how to avoid losing data (stored files)

[UR user]

I believe this has happened a few times.

1. I open up a UR database.

2. I open up a stored file to edit externally.

3. Somehow UR closes while the externally edited file is still open and being edited. This can happen because of a crash, or I mistakenly shut down UR not realizing that one of my many open windows is a stored file.

4. I save that file.

5. Later I reopen UR (sometimes after a reboot) and notice that my changes to the stored file have been lost.

My question:

* Is there anyway to recover the saved file (I believe that the temp directory gets wiped after UR shuts down).

* Is there any way for UR to warn me before closing that there are stored files that are "open" and still edited? That way I would know not to shut down UR or to finish editing and close out those items?

* Is there some way to keep an archive of these temp files (limited to say 50 MBs) so that once I realized the error, I could go back and recover the saved embedded file.

Thanks for any reactions.

[kevina]

Closing Ultra Recall normally (by either exiting the program or exiting Windows or logging off) should always persist the changes you made to a stored document back to the .urd file. The only time that changes to a temp stored file could be lost is when Ultra Recall (or Windows) crashes before this update process can complete.

In this case, not only do the temp files not get persisted into Ultra Recall, but they are not deleted either. You can recover your changes if you restart Ultra Recall and navigate to the item(s) that were being edited externally. Ultra Recall will automatically detect that the edited temp files exist and will continue editing them (persisting the changes back when you navigate away or close UR). Note: you must navigate to every item you wish to recover before you exit Ultra Recall normally as the temp folder will be emptied at normal application exit!

[UR user]

Thanks for the quick reply.

But I just want to clarify:

1. Start UR, and open stored item for editing.

2. Close UR by accident, but still editing item. UR will -- when it closes (not talking about Windows crash) -- will update the contents at that time.

3. But if I continue editing the item and dutifully save, then exit the application, and .... restart UR, the last saves to the document will not be stored in UR, the temp files will have been erased, and I will have just whatever the document had been saved as when UR first closed.

Correct?

I note that MyBase 5.0 warns the user that a stored attachment is open if the database is about to be closed. Would that warning be hard to create?

I realize that in some sense this is user error, but when certain file types are in UR and others are on my hard drive, and having multiple UR dbs open, it takes away mental cycles to always remember which file is stored or not, in which UR, and to make sure that the right files are closed down in the right order.

Thanks.

[kevina]

My previous post was in error, a crucial missing step that I failed to mention is that you currently need to navigate to and begin editing each previously edited stored document, then navigate away or close UR. This recovery process is documented in the help file (available online @ http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/Manual/?recovery_changes_after_system_.htm).

You mention that the temp file is deleted, what external application are you referring to? My tests with Microsoft Word show that UR doesn't delete the temp file while in use (it actually can't since Word prevents it). If UR is deleting this file when it is shutdown (while the temp file is still being edited), when you save it later in the external app, wouldn't it have to recreate the temp file anyway? Or are you restarting UR, and when it is later closed it deletes the temp file? If so, the above method should work to recover the file...

We do have on our list a cleaner method of warning users about this situation (at UR shutduwn) and/or prompting the user at restart if uncommitted temp files exist.

[UR user]

Thanks. The app I was using was Mindmanager.

Bottom line is that if I close down UR before closing down an externally edited file, I'm asking for problems. I'll just have to be careful.

Thanks for the fast responses.