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Sync error between Mac/iPad/Dropbox, lost latest version


Javiertus

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I have been using Storyist on my iPad and Mac for some days now, and today I lost my latest writing due to a sync error between them through Dropbox.

 

This is what happened:

 

1-I had a working project in the iPad, with several folders and some documents in it.

 

2-Synchronized it to Dropbox.

 

3-Opened it in my Mac, and added one folder and several note files to it, plus a few images.

 

4-Sychronized it to Dropbox once more.

 

5-(This is where I should have synced again from my iPad, but I forgot, it was the next day)

 

6-Opened project in iPad and continued working on my manuscript

 

7-Hit the sync button and it took longer than usual, THEN I see a new project appear out of nowhere in the projects page, with the same name as the original but with the name of my iPad between parentheses

 

8-The "normal" project is now the one I last had synced on my Mac, the folder, pictures and notes are there, BUT the "new" copy won't open, and an error message says "Storyist coul't open the zip file, Unable to open zip archive." (This is when I freak out)

 

9-This file that can't be opened on my iPad does not show on dropbox, only the other (older) version. So it seems the few pages I had written today are now lost and I can't find them.

 

10-I tried sending this new project to my email, and it seemed to work fine, except that when I open the email there is no attachment at all. (Curiously enough, before opening the email message, Yahoo tells me there is an attachment, but then it is not there when I open said mail)

 

11-Then I tried to remove the apostrophe and dashes in the new project's name, and it still won't open.

 

12-I tried exporting the project to iTunes, but then I get an error message saying "No such file or directory, The operation couldn't be completed. No such file or directory", which is quite frustrating since I can actually see said project and change its name as I please, but not open it nor send it to iTunes or by mail.

 

13-Quite desperate now, I use "iPhone Explorer" to go and find the storyist folder inside my iPad. There it is, all right, the same version there is now in Dropbox (with the items I added from my Mac, but without the changes made in my iPad). The other version, created when the sync error ocurred, is not there at all.

 

I have not made any more changes, in fact, I'm not using either version of Storyist while this is figured out.

Please help?

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Hi Javiertus,

 

OK, that's troubling. Lets see what we can do.

 

First, some info:

 

You had made changes to your project on both your iPad and your Mac, so there was a sync conflict. In step 7, Storyist for iPad renamed the copy on your iPad so that it wouldn't overwrite your changes with the ones from from your Mac. After the sync, you should have had two versions of your project on your iPad, one with the normal project name containing the Mac changes, and one with the project name plus the name of your iPad and the date containing your iPad changes.

 

It sounds like you got the zip error when you tried to open the second.

 

There are a couple of things to try:

 

1) Use iPhone Explorer to view the contents of the Storyist app. The projects are in the Library/Application Support/Projects folder. You should see the renamed project there. It sounds like you may have tried this already.

 

2) If you connected your iPad to your computer before the Dropbox sync, you can recover a version from the iTunes backup. Use Backup Extractor to locate the backup that iTunes made and look in the Projects folder.

 

3) Send a copy of the email you mentioned to the support address. I'll take a look at it and see what I can find.

 

In your email to the support address, please include which version of Storyist for iPad and Storyist for Mac you're using, along with which model of iPad.

 

-Steve

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Hi Steve,

Thanks for looking into the issue.

 

I know I should have synchronized on the iPad before making changes, it was bad I forgot to. But hey, this had actually happened already with another one of the projects I have (was basically moving most of my scrivener projects to storyist) and things went fine, it did create the alternate version for backup and I had no trouble opening them both. It seems what could have happened is that it tried to create the renamed file but for some reason couldn't do it. There it was, a project icon with a name I could actually change and whatnot, but wouldn't let me open, email or export to iTunes. The icon stayed there for a little whle, and now it's just gone. I didn't make any changes, so it simply probably vanised from memory.

 

As for the three suggestions:

1) Yeah, already tried iPhone Explorer. The Mac version is there, but there was no renamed file anywhere (even though the icon still showed in my iPad). So it sounds the copy never did get created. I actually saved a copy of the entire Storyist directory in the iPad to my Mac as soon as this issue came up, so if there is a particular file you could possible use to find out more about what caused this, I'll be happy to mail it to you.

2) Unfurtunatelly, no, I still hadn't done the iTunes backup for the day, so all I got when I tried this was the same old Mac version.

3) The icon for the duplicate project is gone from the iPad now. Still, I'm sending you a copy of the email. I'm using Storyist for iPad v. 1.0.1, and Storyist for Mac v. 2.3.4b2 (1544). It is an iPad 2.

 

Thanks for your help.

For the time being, I guess I'll have to copy all changes I make to a document and save them to a different app (Pages?) before hitting the sync button, just to be on the safe side.

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Hi again,

1) No, already tried that as I mention in my first post, but renaming it didn't work, and the project itself no longer shows in the app (renamed file does not exist at all in iPad's Storyist directory).

2) Yep. We're sharing the same Mac, but each has a different iPad and Dropbox account. (I see we forgot to post an update on how that one went, so I'll do it soon. However, that was using the iPad Storyist 1.0 version, I updated my copy afterwards).

 

--Javiertus

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Hi Javiertus

 

1) No, already tried that as I mention in my first post, but renaming it didn't work, and the project itself no longer shows in the app (renamed file does not exist at all in iPad's Storyist directory).

 

If you had certain extended characters in the project name, you would have had to rename the project BEFORE syncing to avoid the problem. What was the name of the project?

 

2) Yep. We're sharing the same Mac, but each has a different iPad and Dropbox account. (I see we forgot to post an update on how that one went, so I'll do it soon. However, that was using the iPad Storyist 1.0 version, I updated my copy afterwards).

 

Ah good. Thank you for the information.

 

-Steve

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Hi Javiertus,

 

Two follow on questions:

 

1) What was the file name of the project? Could this bug possibly be the culprit?

 

2) I notice you're using a 2.3.4 beta. CorSellae reported an issue earlier. Is this your earlier bug?

 

I'll look for your email.

 

-Steve

 

Hi Steve,

 

Javiertus is actually my boyfriend. This is the second time he looses his work, but this one is different from the one before. The first time, he was manually backing up his document. He had never done it, so he hadn't programmed the iPad version to automatically connect to Dropbox. He lost that document for good, since there was no previous backup at all.

 

The second time he just used the syncing button (he had configured the iPad correctly this time). Since there were two different versions of the same document, one edited on the Mac and one edited on his iPad, Storyist for iPad created a new one. That's where things went wrong. He lost a few hours of work... for the second time in a week..., but this time in a different way...

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Hi CorStellae,

 

He lost a few hours of work... for the second time in a week..., but this time in a different way...

 

I understand. Losing work is completely unacceptable. Please accept my apologies.

 

If the project name contained extended characters, the bug (which probably accounted for both cases) is already fixed in 1.0.2. Frustratingly, the update is still waiting in a queue at Apple for review. I'll post here as soon as it becomes available in the App Store.

 

If the project name did NOT contain extended characters, please let me know right away.

 

-Steve

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