The app crashed and reopened to only open the previous file and save itself. It saved with no links to my media files and the size went from 200MB to 5.6MB. Lost over 20hrs of work.
Help.
I understand this is probably advice given too late, but under the main menu item FotoMagico > Preferences… > General there is an option to turn Auto Save on and off (click on Saving: Enable Auto Save).
Personally, I have it turned OFF – and do a manual Save after I’ve made a number of changes. That also allows me to manually save a COPY of the file I’m working on using a different name, something I can go back to if I run into a problem.
What I see happening with Auto Save enabled is that you’re working on a presentation and encounter a glitch, maybe without knowing it, and then FM automatically saves the file. Now when you go back to it, the problem is embedded in the saved file, and there’s no way to return to a state BEFORE that. I tend to prefer having control over things like that, and an Auto Save feature takes that control away from me.
sorry, but Auto Save does definitely not work in V4.2.1. There is no description how Auto Save should work, I can nothing find in the documentation. I lost a lot of work because of many crashes and enabled Auto Save. A manual Save is not practicable in case you have a large database, because of the many crashes you have to save every change. With my database, 700 pictures, 50 movie clips and comments, every manual save takes about 10 minutes!!!
I have laid down my slideshow, waiting for a solution.
I am missing from Boinx a functioning data backup concept and a useful description!!!
Sorry again, but I spent a lot of time for nothing, and this mades me mad.
@karlie: Sorry for the lag of documentation about the auto saving feature! The auto save should only take about half a second and is running in the background so your work flow isn’t disturbed. We don’t know why the autosave feature is running a full save procedure on your machine.
@stantastic: Saving multiple copies of your project may be a good strategy if you can keep up the discipline in doing so. I prefer to concentrate on my work and let the MacOS system do the backups for me by Timemachine ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427 ).
Anyways, we are working hard to fix the crashes so that FotoMagico gets a rock solid application and you don’t have to worry about loosing valuable work anymore. Please help us by sending in the crashlogs via the Boinx Crash Reporter (which pops up after relaunching the app) with detailed description on what was going on right before the crash happened. Thank you!
Achim, I tried out the Auto Save again using V4.2.1. My understanding is, when Auto Save is enabled each modification in the database should be saved immediately or after a short time, and the save should run in the background. Everything else is useless in case of a crash.
When Auto Save is enabled in V4.2.1 the only thing what happens is when I close the document or FM, the save starts automatically and the complete database, not only the delta will be saved, in my case using a 5GB database it takes always about 10 minutes. In my opinion Auto Save does not work in the background. In case of a crash every modifications are lost. Please try it out using a big database.
stantastic, your comment regarding the backup strategy, and the link to Apple is useless, everyone knows how Time Machine works. I dont know any App which uses this concept. But when this is your strategy you should describe in detail how I get back my datas.
Hi, karlie –
I’m sorry – you should re-read the posts above. I WAS NOT the one who supplied you a link to Apple, nor did I mention using TimeMachine, nor describe how TimeMachine works.
I suggested that you save a copy of your currently working FM 4 file with a different name so that you can go back to it if something like what Robert described happens again. Having only ONE version of any important data file is just a recipe for disaster down the road. Auto Save or not, that just makes common sense, especially if your presentation is a commercial venture and not a personal one.
I, too, have had some problems with the newest version – it’s NOT perfect. I don’t believe ANY application is “perfect.” But I also have a FM 4 presentation that consists of about 450 photos, some QT videos, and about 15 audio tracks. It’s almost 4 GBs in size, runs for over 45 minutes, and it runs “perfectly.”
@karlie: Regarding Timemachine: In my experience Timemachine works very well. When ever I found something messed up my files I start the Timemachine in Finder to go back in time and restore several different versions of the file to find one which is ok. As @stantastic mentions sometimes I also keep multiple copies of my work in progress files but mostly to try out different ways of doing something.
Regarding saving time: The auto save should really only take a view seconds and run in background in FotoMagico. All the images files are stored already in your document and we are just saving the document structure. When you closing your document we perform a full save which includes creating thumbnails for all the slide slots for preview. We are working on this to improve the saving speed.
Hi stantastic,
sorry for this missunderstanding, that was my fault.
Of course, I sporadically make a sencond and even a third copy, and additionally a Time Machine backup, but this can not replace a well functioning application backup, hopefully we get one soon!