Fatal crash thing and now OF won't restart

[heath]

So OF crashed and now I can't get it to open back up.

I put a project on hold and then went to the view bar and chose "all projects" instead of "active projects" - I got the ball of death, crashcatcher came up, I reported - then both Crashcatcher and OF froze up and had to be force quit.

And now OF won't restart. Should I trash everything and reinstall? Is there a way to save any of my information (like, should I not trash the cache? the plist?)

Ack. Very sad here.

[brianogilvie]

So OF crashed and now I can't get it to open back up.

I put a project on hold and then went to the view bar and chose "all projects" instead of "active projects" - I got the ball of death, crashcatcher came up, I reported - then both Crashcatcher and OF froze up and had to be force quit.

And now OF won't restart. Should I trash everything and reinstall? Is there a way to save any of my information (like, should I not trash the cache? the plist?)

Ack. Very sad here.

You should have a recent backup in your ~/Documents/OmniFocus Backups/ folder, unless you have changed your backup settings. You could trash the following files, install the latest build, and then restore from the most recent backup:

/Applications/OmniFocus.app
~/Library/Caches/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus/OmniFocusDatabase
~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/* (all files in the folder)
~/Library/Preferences/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist

Before doing that, though, I'd start by making a copy of these files:
1. Your most recent backup, and
2. ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus
Leave the originals where they are.

Then trash the cache folder and restart. If that doesn't work, trash all the files I mentioned above (except for your backups and the copies you made), reinstall the latest build of OmniFocus, and copy your OmniFocus.ofocus file back to ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus (don't move it, copy it, so you have another copy). You'll lose preferences and perspectives doing this, but your data should be safe.

If that doesn't work, trash the ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus file and everything else in that directory, reinstall OmniFocus, and then launch it. When it opens, choose File > Revert to Database Backup... and then open the backup that you saved.

Disclaimer: I've been using OmniFocus successfully for over six months and have lost data only once, minimally. However, it's always a good idea to make copies of any files and packages before deleting them, or to run a complete backup first. Especially when working with prerelease software.

[heath]

Thanks - while you were so kindly typing the above, I was downloading and plain old reinstalling... and that worked. So it must have been something simple, and I'm a bit embarrassed for my panic. Thank you for the advice - I'm copying it for next time (god forbid!)

[brianogilvie]

Thanks - while you were so kindly typing the above, I was downloading and plain old reinstalling... and that worked. So it must have been something simple, and I'm a bit embarrassed for my panic. Thank you for the advice - I'm copying it for next time (god forbid!)

I'm glad to hear that you resolved the problem!

And it's not a bad idea to know where all the OmniFocus-related files reside, just in case you have a problem.

By the way, for other readers of this forum: if your backup routine (you *do* have a backup routine, right?) doesn't include ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/, you ought to add it. It's good to have backups in ~/Documents/OmniFocus Backups/, but it would be temerarious to presume that backups will continue to be placed there when the application is finally released.

[Tim Wood]

By the way, for other readers of this forum: if your backup routine (you *do* have a backup routine, right?) doesn't include ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/, you ought to add it.

Good advice. Time Machine does back up that directory, but for Tiger users, that is little help =)

I should also note I'm currently working on support for moving your main OmniFocus database to a different location (so you could put it in Documents, or on a flash drive, or whatever).


It's good to have backups in ~/Documents/OmniFocus Backups/, but it would be temerarious to presume that backups will continue to be placed there when the application is finally released.

This location is already user configurable, so we have little incentive to mess with it =)

[jasong]

I should also note I'm currently working on support for moving your main OmniFocus database to a different location (so you could put it in Documents, or on a flash drive, or whatever).

Yay! Looking forward to that.

(I was just going to say "Yay!" but the forums want at least 10 characters. Now look at what that caused!)