diff --git a/libs/pascal_voc_io.py b/libs/pascal_voc_io.py
index 87fcfcf4..ac490811 100644
--- a/libs/pascal_voc_io.py
+++ b/libs/pascal_voc_io.py
@@ -133,7 +133,10 @@ class PascalVocReader:
         self.shapes = []
         self.filepath = filepath
         self.verified = False
-        self.parseXML()
+        try:
+            self.parseXML()
+        except:
+            pass
 
     def getShapes(self):
         return self.shapes
diff --git a/libs/settings.py b/libs/settings.py
index 3efe5d53..fa3a5487 100644
--- a/libs/settings.py
+++ b/libs/settings.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 import pickle
 import os
+import sys
 
 class Settings(object):
     def __init__(self):
         self.data = {}
-        self.path = '.settings.pkl'
+        self.path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]), '.settings.pkl')
 
     def __setitem__(self, key, value):
         self.data[key] = value