A Project Won't Open

Article Metadata
Category	Troubleshooting
Difficulty	Intermediate
Target OS	Windows · macOS (coming soon)
Summary	Fix “doesn’t look like a Cicero project,” “could not be opened,” and missing projects.

Find the situation that matches yours.

What you see	Most likely cause	Go to
“This folder doesn’t look like a Cicero project. No project.db found.”	You picked the folder one level too high.	This folder doesn’t look like a Cicero project
“project.db exists but could not be opened, it may be corrupted or in use by another program.”	Another program or a sync app is holding the file. Less often, the file is damaged.	project.db exists but could not be opened
A card in the Project Hub won’t open, or its project won’t save	The folder was moved, renamed, or deleted outside Cicero, or its drive is disconnected.	A project card is in the Hub, but the project is missing

“This folder doesn’t look like a Cicero project”

You’ll see this in Open Project when the folder you chose has no project.db file inside.

Most likely: you picked the folder one level too high. This happens a lot after extracting a backup, because the .zip extracts into a folder that contains the project folder.

1. Click Choose Folder… again.
2. Open the folder you picked before.
3. Select the folder inside it, the one with project.db and assets.

“project.db exists but could not be opened”

The full message ends “it may be corrupted or in use by another program.” The folder has a project.db, but Cicero can’t read it. Usually another program is holding the file. Less often, the file was damaged by a sync app, a failed copy, or a disk problem.

First, try again:

1. Close any other program that might be using the project folder, such as File Explorer windows, backup tools, or a second copy of Cicero.
2. If the project is in a OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive folder, pause syncing.
3. Click Open Project again and select the same folder.

If it still won’t open:

1. Don’t delete the folder. Rename it (for example, add -damaged) so you keep it.
2. Restore your most recent backup. See Restore from a Backup.
3. If you don’t have a backup, email hello@ardentethos.com before doing anything else with the damaged folder.

A project card is in the Hub, but the project is missing or won’t save

This happens when a project’s folder was moved, renamed, or deleted outside Cicero, or is on a drive that isn’t connected.

1. Check the drive is connected.
2. Find out where Cicero expects the project: right-click the card → Edit → Save Location. Open that location in File Explorer. Is the folder there?

Only delete the card if the folder is really gone from that location

Delete removes the project’s folder at its Save Location along with the card. If the folder is still there, Delete erases it permanently. If the folder is already gone, Delete only removes the card.

3. If the folder was moved: right-click the old card → Delete to remove the stale card. Then use Open Project on the folder’s new location. See Open an Existing Project Folder.

Still stuck?

Email hello@ardentethos.com with a screenshot of the message and where the project is stored. See Contact Support.