reunion keeps crashing after certain edits

[reggoboy]

Well, I'm not a happy camper. Two issues, and I will mention them together because they may be related:

1. I just lost an unknown amount of data, apparently because ReunionTouch was "not connected to Dropbox". So changes I made while visiting family I've never met before in Nice, France a few weeks ago are now all gone because I opened the file on my Mac, expecting to see those changes. But that apparently confused Reunion, and overwrote everything on my phone. Touch has a way to see that it's not connected to Dropbox, if you dig a little, but it did not ALERT me that it was not connected, so I had no reason to suspect an issue. Dropbox on that iPhone has been working fine for all the other apps; only ReunionTouch somehow broke its connection, and did so silently and dangerously.

2. So now I'm trying to edit my cousin "Onni", and Reunion on Mac keeps crashing. Trying to add pix, remove pix, etc.

How do I get out of this mess so I can start trying to jog my memory and fix the missing data and photos before I lose any chance of doing so?

Thanks,

Dave

[DrJJWMac]

1) Ugh! This experience, if nothing else, emphasizes the importance of making a backup of iPhone/iPad/macOS files before doing anything significant with shared data. Do you have any recourse to such (a backup of your iPhone *after* you returned from your visit but *before* you tried to open the Reunion Touch file on macOS and/or reopen Reunion Touch to resync with it)?

2) Here again ... Do you have a backup of an earlier version of the macOS database (e.g. on Time Machine)???

Just curious. Does Reunion Touch generally offer a way to export its database to a local file? This would be as an added security backup for just this experience (DropBox goes rogue and overwrites the freshly update database with a sadly outdated one).

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JJW

[reggoboy]

1) Ugh! This experience, if nothing else, emphasizes the importance of making a backup of iPhone/iPad/macOS files before doing anything significant with shared data. Do you have any recourse to such (a backup of your iPhone *after* you returned from your visit but *before* you tried to open the Reunion Touch file on macOS and/or reopen Reunion Touch to resync with it)?

Thanks for the reply. Apple only guarantees that the most recent backup of your iOS device is what's kept in iCloud, though sometimes they have an older generation or two as well. I could have tried to find a spare iPhone and do a full reset and see if an older backup was in the Cloud.

2) Here again ... Do you have a backup of an earlier version of the macOS database (e.g. on Time Machine)???

I have various backups on my Mac. The problem is that, because Reunion broke its connection to Dropbox and didn't restore it, none of that data ever made it off my iPhone. And then when other changes were done on my Mac and the Reunion-Dropbox link was restored, either Reunion or Dropbox made the wrong "choice" about which copy was the latest, and discarded what was on iPhone in favor of the Mac changes. I have seen Dropbox screw this up before. But since it has can have sync issues, apps like Reunion need to invoke semaphores to make sure conflicts are resolved and not just jettisoned.

Just curious. Does Reunion Touch generally offer a way to export its database to a local file? This would be as an added security backup for just this experience (DropBox goes rogue and overwrites the freshly update database with a sadly outdated one).

Cool idea! Well, I think its database IS the same database that's used on the Mac; hence the Dropbox sync. So in theory, if I wanted to make a backup from my iPhone, I could have used the Files or Dropbox app to copy that "directory".

[DrJJWMac]

I could have tried to find a spare iPhone and do a full reset and see if an older backup was in the Cloud.

Perhaps Apple tech support can answer whether you can access older iPhone backup versions.

I have various backups on my Mac. The problem is that,

My suggestion for a Time Machine backup was in consideration that your current macOS database is perhaps also corrupted (i.e. your Reunion on macOS keeps crashing). What happens when you pull a previous version of the database, for example one dated before you trip?

In summary, in response to your question .... "How do I get out of this mess so I can start trying to jog my memory and fix the missing data and photos before I lose any chance of doing so?", a) try recovering an iPhone backup dated after your trip but before the Dropbox sync fiasco and b) try recovering an older macOS backup dated before your trip.


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JJW

[reggoboy]

Okay, I'm gonna throw a wrench in here. On this Mac mini, I probably hadn't opened Reunion in a while and was still running v.13. My MacBook runs v.14. I didn't realize that right away. Fortunately, they're completely different databases (though they share the same media folder). While I've lost track of the sequence of events, I installed v.14 here on the Mac mini when I noticed it was behind. Then I used that to open the new database, and I think that's what fixed the issue. But honestly, my recollection is a bit blurry.

So there are a couple unrelated issues here. The Dropbox disconnect/sync/loss of data problem is legit. The problem with Reunion crashing, whether legit or not, went away after upgrading.

[DrJJWMac]

Okay, I'm gonna throw a wrench in here.

From the further details, it seems you threw the wrench in a direction that fixed the macOS problem. Which is a good thing.

Now you should search for the right screwdriver to throw at the Dropbox problem to fix it too. :-)

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JJW