Hi there,

My goal is to get everyone in my office running on now contact with the same contacts in their files. We have 3 or 4 users on our local network who could not always reliably sync with the server. We had a problem with one offsite user, who could not sync with the server…. So it led us into the following process..


We have had problems with our 4 contact files consistently syncing with public categories in our server. Not every entry would sync. We are running ( 4.5.2 ) on OS 10.4.11.

1) I took all four copies of our files ( one from each user ) and auto merged to remove duplicate contacts. We have a lot of extra notes now. Both public and private notes. Our file size went from around 30mb to 147mb. I am very concerned about working with such a large file since have had crashing problems with the software in the past. Maybe the file size is not a problem, if so please let me know. I am concerned because halfway through every sync attempt now, we get a crash. I have tried dumping the prefs. It has not helped anything.


2) I want to know is if there is a way to eliminate duplicate notes ( without having to go into each of our 12k files one at a time by hand ) ?

3) To test the server function after merging these four files mentioned above. I put a test copy on two computers. When I remove both public and private notes from one contact file. The changes don’t appear in the other file. ( I understand why the private notes don’t show as changed, but why the public notes are not changing either is confusing. )

I have also tested creating a new note but the files only seem to sync in only one direction. From the creator to the other computer.

I am getting error 103 now. I have follow the rebuild advise seen in other posts and I now get a error -1 ( cant find a reference to that in your posts )

4) Can you tell me what difference to the system it makes weather a contact file is the primary file or not? I have tried both ways in my tests. Does not seem to make any difference.

5) Here is another big problem. The other thing I tried is unsubscribing from a public contact. I was in hopes it would eliminate the private notes and replace the public ones when I re-subscribed. The problem is that after deselecting and selecting the categories again and syncing several times, the category does not show up in my contact file again. The file I have tried this on, now spends a lot of time LOOKING FOR SERVER…. Then usually crashes.

6) I have just now tried to up a fresh empty file and subscribing to the categories. Its seems to work in getting rid of the private notes, but there I found a new problem. In my original file in a “X” category it says I have 17 contacts. I rechecked my files and they are all public categories. When I try to subscribe to that category with the fresh file. It says there are only 13 contacts listed in the server. I try and try to sync, but the missing 3 contacts will not sync with the server. Whats going on? ( I went and moved them to public categories again just to be sure… and synced again….. the contacts don’t show up in the)

I have created a new entry in the Fresh file in the public X category. The number count when from 13 to 14 contacts according to the server.

I tried the same thing in the original file. It does not show up in the Fresh file after syncing, nor does it show up in the server as a additional contact.

Even if I have to recreate these contacts…. How am I ever going to find all the screwed up contacts in my file of 12k contacts.


I am going crazy! I don’t want the let the office use the files again until we get things fixed. Please help, we cant be without our contacts for more than another day or so. We have been trying to fix this for over a week now.

My server is on a fixed IP and using port 3167.



Thank you in advance.

One thing you're going to run into problems with a DB that size with 4.5.xx server. However, it looks like you have a bad record in there somewhere that's causing the crashing at some point. I'm pretty familiar with DB's with lots of contacts and a bunch of notes. The notes are what is going to end up biting you. Even with an upgrade to 5.3.1 client/server you're going to have this issue. The later server versions handle the increased contact amount slightly better, but a corrupted record is going to cause nothing but pain. You're most probable solution is going to be to export the entire thing to a text tabbed format and then make a new database to import it into. You're probably going to want to merge your notes into one note, since it won't respect multiples when you flatten it. You're very likely to run into the same problem again when you start up again with the notes, it's not very robust to handle the notes that a lot of clients like cut/pasting into their contacts.

The good news is that I've saved a bunch on my car insurance by going with Geico.

That and with Nighthawk, these issues are supposed to go away and there should be a way to repair a borked database file. So there is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train coming.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions. I've got almost 15 years of working with with NUDC in a support capacity and I use it, too.

Hi again,

We tried the tab exported technique. We ran into a problem that the
categories were all mixed up after doing that. Some Categories wound up
being right and some were other things from various fields.

I tried to line up the appropriate fields when doing the import... I lined
up Category to Category names as allowed. I don't get why the import
template available is only for a very old version of NC. There was not a
template for V5.

I appreciate your input. You have any ideas on how to eliminate all the
duplicate notes that occurred from all the merging?


If I can get these files to sync with the server and I create a new file to
download to. Will this mean any bad file I have will be gone?

Thank you for the advice. Very Happy

If you were running into the -1 error when the local file was sending edits to the server, it was definitely a problem with a particular contact record in the local file. There is a procedure to root out the problem contact, but it is not much fun. It is as follows:<P>

In this case, error = -1 indicates the application is having problems talking to the server. Which is rather obvious and not really helpful. What *is* helpful is the context. In this case, Now Contact is having problems sending events or notes to the server.

The best way to remedy the situation is to locate the record having problems sending notes/events to the server and clean it up. The procedure is as follows (back up your server database file and your client contact file before proceeding):
1) Open your current contact file (the one having problems sending to the server)
2) Add the modification date/time column to the list view (Define > List Layouts, checkmark Mod Date/Time)
3) sort by Mod Date/Time to get the latest changes at the bottom of the list
4) create a new contact file, name it Test and save it to your desktop (do not make it your primary file)
5) press command-k to delete the blank default record
6) move the window for the new file so you can also see the window for the original file
7) drag import (see below) groups of contacts, say 20-25 contacts, to the new file and delete them from the original file
Cool do step 7 until the original file no longer throw the -1 error
9) drag the contacts back into the original file and reassign them to the public category they belong to (you may want to group them by category in the new file before dragging them back to the original file so you can reassign the contacts as a group using the Assign Categories function in the Contact menu)

==

To do a drag import of your data to a blank new contact file:
1) Open the contact file with which you are having problems.
2) Open the File menu and select New... to create a new contact file.
3) Press Command-W to close the blank standard view window.
4) Press Command-K to delete the blank contact entry from the list view.
5) Adjust the windows sizes of the blank new contact file and your original file so you can see both on your screen.
6) Press the All button in the list view of your original file to show all your contacts then press Command-A to select all contacts.
7) Hold down the Command/Apple key and drag all selected contacts over to the blank new contact file.

As to the template issue, as long as the same template was used to export that is being used to import, the data should line up correctly. Otherwise it would be a matter of adjusting the right side list to match the left.

Once you push the data from the new file to the server, it will have rebuilt the entries. I would suggest creating a new Public Contact Server to connect the new file to. That way everything is new and whichever piece the errors were coming from should have been replaced.

Hello,

We have done everything that you suggested, and the new contact files (even on a fresh server) still do not have the old notes show up at all.

I not only did what you suggested in your last response, but I have also tried these exact steps as well:

1. Make sure you know where your primary contact file is stored on your hard drive. You'll need to know where it is to set it as your primary file again at the end of this process.
2. Quit Now Contact (if it is running).
3. Open a new Finder window and select Home from the Go menu.
4. Once in your Home folder, go to: /Library/Preferences/
5. Find the files named com.nowsoftware.nowcontact.plist and com.poweronsoftware.nowcontact.plist and move them to the desktop.
6. Find the folder named Now Contact Prefs and move it to the desktop as well.
7. Open your Now Contact file and make it your primary contact file (Launch Now Contact, open the File menu, select Open, make sure there is a checkmark next to the option "Make this my primary file," locate your Now Contact file, highlight it and click Open).
8. Trash the items moved to the desktop in steps 5 and 6.


We can however, receive and sync NEW Notes and contacts, but still can not retreive any of the old notes when updating or syncing with the server at all - they do not even come over as private.


As always, help is greatly appreciated Smile