Sonny Software

For some reason when I opened Bookends today my database is gone! Here are the facts of the case:
- Bookends version 10.4.1, Mac OSX 10.5.5
- original database file (called "allB") has disappeared from the Bookends folder, which now contains only the "attachments" and "backup" folders as well as the user guide pdf
- the backup of this database is still present in the backup folder, but is missing about 10 references I added yesterday
- the attachments to yesterday's references (they are pdf files) are still in the attachments folder (so I'm sure I definitely added these things)
- Bookends seems to have forgotten that the database even existed, in that it doesn't show up in the recent items list when I click File->Open (the only option here is "Open Database", although now the recent items list has "allB backup" since I opened that)
- a spotlight search reveals no file called "allB" anywhere on the system except for "allB backup" and now "allB backup backup"
- Other probably unrelated details that may or may not be relevant:
- I emptied the trash bin yesterday and I must not have done this in a long while since it had over 5000 items in it. Could one of them somehow been linked to the bookends database?
- The trash now has two folders called "Recovered Files" and "Recovered Files 1". I don't know why these are here, because I don't remember anything crashing, but they only have a couple of files in them, none of which are called "allB"
- I zipped the "allB backup" file yesterday so that I could upload it to a remote backup - could messing with the files in the Bookends directory like this have caused the problem? Bookends was probably open at the time.
- Today when I opened Bookends it was by clicking a .ris link and choosing to open the file, which opened bookends automatically (but then did nothing because no database was open - if no database was open, was it supposed to prompt me to make a new one? it did not).
- I changed one setting while I was using bookends yesterday, which was to set it to automatically rename pdfs when you use the "find local pdf" function. (Incidentally, it would be nice if there was an easy way to rename all of the old pdfs that have goofy unmeaningful names without doing it manually, i.e. just give them all the default "Author et al. year.pdf" name)
- I installed a new version of MATLAB yesterday. Could it have messed with me somehow?

Please help!! I'll gladly furnish any other details I've neglected. Thank you!

Nick
nick.steinmetz@gmail.com

Hi,

Bookends has no mechanism to delete databases. That has to be done by someone in the Finder. The reason that it's not in the Recent menu is because Bookends stores the alias to the file. On startup it checks to see if the db still exists (perhaps with a different name). If it doesn't, it removes it from the list.

I'm guessing that you inadvertently deleted it (the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-Delete moves the selected items in the Finder to the Trash).

Jon
Sonny Software

Ok... I'm basically certain I didn't delete it myself, but if you say Bookends can't have done it then maybe it was something else going on. Two questions anyway,

1) Does bookends keep a cached copy of databases anywhere that might still exist?
2) Is it possible to automatically re-add the references from the pdfs, which are still present in the attachments folder? I.e. can bookends import a pdf and find the reference info, e.g. from a doi that it finds in the file or something?

Thanks,

Nick

Hi,

There is no cached copy. If you have automatic backup turned on, you'll have backups that may be recent (but I suspect you know that).

If the doi is there and the pdf is on PubMed, it's automatic. If not, try the paper autocomplete feature -- this is what it is for (please read the small section in the User Guide that describes how it works, first).

Jon
Sonny Software