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Dates Overwritten with Epoch Date on Opening

I have a small personal database I am using to keep track of video game releases. Some of the games are not yet released and have no announced release date, so they ought to have a blank release date field. Every time I open the database, however, the blank/null value is overwritten with the epoch date (January 1, 1970). If I clear the value, it stays clear as long as I have the database open, but as soon as I close and reopen it, it reverts to the epoch date. If I change the value to a valid date, it remains that same value after I close and open the database, but if I remove or clear the value again, the null value is overwritten.

The field is not marked as required and I have no idea why it is doing this. There are no triggers tied to the field and I've even gone back in to explicitly define any formulas related to the field with a conditional in case that was forcing a value:

if 'Release Date' != null then ... end

 

 Nothing so far has helped. I tried to search the forum for a similar issue, but to no avail. Any help is appreciated. It's messing with a lot of my formulas which are dependent on release date to calculate average wait time for preorders, etc. on top of just being annoying and inaccurate. I'm using the iPad app currently if it's relevant.

7 replies

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    • Fred
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    That is weird. So I'm using the MacOS app v3.7.6, and I am able to reproduce the error, but only on DBs that do NOT have the Time Zone Independence feature enabled. I have old DBs that were made before the feature was available and I haven't bothered to turn it on as I'm on the only one working on the DB, since I have the MacOS app. But newer DBs have it on by default and can not be disabled.

    It also only seems to happen if you enter in data then clear the date field.

    I would report this to Ninox if you haven't already.

    • jared_s_wark
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks for doing a little sleuthing, Fred. It appears you may be correct about it relating to the Time Zone Independence feature—or more specifically, the way that dates are encoded with or without it enabled. That feature is not something I can enable on this database through the mobile app currently, but it seems there is at least a solution available.

    In the meantime, I was also able to work around the issue by clearing the date and duplicating the records. Upon closing and reopening the database, the old records continued to add the overwritten epoch date but the duplicate records do not. Since index number is of no importance to my table, I was able to use this workaround. Some others may not be.

    • Fred
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view
    Jared W. said:
    In the meantime, I was also able to work around the issue by clearing the date and duplicating the records.

     I was thinking that you could create another formula field that checks for Jan 1, 1970 and if that is true then set the field to null otherwise set it to the date in the date field.

    if datefield != 0 then datefield else null end

    I tried checking for 0 which is the number of miliseconds and the line didn't work. So I had to look for the negative.

    • glenpaling
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I had the same problem. I discovered that if I duplicate the database, the duplicate does not have the 1 January 1970 dates anymore. 

    Glen

      • Fred
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      glenpaling But won't you still experience the bug if you clear the date in any future changes?

      I tried in the MacOS app v3.8.7 and I can still reproduce it in:

      1) Time zone independent DBs stored in iCloud.

      I can not reproduce it on:

      1) cloud stored DBs

      2) non-Time zone independent DBs stored in iCloud.

      Another reason why I switched to the cloud, I'm concerned that the free app development will fall by the wayside. It has been 5 months and a full 3.x version and still the bug is still there.

      • glenpaling
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Fred That may be. I just used it to clear epoch from a database import. So far they haven’t come back.

      Glen

    • Fred
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    still happening in iOS v3.8.10

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