Data disappears after using “Refresh Records List”-button

[Melanie Schaaf]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the forums, but I can’t seem to find a solution to this problem I have been having with my Tap Forms database during the last couple of days, so I hope someone here will be able to help…

I have a fairly large and complex database document in which I organize my sewing projects.
It consists of several forms each with hundreds of records, different custom layouts, scripts, calculations and multiple relationships. The database size currently is 3,75 GB. I have been working on it for over 10 months now and never encountered any problems like the ones I have been having recently.

As far as I can tell, the problem only occurs in one of the forms, which is the one in which I store all my fabrics.

Here’s what’s happening:
Entering new records seems to work fine. The problem occurs, when I edit existing records. I can make changes alright, add images, information and dates, etc. And at first everything seems to be fine. I can edit several records in this manner, still everything looks fine. I can leave the form, go to a different one, make changes there, return to the fabric form and all changes are still there and everything still looks fine. Then – mostly in order to re-sort the records – I hit the “Refresh Records List”-button. And then the changes I have made disappear. The record basically reverts to its original state, images I have added disappear, dates I have entered disappear, texts that I have edited revert to their original state. This even happens to records that I have created via the +-button. They become blank records again – however as far as I can tell, I have not lost a complete record in this manner, it’s always just the data in the record, that disappears, never an entire record.
And here’s what’s puzzling me the most: This happens only to some records! Some records work fine. Some don’t. Some keep their data and edits even after I have used the “Refresh Records List” button, some don’t. However, records that have once had this issue of edits and data disappearing will always have the problem, which basically means, they become uneditable, because all changes I make to them, will be gone once I use “Refresh Records List”. But as far as I can tell as I edit more and more of my already existing records, more and more seem to be having this problem. It’s like at first I can edit them fine, and the changes are saved properly and remain even after I use “Refresh Records List”, but then all of a sudden, the next time I add or edit data to them, they won’t save anymore and once I use Refresh Records, the last changes I made are gone.

At first I thought, this might be a syncing issue. I have been syncing this database via iCloud between two MacBooks. But after turning off syncing on both MacBooks, deleting the iCould database and keeping syncing turned off, the problem still occurs on both MacBooks independently.

To me it seems like an internal saving issue.
So next I tried using the “Show Save/Edit buttons” feature, thinking that if I use the save button every time I change a record, the data would be saved properly, so using refresh after that won’t undo the edits I made. It didn’t work, the data still disappears once I refresh even if I saved it via the button.

The problem of losing data and edits I entered occurs on both records I just created and also on records that I created months ago. Some I can edit, some I can’t; i.e. some maintain the changes I have made after I push “Refresh Records List”, some don’t. I can not find any regularity in any of it.

Again, the problem only occurs, when I use the “Refresh Records List” button. Until I use that button, all data remains as it should be.

Another thing that I found out is this:
If I close the database document and Tap Forms altogether, reopen it, I still see the data I have just entered/edited. If I then use “Refresh Records List”, no data disappears (as far as I can tell). It seems like closing the database properly saves the edits all records.

Please help, because this is driving me nuts!

[Brendan]

Can you please email me a backup of your document so I can inspect it? That might help me to diagnose the problem more easily.

I’m not seeing this behaviour in the database I just tested with. So perhaps there’s a problem with your database file that’s causing this issue.

[Melanie Schaaf]

Hi Brendan,

thanks for your offer to take a look at my database. I just send you an email to support@tapforms.com. I hope this address was the right one to send it to.

Looking forward to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks again!

[Author]

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