Help! Crashed on my Mac and had no records when I reopened

[rkw44x]

I use Tap Forms for everything and have been mostly very happy with it, except that I can rarely get iCloud syncing to work. I nearly always use Tap Forms on my Mac but when I open it on my iPhone, I’m never able to update with what I’ve added on my Mac. I managed it once months ago by completely deleting Tap Forms from my phone and then reinstalling it but since then, I’ve had no luck, so records on my phone are quite out of date.

But that’s not my main problem anymore. As I was working on my MacBook Pro, Tap Forms crashed (I was trying to add a new record when it happened). When I reopened the program, there were no records at all except the sample ones that come with Tap Forms. Trying not to freak out (like I said, I use Tap Forms for everything), I disabled and re-enabled iCloud syncing, and this had the effect of pulling some records into Tap Forms, but they’re several months old (I think they’re the records that are on my phone, which I was last able to sync in January).

I’ve used the ‘manage’ button in iCloud system preferences to check that the attachments (e.g., images and audio files) associated with later records are still in iCloud (they are). Does this mean there’s some way to get those records back? Would be so grateful for any help, as I’ve lost a lot of important stuff!

[Brendan]

Your forms are stored in a file on your Mac called TapForms_db.sqlite. That file is not stored in iCloud. There are other files which are used to synchronize the data from iCloud to the TapForms_db.sqlite files on each of your devices. To sync with iCloud you just need to tap on the sync button on the device which you’ve made changes on. Tap Forms will generate a file and upload it to iCloud. At some point later when iCloud is finished downloading your data to your other devices, they will get notified and apply the changes from iCloud (which came from the device you tapped the sync button on).

As for your missing data, that’s very odd that you lost everything after a crash. I apologize for that, but have no idea how that could happen.

Do you have Time Machine on your computer that you could possibly restore the TapForms_db.sqlite file from? It’s stored in your home folder’s Library folder. Well, further down the hierarchy actually at ~/Library/Containers/com.tapforms.mac/Data/Documents

The ~ in the path means your home folder.

Let me know if you can restore your data.

Thanks,

Brendan

[rkw44x]

Thanks for getting back to me Brendan. It sounds like I’m trailblazing this particular problem! For your records, I have TapForms 1.1 (141) on my Mac and the app had crashed a couple times before that but without any data loss.

Sounds like the only solution would be to pull the old SQLite file out of Time Machine, and unfortunately, I’m a bonehead who rarely uses Time Machine. I did really like Tap Forms while it was working for me, even without reliable syncing! I’m bummed to have to switch to something else now.

[Brendan]

Have you tried Tap Forms 1.5? It’s a free upgrade in the Mac App Store.

Brendan

[rkw44x]

Thanks for the suggestion, Brendan. I think, given that neither of us knows why I lost my data so there’s no way to prevent a re-occurrence, and the reality I’ll have to re-create it from scratch no matter what I do, I’d rather re-create it using different software so I won’t be worried about the possibility that TapForms could fail on me again.

[Author]

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