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Ninox on iPad Stopped Saving Changes

It's only happened once, and I got around it, but it's made me nervous about making changes, so I'm hoping for a bit of feedback - has it happened to other people, and is there something different I should have done?

Working on a Ninox database on my iPad, and noticed a couple of things I thought I'd changed, but obviously hadn't. Fixed them and carried on. Came out of the database, returned to it, and the changes I'd just made hadn't saved. Multiple changes across several records, with different data types.

Made the changes again, closed and re-opened database, gone again. Tried again, same.

I then did a 'reorganize database', tried again, and the changes saved ok.

The problem is now, obviously, I'm worried it will happen again. And if I don't notice in time, I'll have wrong information in the database, and won't realise.

For background, the iPad owns the database, and always has. Synced with iCloud, also accessed, but rarely updated, from my iPhone.

I'm wondering if it's connected to sync, and maybe I should have opened and closed the database on the iPhone too, to let that save any updates. Or even if the iCloud sync can cause this sort of problem, should I stop using it entirely? I'd rather have a database I can rely on but only access from my iPad than one that might lose data that's accessible from both devices.

18 replies

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    • michael.5
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Sorry - that looked less like a wall of text in the editor, with its double paragraph spacing!

    • Alain.1
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I also had a backup problem on icloud. After restoring my database, I had lost data (photos and pdf) related to data.
    I managed to recover the information by importing the data from an old backup. The problem is that I had all the data duplicated, I had to erase the ones that didn’t have the files related to the photos and pdf.. and recreate the one that was not saved. Since then I have made several backups, on Ipad, iCloud, hoping it doesn’t happen again.

    • UKenGB
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I also have seen this, recently, on the local Mac app sync'ing via iCloud. I spent a day adding data and then later on (after closing the db to save an archive and re-opening) noticed the recent data was simply missing.

    Creating a new db by importing an archive (the one being created above) and no more problem. However, if I revert back to the problematic db, it still will not save data.

    Looking at Ninox's files I can see that the data.db file (the real database) is not being updated, it silently does not save the new data when it is supposed to and when subsequently re-opening the db, that new data is not there.

    No obvious reason I can see why as the perms etc of the files are all correct, but that db will simply NOT save any data, only structural changes are saved. Yet a duplicated db works fine, as does the new one created from the archive, although neither of course contain the missing data. That's gone.

    Seems kinda worrying to me, to say the least.

    • Holly_M
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I've encountered this problem twice now as well, and I am extremely nervous and wondering if I need to take the Db to a local working copy. I can't be entering data for who knows how long only to find out at a later date they didn't get saved. I also did the Save As archive and I wonder if that is related but I've haven't tested since this is a massive problem as it impacts data integrity and has Ninox acknowledge this as an issue? Also is there any way you can "tell" if the iCloud DB is current so I can at least check to make sure exiting the Db, rebooting, etc won't cause a data lose?

    • akvarell
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    I have the same problem. Has anyone found a solution to the problem?

    • Rafael Sanchis
    • Rafael_Sanchis
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    This problem has been around for a long time or has not been solved, I have been using Ninox for 2 years and two years with this problem on both iPad and Android

    • UKenGB
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    I turned off iCloud sharing and the problem went away.

    This is NOT a solution as Ninox is claimed to be a database that can be shared in this way and it irks that it actually fails in its claimed abilities. Worse, after several years Ninox have done NOTHING to fix this glaring bug.

    To my mind that speaks volumes of how Ninox actually care about the real quality of their product, as opposed to the 'marketing' blurb that proclaims its abilities.

    • akvarell
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Thank you for your quick and clarifying answers! I read straight away but needed to collect my thoughts before answer.

    J have worked with Ninox databas since 2020 so I have put in a lot of time and energy into Ninox. I have had minor problems which I solved by making backups of the entire database to the hard drive at each device. It has been working OK until I updated the other day. After that the data was missing even in the backup.

    I’ve always thought it was me doing something wrong so I’m satisfied to hear that it wasn’t the case. But I am extremely angry and frustrated with Ninox still recommending iCloud and not presenting any alternative or solution to this problem. It is a significant problem if you can’t trust a database to save the information you enter. I go for your solution to turn off iCloud but it is not a satisfactory solution.

    • Mel_Charles
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

      With all of you having the same issue, I would suggest you bombard Ninox support with this. Otherwise they will never be alerted or fix the issue! Contact them on support@ninox.com.

    I have to say that in all instances where I have encountered a data issue. Ninox have worked with me to resolve the issue or put a fix into a release.

      • UKenGB
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Ah, it was Ninox support who suggested I should turn off iCloud sharing in order to stop losing stuff, so they are well aware of the issue.

      • Mel_Charles
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Oops - Sorry only trying to help - will go back to my corner and quietly drink some of Johns tea !😀

      • Rafael Sanchis
      • Rafael_Sanchis
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

        

      Some Hope.

      Hello Rafael,

      Thank you for following up. I understand the urgency, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

      The bug will be resolved in the upcoming 3.13.4 release, which is scheduled for the end of this month. Unfortunately, there is no option to downgrade to version 3.12.8 at this time.

      We appreciate your patience, and we're working to get this fixed as quickly as possible. If there's anything else I can assist with in the meantime, please let me know.

       

      Best regards,

      • Mel_Charles
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      It's a start !

      • UKenGB
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Yes, pipe down and stop disrupting the class. 😄

      • UKenGB
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       That rather makes it sound like they think it is a recently introduced bug but I think it's a couple of years ago I first spoke to them about it.

      Still, if it's fixed in the imminent update that's good news indeed.

      • akvarell
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       

      Yes, I am doing that. They dont realy understand but I am sending them sreenchots. I hope that wil help. It is hard to find a bug when you can't see when it is realy happening. But i cross my fingers and hope for the best.

      • UKenGB
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Are we perhaps thinking of different issues. The problem I reported to Ninox quite a while ago was changes not being saved. Not immediately obvious, but easy to spot when looking for it and completely reproducible. Ninox had no trouble understanding this and seemed aware of the problem that was apparently to do with iCloud syncing. I seem to recall it would lose project code as well as data changes. That would make sense as they are both contained in the same file and if not syncing, but then obtaining the old file again, thinking it was current, then both would be lost.

      As I say, they had no trouble understanding what was going on, that iCloud sync was screwing up. A bit worrying if now, a couple of years later they are not understanding even the symptoms.

      • akvarell
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       I think it is the same problem. When I emailed the  support@ninox.com, Lana didn't understand and suggested that I should "record a screen video" and that is not possible as I acctually don't see it when it happens. But I have refered to this chat.

      I hope that you are wright, that Lana missunderstood and that this problem will be solved within the next release. 

      I am wery happy that all of you are so concerned. That make me feel I an among friends and not alone whit my problem. Thank you! 

Content aside

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