Hi!

When I run Inkscape it shows an error message:

The preferences file /home/user/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml is not a valid XML document. Inkscape will run with default settings, and new settings will not be saved. 

[I've just used "Code wrap" button from the editor's toolbar to wrap the above message. But instead of doing that, it just removed newlines from my text. So code wrapping doesn't work. Well, it's not my business but why you didn't used well known and tested MarkDown editor, huh?]

If I then exist Inkscape and run it again it shows just the same message.

So it seems to me that Inkscape is unable to recover by itself from whatever problem it experienced.

Sorry for posting here, I just couldn't find any better place.

This place is absolutely suitable for this question.

The error message means that the file preferences.xml  (which stores - guess what - Inkscape's preferences) is corrupted for some reason. Possible reasons include Inkscape crashes during shutdown, system crahses, hard drive issues, etc.

You can try to open it with a text editor and attempt to fix it manually (if there's anything to fix) in order to recover your preferences.

If you do not care too much for your previous preferences, simply delete the mentioned file and Inkscape should work as usual again.

Yeah, I see. I'm just curios why. Why me? Why should I care about all this. It's not my problem, it's a problem of Inkscape.

Inkscape could just delete your preference file in such a case, yes, but maybe you're very attached to it (for example because it took you years to get every preference just right).

I agree we might change this to an informational message in the future and back-up the corrupted file instead. Feel free to report a feature request at https://inkscape.org/report so we do not forget about this.

An d a new install does not help.

Still looking for a way to reset Inkscape. Uninstalling/reinstalling does not work. So far no help has worked. Looks like I'll just have to get Adobe Illustrator. I have never found so many armatures who don't know how to answer a simple question or a program that makes simple tasks so complicated. Most programs have a simple "reset defaults" command. Not Inkscape. How amateurish. 

You can reset your preferences file via Edit > Preferences. A new window will open. Select System from the list on the left. Tap the reset button. Close and restart Inkscape and a new Preferences file will be created. You will lose any customisations and default settings you may have made.

I've already switched to Ai. Inkscape just does not have the support and tutorials I need. Peace. 

Hi, 
This recomendation  of Z3Z works for me: reset your preferences file via Edit > Preferences / system / reset preferences. Then i just set again my preferences as theme, icons style ect...

Thank you so much.

 

Hi guys,

reseting the preferences worked for me as well. Thank you for the tipp ;)

Best

Worked for me, tooooo! Thanks for leaving this Q&A up <3