Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

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kdgdr
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Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by kdgdr »

Hi,

2 days ago, on 26/11/2022, I updated:
  • WEPIM 11.1.8 to WEPIM 11.1.11
  • AEPIM 9.0.8 to AEPIM 6.0.9
Since then I have synced over Wifi a few times. Now I just noticed that my categories have been duplicated/messed up:
  • 2 categories that I had before no longer exist: "Important", "Reizen noodzakelijk" (= Travel required)
  • 2 categories that existed earlier still exist but have also been duplicated: "Voorbereiding vereist" (= Needs preparation), "Aanwezigheid vereist" (= Must attend).
After a first short inspection it seems that:
  • appointments that were in original category "Reizen noodzakelijk" (= Travel required) are now in duplicate category "Aanwezigheid vereist" (= Must attend)
  • tasks that were in original category "Reizen noodzakelijk" (= Travel required) are now in duplicate category "Voorbereiding vereist" (= Needs preparation)
  • other items seem to have no category anymore - I would need to investigate further to check if there is some kind of logic in what went wrong here, but that would take a lot of time
Is this a known issue in latest versions?
Please advise what is best and most efficient way to:
  • do a complete check of diffences before/after the updates of 26/11/2022
  • fix all these differences/put items back in their correct categories
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by poet-man »

To make it short ...
That's an experience I made in past several times ... categories got duplicated, other categories changed to different onces on the other side (maybe having the same colour) etc
Never discovered a real reason for it
Everything I mention comes out of my experience. I'm not an expert. Feel free to try anything I suggest ... but always at your own risk.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by kdgdr »

kdgdr wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 4:55 pm
  • other items seem to have no category anymore - I would need to investigate further to check if there is some kind of logic in what went wrong here, but that would take a lot of time
Meanwhile, I have also found out that:
  • Appointments that originally had Category "Important" no longer had a category assigned to them, probably because category "Important" had disappeared. But it's weird that these appointments were treated differently than these:
  • appointments that were in original category "Reizen noodzakelijk" (= Travel required) are now in duplicate category "Aanwezigheid vereist" (= Must attend)
Is it possible that the issue arises because order of categories had been changed?
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by admin »

Please forward us the sync log file so that we could see what's going on during sync. The file can be found here: Tools->Options->Synchronization, Browse... and its filename should start with "AndroidSync". Thanks!  ​
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by kdgdr »

@admin I just sent you the log files in a PM.

Some other additinal information:
  • Yesterday after my previous post, I noticed that other items/categories were affected as well - so the issue is not just limited to the items/categories mentioned in my previous posts.
  • It took a huge amount of time yesterday to manually correct one category. Now that I noticed that even more categories than suspected are affected, I really need some advice on how to check/correct everything efficiently - a manual MO is no longer realistic ...
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by pmj »

This also happened to me. All recent appointments in just one category were changed to another category in AEPIM - which I only noticed because it has a different colour. Earlier appointments in that same category are unchanged.
I had previously changed the order of categories at WEPIM - I'm not sure if the timing matches, but it's close. I didn't edit any categories.
The change is only at AEPIM - and it's on both devices that I sync. I made no changes at AEPIM.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by kdgdr »

@pmj
Yes, as I mentionned earlier, I am wondering as well if it could be caused by changing the order of categories.

@admin
I cannot try and reproduce myself because I am in the middle of a very long process trying to correct everything manually.
Maybe you can try and reproduce by:
  1. changing order of categories in AEPIM
  2. syncing over wifi
  3. changing order of categories in WEPIM
  4. syncing over wifi
I think that somewhere along this process things got messed up in my data. As user "pmj" suggests, he suspects his data got messed up as well around the same time those actions were performed. If I remember correctly I first changed category order in AEPIM and - after syncing - later on as well in WEPIM. If I understand correctly the difference is that user "pmj" only changed category order in WEPIM. Could be that my data got messed up only in steps 3/4 above.

Hope that helps.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by admin »

Thanks for the additional details, will check them out.
Android version of EssentialPIM. Keep all your data in sync!
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by pmj »

I've just discovered another change, to a different category I don't use very often, but I did use it about 3 weeks ago.
I created an appointment with that category, almost certainly in WEPIM. It must have displayed correctly, otherwise I would have noticed.
Subsequently, that category disappeared in WEPIM - but I only noticed today. The appointment is now uncategorized, as are older appointments in that category.
At AEPIM that category still exists. However, the appointments in that category are uncategorized.

Possibly tied in to this - another category has two duplicates at WEPIM, and one duplicate at AEPIM. Those changes occurred after I re-ordered my categories at WEPIM.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by pmj »

Here's another one, from the last hour or so:
On WEPIM, I created a new appointment by copying another one (Ctrl + mouse drag). It maintained the same category. It is a different category to the ones affected earlier.
When I later opened AEPIM, it had auto-synched, and that new appointment was in a different category. And different to the category that "received" the modified appointments earlier.
Same behaviour on both Android devices.

I note a similar problem in this thread:
https://www.essentialpim.com/forum/view ... hp?t=37493
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by admin »

Please forward us the log file, stating the appointment name that got affected. Thanks!
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by pmj »

OK - PM sent.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by paulvp »

Just for information, I've noticed the same thing/problem, although I haven't deliberately changed the order of my categories. I suspect though that the order of categories in WEPIM has somehow changed since I have always kept them in alphabetical order and I noticed that this was no longer the case.
I also noticed that the order of categories in AEPIM was very different to WEPIM, so I have now manually changed this so that WEPIM and AEPIM have the same order. I'll see how this goes.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by kdgdr »

paulvp wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 12:06 am ... so I have now manually changed this so that WEPIM and AEPIM have the same order. I'll see how this goes.
It 's very hard to spot items that might have taken on the wrong category. It can take some time before you notice something went wrong.
So you might want to head over to your backup files now and find the most recent backup prior to the category changes that you did. Keep that backup safe now, before it gets deleted by your EPIM backup preferences.
If you notice later on that something did indeed go wrong with the cateories of EPIM items, this backup will save you the trouble of having to try and revert everything manually.
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Re: Categories duplicated/messed up after sync wepim/aepim

Post by poet-man »

What I find hard also, is, to get to know, where a change came from.
Did it come from the other side (2-way-sync), did the change take place on the current side, did I make a mistake myself and fill in the wrong category when creating item? Most times one doesnot realise the change/messing up before some time has gone ... arghh didnot do a backup before sync etc etc.
As to me, I donot have the time at present, to investigate this, so hesitating to do a sync at all, and if I do a sync and things are messed up, I donot have the time to deal with it.
So ... thanks to everybody here, who investigates this, as it is a problem for quite a time now.
Everything I mention comes out of my experience. I'm not an expert. Feel free to try anything I suggest ... but always at your own risk.
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