Major problem with biblatex/biber

Question

I've come to work today to find that over the weekend Biblatex has thrown a wobbly and no longer works. Every time I try to run it, it goes immediately to 'process exited with error(s)', and won't display what errors these might be, preventing any troubleshooting of the problem.

I can run PDFLaTeX ok on the file, and it was all working fine on Saturday.

I can't even get this M(N-)WE to compile when including Biblatex :(

\documentclass[oneside,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[sorting=nyt,
            style=authoryear,           
            %hyperref=true,
            backref=true,
            maxbibnames=99,
            maxcitenames=1,
            uniquelist=false,
            uniquename = false,
            dashed=false,
            backend=biber]
            {biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}


\begin{document}


\cite{Karlstrom2006}
\cite{Cerveny1971}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

My actual file is a great deal more complex of course, and using a custom class, but as I say, this all compiles ok in PDFLaTeX, it is Biblatex where it is falling straight over the cliff.

I've reinstalled both biblatex and biber packages, with no effect.

Has anyone else ever come across such a problem? I think this is different to other biblatex compilation problems as there is no error log output to locate the issue.

Many thanks

Answer 1

The problem appeared to be twofold: one, that the Windows 7 OS was forbidding access rights to the temp folder located in C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp, despite user having admin privilege.

Second, that a file called recode_data.xml that should have been located within a subfolder (with prefix 'par-') of the Temp folder was, according to Biblatex/Biber 'missing'.

The solutions were:

1. Run the LaTeX editor (in this case Texmaker) using elevated admin rights, or from elevated command prompt (which is what I actually ended up doing).
2. Delete the identified folder with the prefix 'par-' within the AppData\Local\Temp folder - this is then recreated by LaTeX, presumably with the missing file.

Thanks to Ulrike Fischer and other users for assistance!

Answer 2

I had this same error when I initially installed the softwares. The error ended in 'process exited with errors'. The solution was to open texmaker and go to options--> settings file --> reset settings. This restarts Texmaker and after that you should be fine.