Open File Replaced by Older Version

[EM O'Connell]

Intending to copy a Reunion file from my laptop back to my desktop, I could see the family page of the open file I had added a family to, but I'm not sure what happened next (perhaps I closed that file), but when I next looked, the file did not have the people I had recently added.

I tried renaming any version I could open to make sure Reunion didn't merge any files, and I did not delete any file, but I cannot find the file with those updates.

It appears Reunion has overwritten my updated file with an older version; or not saved my updated work when I closed that file.

Does anyone have any suggestions to try to find my recent additions?
What is the .extension of a Reunion file in case there is a file hiding somewhere out of sight?

Many thanks
Elizabeth

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Open File Replaced by Older Version

What is the .extension of a Reunion file in case there is a file hiding somewhere out of sight?

The extension of a Reunion family file is ".familyfile11" or ".familyfile10" depending on the version of Reunion it was created with. Some are also ".familyfile" (perhaps from older versions?)

Your best hope is Time Machine, if it was running on your Mac....

[EM O'Connell]

Re: Open File Replaced by Older Version

Thanks Dennis, unfortunately no hidden files showed up. There was no Time Machine as I was only on the laptop for the weekend and TM is on the Mac at home.

It is odd that Reunion never backed up my edits over a couple of days .. or perhaps Reunion did, then opened the original file from my pen drive over the active one, as they both had the same name .. a bit of a bug as if that has happened the programme has replaced a same named file with an older version without any warning or 'are you sure' dialogue box. Reunion should save the file it was closing / overwriting with a suffix e.g. familyfile-1.

This is especially a flaw as there is no File > Save As option to change names and the only way I can find to have different file names (in part to prevent this happening again!) is to Save A Backup Copy and go through to Finder to change the name of the backup; or to use Finder to copy and rename a file ... somewhat clunky and nowhere near as clean as a File > Save As option.

I will certainly pay more attention to renaming next time I'm moving files with a pen drive!

Thanks again Dennis.

[Mark]

Re: Open File Replaced by Older Version

...the programme has replaced a same named file with an older version without any warning

Reunion will warn you if you try to overwrite an existing file. You'll be presented with a dialogue telling you that there's already a file with that name, and asking if you want to replace the existing version or cancel.

Note that simply opening a file won't cause it to overwrite another file. You would have to either use File -> Save a Backup Copy... and give it the same name as an existing file, or you would have to have moved (or copied) the file, via Finder (not Reunion), to a folder containing a file with the same filename as the file you're moving/copying.

...the original file from my pen drive over the active one.

It sounds like you have more than one copy of your file -- are you certain that you're opening the right copy of the file?

I would suggest checking:

File -> Open Recent

And seeing if other copies of your file are listed there.

[EM O'Connell]

Re: Open File Replaced by Older Version

Thanks so much for your reply Mark.

I'm not sure exactly what I did, but there was definitely no dialogue warning of an existing file.

I remember the open updated file, then I suspect I closed the file in preparation for copying it back to the pen drive to return the updated file to my Mac. I think after I closed the file I put the pen drive (with the original file, still named the same as the updated version) into the laptop. I must have then opened a file but noticed the file I opened did not have my recent additions, so I guessed that the programme had opened the old file from the pen drive, rather than the updated version, both having the same name, hence loosing the updates.

I had not gone File > Backup, or moved anything via Finder and when I searched in Finder there was only the one file on the hard drive, and one on the pen drive but both looked the same on opening, neither having the updates.

I renamed each file to make sure I knew which was which but when I went to File > Open Recent there were only those two files, neither with the updates. Perhaps if I had looked at Open Recents earlier, the updated version may have still been there, but I hadn't realised that option was available and it looks like Reunion only holds the two most recent files opened.

Never mind .. I'm not sure what I've learned as I'm still not sure what happened .. but I'll go a bit slower next time and perhaps Save a Backup Copy more as I would normally save a Word document. I've used Safari History as a prompt to where I was researching over the few days I was updating, so hopefully I've replaced everything now.

Thanks very much again
Elizabeth