[jules]

I love MobileSheets, but had a really strange thing happen today. I've slowly been building my library over the last 9 months, adding different setlists and songs. Today, somehow, my MobileSheets library has vanished - everything in the library is gone, including setlists. I don't know how this happened - I left MobileSheets open and active on my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3) and when I picked it up a few minutes later, nothing was left in the library. It wasn't touched in between times, unless the music that was resting on the tablet happened to accidentally swipe a few random menu options.

Has anybody ever had this happen before and anybody have any solutions, or am I going to have to reload all my music?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jules

[jeffn1]

I guess you did not back it up (using the Companion or otherwise)?

I love MobileSheets, but had a really strange thing happen today. I've slowly been building my library over the last 9 months, adding different setlists and songs. Today, somehow, my MobileSheets library has vanished - everything in the library is gone, including setlists. I don't know how this happened - I left MobileSheets open and active on my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3) and when I picked it up a few minutes later, nothing was left in the library. It wasn't touched in between times, unless the music that was resting on the tablet happened to accidentally swipe a few random menu options.

Has anybody ever had this happen before and anybody have any solutions, or am I going to have to reload all my music?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jules

[GraemeJ]

Not a problem I've experienced, but the point about making a backup should be emphasised. Anyone who trusts a computer without the safety net of a backup is skating on extremely thin ice.

[Zubersoft]

Jules,

That is extremely weird. I have never heard of anything occurring like that before. If you use a file browser to try to find any of the files in your library (under /sdcard/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheets/files most likely), can you find them there? If all of the PDFs are still present, it's possible something happened with the database in your library. The Android OS has a nasty behavior when it comes to dealing with database corruption - it just deletes the database file. I keep automatic database backups for this reason (which you can find under Options->Restore Database Backup), but it sounds like, for some reason, all of the database files were treated as corrupted. It's the only guess I can make based on your explanation. This is probably a stupid question, but you didn't happen to enter any filters at the top of the screen that would cause no songs to show up, right? I'm assuming your library is still missing even after a restart of the tablet.

It's definitely best for all users of MobileSheets to make periodic backups of their library by going to Options->Utilities->Backup Library, which will generate one file containing everything.

Mike

[jules]

Hi everyone!
Thanks for your really quick replies.

I actually work in IT, so I'm familiar with telling everyone to backup! Of course that doesn't actually mean that I do it despite knowing the risks

I actually have a copy (or two) of all my uploaded files, so it's just the reloading them and then the annotations and set lists that are gone. A pain, but not as big as it could have been. And yes, bigger than it should have been if I'd done a backup.

Mike - I had a look in the folder you suggested and there were files there, so yes, perhaps something did happen to the database. I did do a restart and it was still missing. No filters on either.

Thanks again everyone for your replies, really appreciate it!

Jules

[SeppHaslinger]

Hi everyone,

I know this is an old thread but I think that I was able to reproduce said problem.
Maybe this helps in finding the actual problem.

I think I did the following to accidentally delete MY COMPLETE LIBRARY both on my tablet and inside the desktop companion (which is presumably only mirroring the tablet's acutal content?)

- connected tablet and pc (Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, Android app version 1.4.6 // pc app version 2.3.7)
- creating 1-2 new songs using the pc app --> all fine
- doing some other stuff away from the pc, keeping the tablet's connection (approx. 10-15 minutes)
- coming back to the pc, trying to create a new song
- --> error message, something like "cant create/copy file"
- disconnecting from pc by the "disconnect" button on the android app
- --> NOW EVERYTHING IS GONE, DATABASE SEEMS COMPLETELY BROKEN

I checked the actual files on the tablet which were still there.

Had a backup file ready to compensate most of the alleged loss.


My workaround now will be to make a backup everytime before I change anything using the MobileSheetsPro Companion,
but it would be wonderful to get some insight in the actual misbehaviour (maybe it is me doing something wrong here) and find a solution.

Thank you very much for your concern and help.


Kindest regards from Germany,
Sepp

Edit: This happened to me twice during the last three weeks. Same behaviour both times.

Edit 2: Phase of said inactivity was even shorter now (maybe 2 mintues), but the error occured a third time.
Got to capture the error message I always get right before the database will be shown as completely empty:

Popup-Title:
"Transfer Error"

Message:
"An error was encountered transferring the following files:

[it is an mp3 file that I dragged and dropped onto the companion app when creating a new song, after I put the pdf file in]

The associated song will not display correctly. Ensure that you don't have files/folders locked that may have prevented deleted exisiting files."

I ensured that nothing is locked. What is the actual problem?

[ilacad.erik]

This happened to me just now. Same with user SeppHaslinger. I was organizing my database through the MobileSheetsPro Companion program on my Windows laptop. Then, when I was done, I pressed the "DISCONNECT" button on my Android. The table then showed an error message about the database. The companion program on my laptop was also flashing some error messages. I thought it was nothing, but 'lo and behold, everything is gone!

I don't have a backup (my bad.) But all the files are still in the Android folder of the tablet. I guess all my setlists and annotations are gone.

Why does this happen anyway? Is it wrong to disconnect using the DISCONNECT button? If so, maybe it should be removed.
What should I do to prevent this from happening again?

[Zubersoft]

I'm going to be looking into this problem this weekend to see if I can identify any issues. It should be perfectly fine to press the disconnect button. If you do this in the middle of things still transferring, that obviously is never a good idea, but it certainly should not cause a loss of the database file. I tried putting a lot of code in to prevent the database from being corrupted or being lost, but apparently this code is not executing properly (I've never actually experienced the problem with the library being erased though). While testing, I usually just close the companion application to generate the disconnection, so you can try that in the future if there truly is some sort of issue with the tablet disconnect button. I'll post any information that I gather while trying to reproduce the issue this weekend.

You may be able to recover your library by going to Settings->Backup and Restore->Restore Automatic Database Backup and selecting one of the backups.

Mike

[Zubersoft]

Can anyone else reproduce this problem reliably? I can't seem to encounter any problems. I do see that it's possible to drag & drop a .mp3 into the main window, and it will act like it can import it as a file for viewing (which I will need to fix). I never seem to encounter problems regardless of how I disconnect though.

Thanks,
Mike

[ilacad.erik]

Thanks for the response, Mike. Now just to be sure, before I connect to the companion, I do the back up first (lesson learned!). I will let you know if I encounter it again, because I also don't know what triggered it the first time.

For what it's worth, I just finished creating an album when this happened.

Other information that might be helpful:
I am using the following:
MobileSheetsPro on a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 running on Lollipop.
MobileSheetsPro Companion on PC (updated version)

[Nachthorn]

I had the same issue two or three times this year.
It seemed like the connection between the tablet and the MSCompanion was lost. As a result the database on MSPro was completely empty.
Since then I create a backup after every change I make in MSPro and especially before connecting to the companion app.
I can only recommend regular backups to every user.
As I´ve said, it happened several times but I can´t reproduce it.

Kind regards,

Nachthorn