access violation errors and complete loss of data

[davidwhyte]

Over the past few months I have trialled a lot of PIM software (TexNotes, AZZ Cardfile, HyperClip, Zoot, Idea etc).

I settled on using MyBase and have been - fairly happily - using the unregistered version for a few months now.

I was planning on registering MyBase but happened to come across a link to Ultra Recall by accident on a blog site.

I have been trialling the unregistered version of UR for about a week now and love the look and feel of Ultra Recall and also the ability to customize with attributes. I like the way the items are stored with their 'proper' icons and also the synching with websites. The ability to configure your own templates is another great idea.

I have created items which link to all the websites that I have logins for and I can store additional details into the Item Text field. I have been importing all my disparate documents into UR so I have them available at all times. It has been working well, generally, and I was really looking forward to having all my information on hand in the one place.

I have had quite a few errors though, mainly access violation ones on document items. Most of the time, the program would just close and I could re-open without any data loss.

Since the unregistered version limits you to 250 items, I have created eight .urd files and was planning to consolidate these after my imminent registration. Even though you are limited to 250 items in the unregistered version, it does allow you to import more than this in a single import. I was receiving access violation errors on a few MSDN articles which had been saved as web archive(.mht) files and I was wondering if the access violation errors were because I had about 380 items in the file.

I thought I would prove/disprove this by moving a few of these articles to a new file. I selected about 6 or 7 of these items and right-mouse dragged them into a new .urd file selecting Move Items from the popup menu. It seemed to move the items OK but when I changed focus to the original database, the 'deleting items' message was being displayed. This disappeared and all appeared to be well, however, when selecting one of the items I had just moved into the new DB I received another access violation error which shut the program down. Upon restarting the program, it tried to open the first database automatically but couldn't and gave me an error along the lines of 'Query not properly ended'. I apologise for not making a precise note of the message (as a developer myself I should know better!)

I was really disheartened now as NOTHING appeared in my .urd file. I closed the program and re-opened but it was still the same. I thought maybe a Compact and Repair would restore my items but I think now it may have made the situation worse.

As I am new to UR and have multiple .urd files I haven't initiated any sort of backup yet (*slaps own wrist*).

As I have just been dumping all my misc documents into UR for organzing afterwards I am unsure as to the exact documents that I have lost.

The only thing remaining for me to do is to scour my Recycle Bin and try and cross reference anything in there that I don't have already imported into another one of my 8 (well, 7 plus one broken) .urd files.

I still really like UR but I'm very upset and a little angry at the moment and am also concerned that others may encounter data loss when all our eggs are in the same basket.

David

[kevina]

The access violations shouldn't be related to using an unregistered version of Ultra Recall. A bug in Ultra Recall, something about your computer or the documents being imported must be leading to the error (which has not been previously reported).

If you send a request to support@kinook.com for an extended eval key, we will issue an temp evaluation key that removes the Item limits to facilitate your testing.

Could you also send your installation info (Help | About | Install Info ...). If you could email the corrupted Info Database we will take a look at it, and if you can reproduce the access violation with a particular document or sequence of steps, please provide that info as well, and we'll look into it.

We agree that Access Violations and/or lost data is unacceptable (this is the first report we have had of this behavior) and want to identify to the source of the error and provide a resolution.

[davidwhyte]

Thank you very much for responding so quickly Kevin, especially as I have not registered yet.
By all accounts, the forum participation of the developers is a key incentive for using
Ultra Recall.

It does look like there is an issue when importing .mht files. I have a group of question/answer .mht
files that I have imported into a test.urd file. The title tags (<TITLE>Binatone Support</TITLE>) are the same for each file.
The Info Item's name seems to be generated from this tag and it looks like all the imported items are the same.
The filenames have gone into the URL field and these are all different but the items - all of which
do actually show ok without generating an access violation error - are all the same.

I have sent an e-mail to Kinook Support as advised above and have attached this test file alongwith
the original file that became corrupted / inaccessible.

I have some more bad news though. Now a second of my .urd files has gone the same way.

I had made "backup" copies of all my .urd files on Monday (14 Mar) afternoon but regrettably
the "backup" copy I made also has this error.

I have no idea what has happened to this second file as I was using it without any problems and it closed
without any error messages. When I tried to open it on Tuesday (15 Mar) night I received this error again (see attached screenshot).

This time I made a copy of the second .urd file and ran the Compact and Repair on it the same way as the first.
It reduced in size by 97% (the original file was something similar) and upon opening the file there was
just the default items (Notes, Templates etc).

I am now very disppointed as I thought I had found the perfect program for my needs but it appears that there
is a serious issue which ultimately is compromising the integrity of my data.

I regret deciding to import all my documents now and wish that I had just tried a few for backup purposes.
I didn't want the program to be for just backing up, I wanted to have all my documents available for working
on directly. I'm now in a position where I don't have much confidence in the software.

I hope a resolution will emerge fairly quickly. Even though, my initial excitement at the prospects of
what I could do with Ultra Recall has now given way to a feeling of trepidation.

David

[kevina]

Kinook Software is currently working with this customer directly to resolve the reported issue. At this point it appears to be an isolated problem as this is the only report we have of data corruption or access violations with the latest version of Ultra Recall (version 1.2a).

If anyone is experiencing similar behaviour, please send any information (a reproduceable case would be very helpful) to support@kinook.com and we will investigate.