Devin S. Olson explains design element corruption issues in the IBM Notes Client and how to resolve them.

1. Resolving Cached Design Element
Corruption Issues in the IBM Notes Client
Devin S. Olson - IBM Champion - Red Pill Now
16 May 2017
Issue Description
The IBM Notes Client maintains a local cache of various design elements used by server-located
Notes application databases. Because the design elements to not have to be pulled down from
the server every time they are needed / referenced, this allows application databases to be
opened more quickly and be more responsive than they would otherwise be. However, this can
sometimes lead to problems if the date information for the design elements gets out of sync, or
the design elements themselves become corrupted.
Cached Design Element Corruption (CDEC) issues can manifest in odd application behavior or
data corruption. A common indication of these type of issues is when an application behaves
radically differently for a single specific user than it does for others in the organization with
similar ACL / Group Membership / Application Roles. Situations where forms look different
than normal, views do not open correctly, navigators or other UI controls look or behave
“wrong”, or document item values (especially computed) do not update or save correctly are all
common symptoms of CDEC.
Note that CDEC, while possible, is generally an “outlier” issue. Do not assume this is the first
problem when attempting to resolve Notes client issues. Other more common issues (correct
database replica, verification / testing of database design and data, server access, ACL levels,
group membership, application roles, etc.) are all more likely causes of the above symptoms
and should be checked / verified before CDEC is considered as a cause.
This document specifies the steps necessary to correct and recover from CDEC with as little
disruption to the end user’s client setup as possible.

2. Resolution Steps
CDEC is specific and unique to the Notes client installation. The following steps must be
performed on the client workstation that is having the problem. Steps are listed in escalating
order of client impact; it is best to start at the beginning (very basic) and work through them
one at a time, without skipping ahead, until the issue is resolved. Re-check application
functionality at the completion of each step.
Restart the Notes Client
Have the user shut down the Notes Client completely and then start it up and go back into the
application.
Restart Windows
Windows handles (and caches) file access reads / writes differently than Unix / Macintosh
systems, and because of this it is possible for the O/S to report back to the Notes Client that a
file has been updated before those writes have been committed to disk. If the user is running
Windows have them restart Windows, then launch Notes and start again.
Remove from Workspace
Remove the database icon from the user’s workspace (make note
of the server / filepath first from the application properties dialog).
Right-click on the application “chicklet” and select “Remove From
Workspace” from the context menu, then restart the Notes client
and add re-open the application.
Compact the Workspace
Remove the database icon from the workspace, but before
restarting the Notes client, bring up the workspace
properties dialog and click the “Compact” button on the
advanced tab. Wait for the workspace compact process to
complete, then restart the Notes client.
Remove Document(s) from cache.ndk
Make a note of the ReplicaID of the database (can be found
at the bottom of the Information tab of the Database
Properties Dialog). TIP: Copy and paste the ReplicaID into a
temporary Notepad document instance, as you will need to
refer to it and type it again.

3. Open the cache.ndk in the workspace. This can be performed
by first bringing up the Open File Dialog (File > Open > IBM
Notes Application), then setting the server (Look In) to “On My
Computer” or “Local”, then typing in “cache.ndk” for the File
name, and finally clicking the “Open” button.
The cache.ndk is nothing more than a specially named notes
database file; with three primary views. These views are ByType, ByURL, and ByURLCat. The
documents contained within these views are carriers for the cached design elements. These
design elements are referenced by Notes URL and are used by the Notes Client when accessing
database design elements which match the Notes URL.
Open the ByURL view. Search for
design elements for the ReplicaID
noted previously by typing in the
Notes URL as “Notes:///” followed
by the ReplicaID, then press the
Find button (or just hitting the
enter key) to find the first matching
design element. Make special note
that there are three slashes, that
the ReplicaID is in ALL CAPS, and
that the ReplicaID contains no
colon character.
Select all documents which match
the Notes URL for the ReplicaID you are searching for and delete them from the database.
Exit from the database, then (using the information tab in the Properties dialog), compact
cache.ndk. Perform this compact operation even if you did not find and delete any matching
documents.
Compact the Workspace (REPEAT)
Remove the database icon from the workspace, but before
restarting the Notes client, bring up the workspace
properties dialog and click the “Compact” button on the
advanced tab. Wait for the workspace compact process to
complete, then restart the Notes client.

4. Rename (or remove) desktop8.ndk
ATTENTION: This step will cause a major impact to the user’s client setup. This will cause ALL
workspace tabs and icons to vanish, and the user will have to manually re-open them as needed.
Desktop8.ndk is the workspace file used by current (Notes 8 and Notes 9) clients.
Shut down the Notes client, then
locate the desktop8.ndk file in
the Notes Data folder. If
additional “desktop?.ndk” files
(desktop7.ndk, desktop6.ndk,
desktop5.ndk, etc.) files are
found they should be removed.
Rename desktop8.ndk to
desktop8.ndk.bak or remove it
entirely.
When the Notes client is
restarted, it will generate a new
desktop8.ndk file.
Next Steps
If at this point the CDEC issue has not been resolved, then something else is most likely the
cause of the issue, which may require contacting IBM (or your IBM Business Partner) for higher
level support.