Margin Master Cannot Save Settings

What is this?

Margin Master keeps a small number of settings files outside your database, in a shared Windows folder:

C:\ProgramData\RetailerSoft\MarginMaster

Your database connection lives there, along with a few files that record how Margin Master starts up. Every user on the PC shares them, which is the point — set the connection up once and everyone who signs in to that PC uses it.

If Windows will not let your account change those files, Margin Master tells you at start-up with a message headed Margin Master Cannot Save Settings. This page explains what it means and how to clear it.

What the message means

The message lists the folder, then the files it could not update. In practice it means one thing:

Anything you change — your database connection above all — looks like it saved, but is gone the next time you open Margin Master.

The most common way this shows up is a PC that asks you to set your database up again every single time you start Margin Master. The setup finishes, it looks like it worked, and the next launch has forgotten it. That is this problem, not a database problem.

Margin Master only raises this message when a file it actually uses is blocked. Old files left behind by earlier versions are ignored, so a leftover from years ago will not interrupt you.

Fixing it: the Fix This Now button

Click Fix This Now on the message.

1. Windows shows its own security prompt (the screen that dims and asks whether to allow changes). On some PCs it asks for an administrator user name and password — if yours does and you do not have one, see If the button does not work.
2. Choose Yes.
3. Margin Master grants the PC's Users group permission to change files in that one folder, and clears the read-only mark from the settings files.
4. When it reports success, close and reopen Margin Master.

Nothing else is touched. Your pricing, your strategies, your store data and your database all live elsewhere, and the repair does not read or change any of them. It only adjusts who Windows allows to edit files in the settings folder.

If you would rather not run it yourself, the same message has a Copy Details button. That puts the folder, the blocked files, and the exact command on your clipboard so you can paste it into an email to whoever looks after your PCs.

If the button does not work

Two cases end up here: the Windows prompt was declined or asked for a password you do not have, or the repair ran and the folder is still blocked (usually a company policy that manages that folder centrally).

Either way, this is a one-line job for whoever administers the PC. Ask them to open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

icacls "C:\ProgramData\RetailerSoft\MarginMaster" /grant *S-1-5-32-545:(OI)(CI)M /T

That grants the PC's local Users group Modify permission on the folder and everything in it. *S-1-5-32-545 is the built-in identifier for that group, so the command works the same on any language of Windows.

If some of the files are also marked read-only, the same prompt clears that:

attrib -R "C:\ProgramData\RetailerSoft\MarginMaster\*.json"

Then reopen Margin Master. The warning should be gone. If it is not, send a support request — use Copy Details on the message first, and paste that into the request.

Why it happens

The folder is created once, by whichever Windows account installs or first runs Margin Master. If that was an administrator, an IT technician, or a different member of staff, the files inside can end up owned by that account with everyone else allowed only to read them. Everything works until Margin Master needs to write, and then it silently cannot.

Nothing you did causes it, and it does not come back once it is fixed properly. The one exception: if the "fix" was to run Margin Master as an administrator once, rather than granting your own account permission, the problem returns the next time you open it normally.

The title-bar reminder

If you close the message without fixing it, a red Settings Cannot Be Saved marker stays in the title bar at the top of the main window. Click it to bring the message back. It disappears on its own once the folder is repaired — dismissing the message cannot make the underlying problem go away, so Margin Master keeps it in sight.

Common Questions

Q: Is my pricing data at risk? A: No. Your pricing, strategies, exceptions and store data live in your database, not in this folder. The only thing at risk is settings you change while the folder is blocked — those are lost.

Q: Can I keep working? A: Yes, with the understanding that setting changes will not stick. If the block is on your database connection, expect to be asked to set the database up again at each start-up until it is fixed.

Q: The message named a file I have never heard of. A: Only files Margin Master actively uses trigger the message. If one is named, it matters — run Fix This Now or send the details to whoever looks after your PCs.

Q: I clicked Fix This Now and nothing seemed to happen. A: If the Windows security prompt did not appear, it may have opened behind another window; look along the taskbar. If it appeared and you chose No, run it again and choose Yes.