Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

[Jasso]

This is not bug report because it's about a Problem that Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. This is a cautionary tale about stupidity and how-not-to-mess-with-your-databases.


This morning I opened up Bookends normally and started entering refs. Absolutely love the program. Don't know how I'd survive without it. During the morning I entered maybe a dozen new references, all with pdf attachments. I had a few coffee breaks and I closed the app for those.

At some point I noticed that after a break I had accidentally opened up the wrong database. Instead of the original database, I had opened the backup "RESEARCH backup.bdb". (Don't really remember how I managed to do that. Perhaps I opened it through Macs Spotlight?)

Now, I wasn't sure if I had entered all the new refs into the same database. So I thought that the best way to solve the issue would be to merge the two databases. In order to do that correctly, I came to the forums to read about merging databases. Perhaps out of habit I closed the database before moving on to the forums.

Okay, everything seemed simple. I could just open both the databases and try mergin them with drag-and-dropping. So I sought out the actual database "RESEARCH.bdb" and opened that. It opened nicely with a double click. Then I got the "RESEARCH backup.bdb" from the backup-folder and opened that too.

Once both of them were open, I stared at the ref counts. Exactly the same? WTF? After a few puzzling moments I realized how majorly I had screwed up.

Apparently I had been working all morning just with the backup file. So that meant that the original "RESEARCH.BDB" was a few days old. And in the prefs I have automatic backups on. And of course, it doesn't prompt for it.

So when I opened first the original "RESEARCH.bdb" the automatic backup must have kicked in and copied that database into "RESEARCH backup.bdb" thus replacing the database which I had used all morning.

And to make my mistake complete, I have no Time Machine backups from this morning.
(Maybe some cognitive scientist can explain for me why I didn't just check the "Modified" dates from both files before acting...)

Well, luckily it's not that many refs. And luckily I don't enter my notes and quotes into Bookends anymore, I use Mori for that. Re-entering a dozen or so refs is nothing compared to losing notes. (Plus I need to fish the attached pdf's from the Attachment folder.)

I guess the biggest victim here is just my dignity. How can they let people like this into academia?!?

[Jon]

Hi, great post. :-)

But I wonder...where are your files, exactly? Automatic backup always creates a backup in the folder

~/Documents/Bookends/Backup

And *if* the database "RESEARCH backup.bdb" was open (and in that folder), Bookends would could not replace it if it tried (can't delete an open file).

So, I'm wondering if there isn't a another explanation. One quick thing you can do is locate all the Bookends databases on your HD and see if there isn't another copy floating around. The easiest way to do this is a Finder search, looking for files where

Kind is Other -> BookendsDB

(If you're not sure how do do that kind of search, let me know and I'll provide the steps).

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jasso]

Yes, luckily you can't really replicate that "bug" unless you do all the small mistakes that I did.

When I opened the original database, I had closed the backup file. Thus it was able to rewrite on it. If I had kept it open, nothing bad would have happened. Perhaps I should just learn not to close the files to prevent future blunders. That's just kind of a reflex learned in workplaces where computers automatically log out while your out to coffee.

I keep my files simply in ~/Documents/Bookends/ and the backups go to the default location ~/Documents/Bookends/Backup.

I did a search for Bookends databases right away and that's what confirmed my mistake. All the databases found on the hard drive had either exactly the same or newer Last Modified time as the RESEARCH.bdb.

[macula]

This is why I keep all my vital files on a dropbox.com account. In fact, I don't use Dropbox for syncing as much as I use it for backup purposes: Dropbox functions pretty much like an online Time Machine, and goes beyond Time Machine in storing every single version of the files rather than merely snapshots at 1-hour intervals. It has been a lifesaver for me in many cases, and you can get a 2GB account for free (more than enough for many people).

[daiyi]

Using Dropbox is a good idea. I didn't realize it had the Time Machine like capabilities either. Recently I started using Arq, which does backups to Amazons S3 online storage. Only .15/gigabit plus bandwidth charges. Arq operates like Time Machine, too, and also allows you to specify a monthly budget if you so wish. It's been working well for me, though I have yet to restore anything.

[macula]

Arq looks good, thanks for alerting me to that. In general, I tend to dislike "per gigabit" pricing schemes, although this is silly of me as it could (perhaps) add up to considerably less than the cost of a Dropbox account.

Dropbox (free and paid subscriptions alike) offer a 1-month "time machine". For an additional charge you can also get an unlimited time machine, which is pretty extraordinary from a technical perspective much as I suspect few users would ever need it.

[daiyi]

You're most welcome. I re-checked Dropbox and see how you could use it for backups. Quite slick. But I'm assuming that you need to have any files destined for backup in the Dropbox folder for this to work. That is less convenient (unless I'm missing some way to designate what gets uploaded to the Dropbox server.

With Arq, one can specify what gets backed up in various folders throughout an entire hard drive. Amazon just instituted a browser-based way to see your "buckets" on their S3 service, too. All in all, I'm satisfied with their service and pricing, and Arq makes it all work very well.

[macula]

Yes. this is currently the main weakness of Dropbox, although there is a workaround that relies on "symbolic links" to files.

Version 0.9 will however add this much-needed feature, which they have dubbed "sync any folder". I can't wait.

[daiyi]

Thanks for the information. This is good to know.