Warning and Plea for Help Touchpad Loses Data!

ravsteve · 07/15/2011, 04:17 PM

So it turns out Web 3.0 has a nasty bug that causes apps to suddenly not be able to see your data. It is still in a file but in thre app it looks like it vanished and you cannot access it. I lost text docs I entered on tapnotes and magic minutes.

The developer from tapnotes was amazing - kudos to him - he helped me locate the files - which strangely store text as an sqLite db, and he converted them back to text for me.

The developer for magic minutes is a nice guy and has really tried to help me but is unsure himself where the data is stored for his app - he wrote it in enyo and doesn't have a touchpad. HP Tech support had refused to help me find the data files even though their buf caused the problem.
how's that for customer service. However, I worked my way up five or six levels of customer service and finally got to a very nice guy who said that he would play intermediary and talk to the engineers to help me find the data, so now I am a little more hopeful. I will post back here to report if they find my data.

If anyone out there has any ideas where on the Touchpad I can find my data, please message me here or better, email me ravsteve@gmail.com. Thanks!

Shame on HP for knowing about this bug and not warning their users. But thank God for this kind soul who is a customer service supervisor who is helping me, /if he succeeds he will have saved a loyal WebOS user from defecting.

According to discussion in the HP developers forum online this bug is supposed to be fixed in the next OTA coming up. But meanwhile...

DO NOT USE WEBOS TO STORE DATA UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY LOSING IT FOREVER.

speedtouch · 07/15/2011, 04:27 PM

Oh man, that's rough. I hope you get your data back. Believe me, with all my experience with the Pre, I never leave any important data on it. I will definitely keep important data off my TP, too.

sorli · 07/15/2011, 05:27 PM

Yes sorry to hear that...were you able to find your stuff? My TP reset a couple of times, but been pretty solid as of late. During my restarts, data got lost and then rebooted and it was back weird and hopefully fixed come OTA update schedule soon. Sorli...

swid441 · 07/15/2011, 06:28 PM

Happened to me too with pondnotes. Could not sync and restarted. After another restart, my unsynced note dissappeared! Reninstalled the program and all was fine- except the gigantic note I had been taking ALL DAY! The developer told me about the bug and that I should not have deleted/reinstalled! Oh well.

cobrakon · 07/15/2011, 07:06 PM

This seems to affect only "note" apps that I have seen so far. I also had the issue with TapNote (great app btw) and Ian the dev is really great. I will be sure to leave a good review of the app as this is not a TapNote problem but a webOS 3 issue. Preliminary investigation seems to point to a Sql dB indexing problem. HP does seem to have a fix so if you are using an app with a cloud sync option, USE it so you'll only have to reinstall the app if need be.

ericblackdv · 07/15/2011, 08:12 PM

Thanks for posting this info. I lost my Tapnote notes about 3 days after I installed it. Now I know why.

nemeth88 · 07/15/2011, 08:50 PM

There is a thread over on the public webOS developer's forum about this. The bug causes database files used by some apps to be deleted – there is a fix for it in the upcoming OTA.

According to the thread, "It will be in the OTA, but for now, to avoid the issue, don't delete any apps."

https://developer.palm.com/distribut...15925&start=50

Quote:

2) The invalid deletion happened if

a) you ran an app that used WebSQL databases, then
b) you restarted LunaSysMgr (either manually or by rebooting), then
c) you deleted an app that used WebSQL databases

Restarting LSM killed a cache of database associations, and when the app was deleted, it thought there were no more database-using apps so it got rid of the Databases.db file.

As Steve said, we've got a fix that we're testing now. It will be in the OTA, but for now, to avoid the issue, don't delete any apps. I think app update is safe, since that doesn't trigger the "delete database" logic.

One Crayon · 07/17/2011, 11:16 AM

I posted this in the developer forums thread, but I'll cross-post here for PreCentral folks. Here are instructions for finding your TapNote database on a Windows computer if you lose data and are not synchronizing with Dropbox (may work for other apps, too):

1) Plug your TouchPad into your computer, and mount it as a USB drive

2) Odds are good your computer will prompt you to open it, but if not you should open the USB drive in Your Computer

3a) The database is stored in a hidden folder, so you will need to enable hidden folders before you can find it. To do so in Vista, click the Organize menu item and choose Folder and Search Options.
3b) In the Folder Options window, click the View tab
3c) Find Files and Folders->Hidden Files and Folders and click the "Show hidden files and folders" button
3d) Click Apply, and close the window

4) You should now be able to see a folder on the USB drive called .app-storage; open the .app-storage folder

5) Inside .app-storage will likely be a number of folders with very long names. Open the one that ends in "com.onecrayon.tapnote_0"

6) Inside this folder will be multiple files with names like 0000004d.db (specific number/letter will vary). These are your TapNote databases.

Other Windows flavors will have similar steps, or you can find specific instructions via Google. On Mac OS X, open the USB drive for your TouchPad, then choose Go->Go To Folder and type in .app-storage to get inside the hidden folder.

Once you have the XXX.db files, you can browse their contents using the free SQLite extension for Firefox or similar:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...qlite-manager/

Or, for those of you using TapNote, you can always email me the databases and I will extract your data and send it back as .txt files.

One Crayon · 07/17/2011, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chalx

If every app have separate database how HP managed to screw link to it?

As I understand it, there is a central file in WebOS that tracks the relationships between each app and its individual WebSQL database. In WebOS 3.0, it is possible for this file to be improperly cleared when deleting an app that uses a WebSQL database (instead of clearing that single app's entry). This causes all apps that use WebSQL databases to get served up new, empty databases the next time they are launched.

chalx · 07/17/2011, 02:34 PM

Thanks. Good thing is that no data is erased. But, I dont like this centralized approach...

Felipe · 07/17/2011, 02:41 PM

cant you use save restore to get these files back, if you use save restore?

One Crayon · 07/18/2011, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chalx

Thanks. Good thing is that no data is erased. But, I dont like this centralized approach...

Centralized storage of that information is a side effect of using WebSQL; I imagine that Safari/etc. do something pretty similar on your computer when tracking local databases.

I have a number of alternative data storage strategies that I am investigating, but since all of them currently require dropping support for WebOS 1.4, WebSQL databases remain the best option in the short term.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felipe

cant you use save restore to get these files back, if you use save restore?

Sort of. However, the Save/Restore script currently only supports the legacy version of TapNote (which only runs on phones). Things have been crazy enough that I haven't had a chance to submit a script for the TouchPad version of TapNote to Save/Restore.

cthetford · 07/18/2011, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by One Crayon

(may work for other apps, too):

I successfully used the process to restore my keyring database as well. Unfortunately, when I went to do word press, I looked at the sequence numbers instead of the timestamp and "restored" the wrong file and lost the data... I didn't have much in there, but I'd suggest that before anyone start messing around with the files, that you save a copy of the whole directory somewhere first!

HardBeatZ · 07/18/2011, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravsteve

HP Tech support had refused to help me find the data files even though their buf caused the problem. [/B]
how's that for customer service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravsteve

I worked my way up five or six levels of customer service and finally got to a very nice guy who said that he would play intermediary and talk to the engineers to help me find the data, so now I am a little more hopeful. I will post back here to report if they find my data.

So support refused to help you, but you are expecting a call back from the support staff? Sounds contradicting. However, I also know personally that your issue has been escalated to our Corporate office and is being investigated, however the developer of Tap Notes has listed the exact steps to recover the data from the SQL database.

AndrewP · 07/18/2011, 04:56 PM

Just so folks are aware, Hominid's Outline Tracker seems prone to this bug. I've lost data twice after a restart.

07/15/2011, 04:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
ravsteve Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 162 Likes Received: 0 Thanks: 4 Thanked 15 Times in 13 Posts	Warning and Plea for Help Touchpad Loses Data! So it turns out Web 3.0 has a nasty bug that causes apps to suddenly not be able to see your data. It is still in a file but in thre app it looks like it vanished and you cannot access it. I lost text docs I entered on tapnotes and magic minutes. The developer from tapnotes was amazing - kudos to him - he helped me locate the files - which strangely store text as an sqLite db, and he converted them back to text for me. The developer for magic minutes is a nice guy and has really tried to help me but is unsure himself where the data is stored for his app - he wrote it in enyo and doesn't have a touchpad. HP Tech support had refused to help me find the data files even though their buf caused the problem. how's that for customer service. However, I worked my way up five or six levels of customer service and finally got to a very nice guy who said that he would play intermediary and talk to the engineers to help me find the data, so now I am a little more hopeful. I will post back here to report if they find my data. If anyone out there has any ideas where on the Touchpad I can find my data, please message me here or better, email me ravsteve@gmail.com. Thanks! Shame on HP for knowing about this bug and not warning their users. But thank God for this kind soul who is a customer service supervisor who is helping me, /if he succeeds he will have saved a loyal WebOS user from defecting. According to discussion in the HP developers forum online this bug is supposed to be fixed in the next OTA coming up. But meanwhile... DO NOT USE WEBOS TO STORE DATA UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY LOSING IT FOREVER.
	Liked by

07/15/2011, 04:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
speedtouch Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: St. Louis Posts: 1,002 Likes Received: 60 Thanks: 177 Thanked 177 Times in 86 Posts	Oh man, that's rough. I hope you get your data back. Believe me, with all my experience with the Pre, I never leave any important data on it. I will definitely keep important data off my TP, too. __________________ Rob TouchPad owners: The TouchPad "How do I...?" thread. Devices: HTC HD7, Wife's Lumia 710, and two TouchPads Twitter: @STLwebOSMeetup
	Liked by

07/15/2011, 05:27 PM	#3 (permalink)
sorli Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1,368 Likes Received: 57 Thanks: 585 Thanked 112 Times in 97 Posts	Yes sorry to hear that...were you able to find your stuff? My TP reset a couple of times, but been pretty solid as of late. During my restarts, data got lost and then rebooted and it was back weird and hopefully fixed come OTA update schedule soon. Sorli...
	Liked by

07/15/2011, 06:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
swid441 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 17 Likes Received: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Happened to me too with pondnotes. Could not sync and restarted. After another restart, my unsynced note dissappeared! Reninstalled the program and all was fine- except the gigantic note I had been taking ALL DAY! The developer told me about the bug and that I should not have deleted/reinstalled! Oh well.
	Liked by

07/15/2011, 07:06 PM	#5 (permalink)
cobrakon Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Southern USA Posts: 922 Likes Received: 102 Thanks: 419 Thanked 245 Times in 155 Posts	This seems to affect only "note" apps that I have seen so far. I also had the issue with TapNote (great app btw) and Ian the dev is really great. I will be sure to leave a good review of the app as this is not a TapNote problem but a webOS 3 issue. Preliminary investigation seems to point to a Sql dB indexing problem. HP does seem to have a fix so if you are using an app with a cloud sync option, USE it so you'll only have to reinstall the app if need be. __________________ Palm Anti-FUD Team Palms: M505 > Treo 300 > Zire 71 > Treo 650 > Centro > Pre why aren't people buying the verizon iphone4 comscore-android-passes-ios-and-rim-for-u-s-smartphone-subscriber-share/ http://www.itproportal.com/2011/07/2...-market-share/ ipad-2-think-twice-about-buying/
	Liked by

07/15/2011, 08:12 PM	#6 (permalink)
ericblackdv Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 94 Likes Received: 21 Thanks: 7 Thanked 15 Times in 11 Posts	Thanks for posting this info. I lost my Tapnote notes about 3 days after I installed it. Now I know why.
	Liked by

07/17/2011, 11:16 AM	#8 (permalink)
One Crayon Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 34 Likes Received: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	I posted this in the developer forums thread, but I'll cross-post here for PreCentral folks. Here are instructions for finding your TapNote database on a Windows computer if you lose data and are not synchronizing with Dropbox (may work for other apps, too): 1) Plug your TouchPad into your computer, and mount it as a USB drive 2) Odds are good your computer will prompt you to open it, but if not you should open the USB drive in Your Computer 3a) The database is stored in a hidden folder, so you will need to enable hidden folders before you can find it. To do so in Vista, click the Organize menu item and choose Folder and Search Options. 3b) In the Folder Options window, click the View tab 3c) Find Files and Folders->Hidden Files and Folders and click the "Show hidden files and folders" button 3d) Click Apply, and close the window 4) You should now be able to see a folder on the USB drive called .app-storage; open the .app-storage folder 5) Inside .app-storage will likely be a number of folders with very long names. Open the one that ends in "com.onecrayon.tapnote_0" 6) Inside this folder will be multiple files with names like 0000004d.db (specific number/letter will vary). These are your TapNote databases. Other Windows flavors will have similar steps, or you can find specific instructions via Google. On Mac OS X, open the USB drive for your TouchPad, then choose Go->Go To Folder and type in .app-storage to get inside the hidden folder. Once you have the XXX.db files, you can browse their contents using the free SQLite extension for Firefox or similar: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...qlite-manager/ Or, for those of you using TapNote, you can always email me the databases and I will extract your data and send it back as .txt files. __________________ Ian Beck Maker of TapNote
	Liked by OldSkoolVWLover and speedtouch like this. Thanked by chalx, Treo Musketeers

07/17/2011, 02:34 PM	#10 (permalink)
chalx Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Belgrade/Serbia Posts: 944 Likes Received: 58 Thanks: 61 Thanked 49 Times in 38 Posts	Thanks. Good thing is that no data is erased. But, I dont like this centralized approach...
	Liked by

07/17/2011, 02:41 PM	#11 (permalink)
Felipe Member Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: Brooklyn, New York Posts: 4,778 Likes Received: 15 Thanks: 56 Thanked 45 Times in 33 Posts	cant you use save restore to get these files back, if you use save restore? __________________ Felipe On the road to 5,000 posts Life is what happens between Firmware releases.
	Liked by

07/18/2011, 04:56 PM	#15 (permalink)
AndrewP Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 164 Likes Received: 2 Thanks: 7 Thanked 16 Times in 11 Posts	Just so folks are aware, Hominid's Outline Tracker seems prone to this bug. I've lost data twice after a restart.
	Liked by

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