GIMP Version: 2.8.10
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

List any relevant plug-ins or scripts:
planets fu, render fractals, render patterns (hex type grids for example)

List any ERROR messages you received:
Failed to load data:

Couldn't recognize the image file format for file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\patterns\jungle_hills.xcf'

Too many error messages!
Messages are redirected to stderr.

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Windows 7 64 bit system 4Gb ram

... Been using gimp on & off for years now, guess I qualify as intermediate level use. I do a lot of mapmaking type stuff for some projects I'm working on, which includes a lot of patterns (trees, woods, marsh, brush etc..). Recently, I decided I needed to organize my patterns folder which has hundreds of my user created patterns (I created a bunch yesterday).

I accessed my patterns via the directory system figuring I could just rename the files in a more organized fashions (everything rock, stone, concrete related I just want to list as stone_2, stone_2, stone_3 .... for example). After several hours & finally renaming all the images present in the gimp patterns folder I noticed many patterns were missing!

I went back to Gimp, opened it, then opened the patterns folder from within gimp, and what d'ya know, there were several dozen patterns there that were not showing up when I went through the C .. directory .. gimp 2.0 ... shared ...etc path (outside of gimp). I figured it was just the .pat files not showing up, nope there were a bunch of pat files listed both in the (gimp) opened patterns file & the non-gimp opened patterns file. OK, so I figured I must have hidden files going on or something like that ... went into my control panel & verified that hidden files was not checked. So, I figured the patterns file must be showing patterns that aren't located in the patterns file (maybe some other file), so I used the windows search (start -> search) and typed in the exact filename & extension of a file that was showing up in the gimp-opened patterns file but not the non-gimp opened patterns file (which should be the same exact file), and wha'dya know the windows search found no such file!!! pretty unbelievable ... seemingly indicates there is no such pattern at all stored anywhere in my computer, yet they show up (only) when I open the gimp patterns file (and only directly through gimp, not through the standard directory, outside of gimp).

So, my question is, where are these seemingly non existent pattern files & how can I access them outside of gimp (i.e. through the standard windows directory system). so I can rename them?

BTW: I tried to update my patterns (using pattern refresh) and I get the errors shown in the dialog shown above, though I do believe the patterns actually update with no problem (sometimes when I'm creating a new pattern and click "save as" I forget to change the extension from .xcf to .pat ... this seems to cause problems as the patterns folder only seems capable of holding .pat, .png, .jpg [the file types I use most often] type files/patterns) .. this is something I plan on fixing, but unfortunately, the .xcf patterns in question again only show up in the path through gimp, not the path through non-gimp (or standard directory, however you want to phrase it).

The pattern name in Gimp is not necessarily the pattern file name.
In Gimp using the pattern context menu either copy the path or open pattern as image and use Image | Image properties to find path.

Hello, thanks for the reply. I opened the pattern and went to the image tab - image properties on one of my missing pattern files from within gimp, got this info:

FILE NAME: C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\patterns\forest_text1.pat

FILE SIZE: 625.0 KB

FILE TYPE: Gimp pattern

the forest_text1.pat is the same name I created yesterday, so for this particular file (at least) it seems the Gimp filename is the same as the pattern filename

I "saved as" all the files present in the gimp 2.0 folder that weren't showing up in the standard directory. I saved the files into the username-gimp2.8-patterns files. I can now rename & see the files outside of gimp via the standard directory, however the old pattern names are still showing up in the gimp patterns directory when I turn on gimp, and in fact the path (using image tab) shows exactly the same as before even though I "saved as" to a completely different file directory & renamed the file (and the new filenames I made up for the new saved as files in the gimp username-gimp2.8-patterns directory do not show up at all in the gimp patterns directory when accessed through gimp) ... have no idea why this is, seems unreasonably difficult for a simple file system related thing.

... E.G: I "saved as" a plains_texture1 file (from the gimp 2.0 directory) to the username_gimp28_patterns directory as FG5_plains_1 which I can now see via the standard directory outside of gimp, but when I use gimp and access the patterns folder it still shows up in the pre "saved as" state and path ... why can't I simply just change this?? ... do I have a copy of all these files in the username-gimp-2.8-patterns folder? if so, if I were to delete the old patterns would the new onew with the new filenames show up or not (or would this just fail to work)?

Each Gimp pattern has two names; a file name (foo.pat), a pattern dialog name (not always foo).
Gimp has a default set of patterns that should always stay in, gimp/2.0/patterns/ (global folder).
Patterns you add or make with Gimp should be saved in, .gimp-2.8/patterns/ (user folder).