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Post by zoesam on Apr 28, 2017 15:34:16 GMT
I know I helped someone with this very same problem a few years ago. If you were that person or if you remember the thread, can you please point me to it? I am having the problem again, but this time, I cannot remove the bad listing from my Waiting to Upload folder. I can't do anything with it, touching it crashes TL. I've tried abt 20 different things & I'm fresh out of ideas that don't involve me restoring to my last backup.
I have experienced this multiple times over the years & last time I had to restore to a prior backup, but before that I KNOW I fixed this problem without having to restore.
I even remember that I posted detailed how-to instructions. I found it on Kevin's board, but that was from when I did the restore, so the easy fix, I must have posted on the old Ebay boards & that content is all gone. I also know I sent detailed instructions on how to fix it, to a boardie, way back when. If it happened to be you & you still have them, can you please post or PM me?
I'm a 10+ year user & pretty technical, so this is not a basic thing. I really don't want to have to restore from the backup, as that's going to be an hours long affair, but IDK what else to do b/c I can't get the bad record out of that folder, no matter how I try. Just clicking on it, will crash TL. What's weird (but consistent with the last time this happened) is that I can access the record just fine in my Inventory folder. It's only in Waiting to Upload that it crashes TL.
I have several appts, but will check back in later.
ETA: This has nothing to do with EBay supposedly dropping support for TL, this is a recurring problem for many years & TL still works fine for listing.
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Post by unknown on Apr 28, 2017 19:13:32 GMT
Wasn't me and AFAIK I haven't hit that issue but did you try compacting the database?
WAYDAMINIT! If you can access it fine in your inventory, can you copy it so you have a backup, delete the original inventory one, close TL, compact the database and then reopen it? Wouldn't that delete the 'waiting to upload' one and clear out any leftover muck?
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Post by jandsknight on Apr 29, 2017 4:16:02 GMT
I used TL for many years; stopped about 9 months ago. I couldn't upload listings to ebay any more. I would get messages that there were no photos when there were. I didn't want to restore to my last backup because that is so tedious.
I've not had the problem you describe. I think the bad listing has caused or landed in a corrupted area of your database. Many years ago, late 80's or early 90's I was working with a shareware data base on one of the first IBM PC's. As I was editing a field I accidentally unplugged the computer. It corrupted that field in say the 100th line of data. So even when some lines were removed & others added that field in the 100th line was wonky. I learned to work around it. Sometimes the original coding has to be fixed. I don't have the knowledge to do that. I've done so little coding (other than a little HTML tweaking) and it was so long ago that we didn't even call it coding. We wrote programs.
Good luck!
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Post by zoesam on Apr 29, 2017 12:10:47 GMT
Wasn't me and AFAIK I haven't hit that issue but did you try compacting the database? WAYDAMINIT! If you can access it fine in your inventory, can you copy it so you have a backup, delete the original inventory one, close TL, compact the database and then reopen it? Wouldn't that delete the 'waiting to upload' one and clear out any leftover muck? Nope it wasn't you. For some reason, I'm thinking it was kat , but it was so many years ago, it's hard to remember. I had to laugh Unknown, I bumped the old thread over at Kevin's & you were the first one to reply, with the same info :-) I have compacted the DB. I was able to do a bkup, but of course it has the bad data. I will try your suggestion, but I don't think it'll delete the Waiting to Upload folder, even though it's gone from Inventory folder. Funny...a little voice has been nagging me to backup for the last few days & I didn't listen to it. Oh well. My last good bkup is a few weeks old, but since I don't list a lot each day, it's not that big a deal. It's the backup up that takes forever. Thanks! |
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Post by zoesam on Apr 29, 2017 12:13:46 GMT
I used TL for many years; stopped about 9 months ago. I couldn't upload listings to ebay any more. I would get messages that there were no photos when there were. I didn't want to restore to my last backup because that is so tedious. I've not had the problem you describe. I think the bad listing has caused or landed in a corrupted area of your database. Many years ago, late 80's or early 90's I was working with a shareware data base on one of the first IBM PC's. As I was editing a field I accidentally unplugged the computer. It corrupted that field in say the 100th line of data. So even when some lines were removed & others added that field in the 100th line was wonky. I learned to work around it. Sometimes the original coding has to be fixed. I don't have the knowledge to do that. I've done so little coding (other than a little HTML tweaking) and it was so long ago that we didn't even call it coding. We wrote programs. Good luck! Interesting that you had those problems Jans. I do get the occasional missing photos error, but usually just on 1-2 listings once a month or so. In other words, just nuisance stuff. I think you're right & the DB is corrupt. But I know there was a way to get around it without restoring a backup. Like you said, it's so tedious, I really want to avoid it. But I think unless someone else remembers, I'm stuck with doing that. So what are you using to list now? Just SYI? |
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Post by unknown on Apr 29, 2017 13:45:47 GMT
I have compacted the DB. I was able to do a bkup, but of course it has the bad data. I will try your suggestion, but I don't think it'll delete the Waiting to Upload folder, even though it's gone from Inventory folder. Funny...a little voice has been nagging me to backup for the last few days & I didn't listen to it. Oh well. My last good bkup is a few weeks old, but since I don't list a lot each day, it's not that big a deal. It's the backup up that takes forever. Thanks!
No, it won't delete the waiting to upload folder, but it will break the link between the pointer in the waiting to upload folder and the actual item in your inventory. Compacting the database after that may delete the corrupt link after you do that cause the first one will be gone.
Why does it take so long for your backup to restore?
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Post by zoesam on Apr 29, 2017 17:57:13 GMT
I'm doing it now. I have no idea why it takes so long for the restore. The last time this happened, you & I discussed it at length here www.ebayclothingsellers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7933.0.html it took hours then too. I do have an old, slow PC, but it's always been a pain, but TL is a nasty old hog LOL. I keep my files cleaned up & only have about 2500 records in 1 user & 700 in an another, so it's not even that huge of a file. If you read the old discussion, you'll see that I found last time I had to do this, that the photo file doesn't seem to defrag with a Compact DB, but it DOES seem to, when you restore. When I did this last time (in the link), my file size dropped to 1/5th the size. Since that time though, I have started only retaining 1 photo in my old unused records. DH (also an old time IT guy like me) just spent an hour looking at it, he came up with the same thing you did, which is to try & restore from the new backup I created yesterday. I agree it may break the pointer link. I'll lyk what happens. I'll probably document it in both places, as it was helpful to me to refer to the old link at Kevin's, to see exactly what I did last time. I'm just keeping my fingers x'd. If this doesn't work, then I'll have to restore to the good data file of 3 wks ago & then import any new listings I've created. ETA: I know I only have to do this like once every 4 years, but I HATE when this happens! At least it's a snowy day, so I was gonna stay inside anyway LOL. |
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Post by zoesam on Apr 29, 2017 21:06:44 GMT
OK, I've learned something new. unknown , I tried restoring to yesterday's bkup, the one that had the 'bad data' in it (I'm sure the data isn't what's actually bad) & that does NOT work. The restore crashed LOL. It actually seemed to bring back most of the records, but I can't count on it, since it crashed during the restore process. So, I went back to my last bkup from a few weeks ago & that restored just fine. So, now I just have to go to live Ebay & try to find & import any new listings, etc. Oh well. This is what I was hoping to avoid, but it's the only option at this point. Oh & the restored file is about the same size, I didn't get that huge compression/defrag boost that I got 4 years ago. Just really documenting this for the next time it happens. I may eventually remember what I did to fix it all those years ago, but I can't sit around for days, waiting on my brain, since I need to list. |
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Post by unknown on Apr 29, 2017 23:58:31 GMT
I'm confused. Why didn't you just copy the bad record in your inventory, delete the old item and compress the database?
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Post by zoesam on Apr 30, 2017 2:11:21 GMT
I'm confused. Why didn't you just copy the bad record in your inventory, delete the old item and compress the database? I'm not following. Copy it where? The bad record was not in my inventory, it was in Waiting to Upload (where it always is), the same record in Inventory is always accessible. But there was no way to delete it out of Waiting to Upload without crashing TL. |
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Post by unknown on Apr 30, 2017 8:34:25 GMT
You have a 'good record' in your inventory. What's bad is the link between the two folders cause the program is not gonna copy your whole html and all your pictures and put a copy in the 'waiting to upload' folder; they just put a link/shortcut that they later delete which still leaves your original.
Since you cannot delete the link in the 'bad' folder, duplicate the original listing so you have 2 good ones - then delete the original listing in your inventory. When the original is gone, the link then has nothing to link TO so compressing should clean up the leftover bad link and you still have the original listing but it's the 'copy' you made.
Does that make sense now?
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Post by zoesam on Apr 30, 2017 17:56:27 GMT
You have a 'good record' in your inventory. What's bad is the link between the two folders cause the program is not gonna copy your whole html and all your pictures and put a copy in the 'waiting to upload' folder; they just put a link/shortcut that they later delete which still leaves your original. Since you cannot delete the link in the 'bad' folder, duplicate the original listing so you have 2 good ones - then delete the original listing in your inventory. When the original is gone, the link then has nothing to link TO so compressing should clean up the leftover bad link and you still have the original listing but it's the 'copy' you made. Does that make sense now? Yeah, that makes sense as something to try. IDK if it's the link/pointer that's bad or that spot in memory. So the spot would still be bad, just with a different record. It's too late for this time, since everything is working again, but that's why I'm documenting in such detail, since I know it will happen again. BTW, the file DID compress again something HUGE. It must not have the first time b/c the first restore blew up. But the 2nd restore, with the month old file, did the same thing as I'd documented last time. Before restore, the img file was 13,483,026 KB. After the restore, the EXACT same file is 4,484,486KB. That's the exact thing that happened when I last documented this at Kevin's. The restore must have a defrag, that just compressing the file does NOT do. Everything is so much more efficient now, esp bkups. I think I'm going to start making a restore part of my every 6 month or once /year repertoire. It make a huge difference in file size & performance. ETA: I still have the bad file. Is there some way that you know of to point to it temporarily? Without having to do a restore to use it & then restore the good one back? |
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Post by unknown on May 1, 2017 6:55:21 GMT
Yeah, that makes sense as something to try. IDK if it's the link/pointer that's bad or that spot in memory. So the spot would still be bad, just with a different record. It's too late for this time, since everything is working again, but that's why I'm documenting in such detail, since I know it will happen again. BTW, the file DID compress again something HUGE. It must not have the first time b/c the first restore blew up. But the 2nd restore, with the month old file, did the same thing as I'd documented last time. Before restore, the img file was 13,483,026 KB. After the restore, the EXACT same file is 4,484,486KB. That's the exact thing that happened when I last documented this at Kevin's. The restore must have a defrag, that just compressing the file does NOT do. Everything is so much more efficient now, esp bkups. I think I'm going to start making a restore part of my every 6 month or once /year repertoire. It make a huge difference in file size & performance. ETA: I still have the bad file. Is there some way that you know of to point to it temporarily? Without having to do a restore to use it & then restore the good one back? That spot in memory? Meaning your ram is bad? Dunno the windows file system now. It doesn't do anything like that for me but I'm hybriding with XP on VirtualBox on Linux. WTH do you mean with your ETA? You just said in your first paragraph that everything was fine. |
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Post by zoesam on May 1, 2017 19:07:23 GMT
Yeah, that makes sense as something to try. IDK if it's the link/pointer that's bad or that spot in memory. So the spot would still be bad, just with a different record. It's too late for this time, since everything is working again, but that's why I'm documenting in such detail, since I know it will happen again. BTW, the file DID compress again something HUGE. It must not have the first time b/c the first restore blew up. But the 2nd restore, with the month old file, did the same thing as I'd documented last time. Before restore, the img file was 13,483,026 KB. After the restore, the EXACT same file is 4,484,486KB. That's the exact thing that happened when I last documented this at Kevin's. The restore must have a defrag, that just compressing the file does NOT do. Everything is so much more efficient now, esp bkups. I think I'm going to start making a restore part of my every 6 month or once /year repertoire. It make a huge difference in file size & performance. ETA: I still have the bad file. Is there some way that you know of to point to it temporarily? Without having to do a restore to use it & then restore the good one back? That spot in memory? Meaning your ram is bad? Dunno the windows file system now. It doesn't do anything like that for me but I'm hybriding with XP on VirtualBox on Linux. WTH do you mean with your ETA? You just said in your first paragraph that everything was fine. Everything IS fine. I'm saying I kept a bkup copy of the file that's 'bad'. So, if there was a way I could quickly & easily point to that file temporarily (like in JCL), then I could test out your theory. IDK of any way to do that though. Never mind. I spent the whole weekend rebulding my DB to current, so I'm not really inclined to spend any more time on this. I'll worry about it & test out your theory, the next time this happens. It's been happening for years now. Lately it's only been once every 3-4 yrs, but around 8 yrs ago, it was happening once/month. That's when I figured out a way to fix it, without restoring a prior file. Sometimes I hate TL. I know it works well 90% of the time, but it's so damn buggy & the 10% when it doesn't, is very time consuming. I had a lot of plans for the weekend, that did not involve restoring my db & bringing it back up to reflect current status. I'm just glad it's done now! Thanks for your help! |
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