x" line.
If the line does not exist you can add it immediately below the [General] line.

------------------------------------------------------------

You should now reproduce your problem in as simple a way as possible so that the log files do not contain more information than necessary.

Do NOT restart PT3 again until after you have copied the log files or they will be overwritten.

The log files are created in the main PT3 folder, not the 'logs' subfolder.

• c:\Program Files\PokerTracker 3\PokerTracker.log
• c:\Program Files\PokerTracker 3\PokerTrackerHUD.log
  Note: these files may appear as text documents if you have Windows configured to hide file extensions.

If you are using the Mac version of PT3 then the log files appear in the /Users/*username*/Documents/PokerTracker folder:

• /Users/*username*/Documents/PokerTracker/PokerTracker.log
• /Users/*username*/Documents/PokerTracker/PokerTrackerHUD.log

If you experienced a crash and the PT3 application requested that you send your crash log please attach it to a support ticket in the same way and describe what you were doing just before the crash happened. The more information you can give us the easier it will be to establish and fix the problem.
Crash logs are written to "My Documents" in Windows and "Documents" on a Mac.
If you have a crash on the native Mac version please also attach the Apple crash logs from the /Users/*username*/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports folder.

You cannot attach files of over 5MB to a support ticket.
The log files should not be this big if you restart PT3 before reproducing the problem - unless you have to play a long session with a lot of tables open to reproduce it.
If the log files are too big you will need to compress them before attaching them to your ticket.

[WhiteRider]

Hand History files

If your problem involves hand import errors or you are submitting a ticket for a HUD problem and have played a short session you should attach the hand history file(s) to the ticket.

You can normally find your hand history files in the hand history folder for the site, but after you stop auto import they will be moved to the 'processed' folder.
For more information on the 'move processed files to' option and to see where the files are moved to see the Tutorial: Using Auto Import.

When you have found the relevant hand history file(s) you can attach them directly to the ticket, or preferably zip/compress them.

[WhiteRider]

Taking a screenshot

Often a screenshot will help to illustrate the issue.

To generate a screenshot:

• Make sure the window you want an image of is active (click on it) then press alt-PrintScreen.
  This will copy the image to the clipboard.
  If you want an image of more than one window you can just press PrintScreen to copy an image of the whole screen.
• Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Paint to open the MSPaint application (or run your own graphics application).
• To paste the image click Edit > Paste.
• If the relevant info is less than the whole image you can crop it to show what you need to.
• Save the image by clicking File > Save.
  Give the file a name and set the 'Save as type' to .png.
  Note where you save the file to so that you can find it again to attach it to your ticket.

If you are using the Mac version you can press Command-Shift-3 to save a screenshot to the desktop.

Please do not include your image files in Word documents or anything else - just attach the plain or zipped image files.

[WhiteRider]

Zip/Compress files

Before attaching files to a support ticket it is useful to compress (or 'zip') them.
This is especially important if the files are very large, or there are a lot of them.
(You cannot attach files over 5MB to a ticket.)

In Windows XP and Vista you can do this without any third party software.
Select the files that you want to compress by left-click-dragging or control-clicking each in turn.
When you have selected the files right click and choose Send to Compressed Folder.
This will create a new .zip file in the same folder.
Make a note of where this zip file is so that you can find it to attach to your ticket.

If you have a very large file to compress you will probably find that a 3rd party application like WinRar will give better compression.

If you want to add more files to the .zip after it has been created you can drag and drop other files onto it and they will be added - this is useful if, for instance, you create a zip file of the two main PT3 log files and then want to add a hand history file or a screenshot from another folder.

If you are using the Mac version you can select the files you want to compress and right-click (or secondary click) them and choose "Compress".

[WhiteRider]

PostgreSQL Log Files

If you have a problem related to PostgreSQL, such as problems starting or connecting to the service, creating databases, etc., then you should also attach a few log files from around the appropriate time from the PostgreSQL logs folder:

C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/8.3/data/pg_log

On Mac the log files should be in /Library/PostgreSQL/8.4/data/pg_log

Please zip/compress the files before attaching them to your ticket.

[WhiteRider]

How To: Attach files to a ticket

Often it is helpful to attach files to a support ticket, whether these be log files, hand histories or screenshots, or anything else.

This post explains how to attach a file to a support ticket.

If you need to attach multiple files the best way is to zip/compress them first and then attach the single zip file, but if you do need to attach multiple files you can follow these steps multiple times.

To attach a file first you must select it by clicking the Browse... button.

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In the window that opens navigate to find the file that you want to attach and select it - here I choose the main PokerTracker.log file - then click Open.

The file you selected will now be shown in the Attach File: box. Click Attach to attach it to your ticket and wait for the file to upload.

Do NOT type in the message box while you are waiting for the file to upload - when it finishes the page will refresh and any text you typed after clicking Attach will be lost. Any message you typed before clicking Attach will still be there.

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If the file successfully uploads you will see it listed as an Attachment in red below.

Tip! There is a 5MB limit on file size for attachments so if the file fails to upload please check that it is small enough - you may need to zip/compress to make it small enough to attach.

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The file is now attached and will be included when you Submit your ticket.

If you want to attach another file repeat the above steps, but otherwise finish off your message and re-read it to make sure it explains your issue before clicking Submit.