IKE PoleForeman crashing upon launch

Product: IKE PoleForeman
Version Affected: V1.1.84 and potentially others
Root Cause: Corrupt or missing application data files

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Problem Description

IKE PoleForeman crashes immediately upon launch and cannot be opened. The application may appear briefly on the device before closing without loading. This issue can persist even after running .NET dependency repairs and may occur across different machines (including when remoted in).

Users may notice the following symptoms:

- The app fails to load every time it is launched

Root Cause

The crash is caused by corrupt or invalid JSON configuration/data files within the IKE PoleForeman application data folder. These files are generated by .NET at runtime and are stored in the user's AppData directory:

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\ikeGPS\IKE PoleForeman
 

If this folder is empty, relocated, or the files within it are corrupted (e.g., contain no valid JSON tokens), the application will fail to start. Repairing .NET dependencies alone will not resolve this issue, as the problem lies with the application's local data files rather than the runtime itself.

Resolution

The confirmed fix is to **delete the IKE PoleForeman application data folder** and allow the application to regenerate it on next launch.

1. Close IKE PoleForeman if it is running.
2. Navigate to the following directory (you may need IT or elevated permissions to access AppData):
  
  C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\ikeGPS\IKE PoleForeman
  
3. Delete the entire IKE PoleForeman folder.
4. Re-launch the IKE PoleForeman application. It will automatically recreate the necessary files and folders on startup.

> **Note:** If the AppData folder is empty or the files have been moved to a different location (e.g., "C:\Program Files\ikeGPS\IKE PoleForeman"), it is recommended to **fully uninstall the application** and perform a clean reinstall. During a standard installation, the default data file path should be "C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\ikeGPS\IKE PoleForeman". If files are not in this location, the application will not behave as expected.

5. If uninstalling: After uninstalling, confirm that both the `Program Files` and `AppData` directories are cleared before reinstalling.

Additional Details

When reviewing Windows Event Viewer (Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application), the following crash information may be recorded:

- **Faulting application:** `PoleForemNextGen.exe`, version 1.1.84.0
- **Faulting module:** `KERNELBASE.dll`
- **Exception code:** `0xe0434352`

The application log may also show an unhandled exception related to JSON parsing:

> `System.Text.Json.JsonException: The input does not contain any JSON tokens. Expected the input to start with a valid JSON token, when isFinalBlock is true.`

This indicates that one or more JSON configuration files required by the application are empty, corrupted, or missing entirely.