update 1.0.1 cleared my database

[hassler]

After I updated Omnifocus on the iphone to version 1.0.1, I opened the application to find it telling me to sync with a mac or create a new database!! I don't have Omnifocus for the mac, I am using it as a standalone on the iPhone. Is there any way to get my database back? I synced with iTunes this morning.

[jahn]

I am in the exact same boat. I updated to OmniFocus 1.01 and my stand alone database got wiped.

[Joel]

Quick question for you both: Did you check for updates and download version 1.0.1 on iTunes, or on your iPhone/iPod Touch?

[jahn]

Quick question for you both: Did you check for updates and download version 1.0.1 on iTunes, or on your iPhone/iPod Touch?I did it via iTunes.

[Joel]

Interesting, I updated via the phone itself and it preserved my local database.

Follow-up question: Had you backed up OmniFocus to iTunes recently? (like, right before downloading the update)

[hassler]

I installed via the iPhone itself and backed up this morning.

[jahn]

Interesting, I updated via the phone itself and it preserved my local database.

Follow-up question: Had you backed up OmniFocus to iTunes recently? (like, right before downloading the update)Yes, my iPhone got backed up immediately before syncing as it usually does. However, since the sync that updated OmniFocus, I've synced (and backed up) the phone again.

[hassler]

I have not plugged the iPhone into iTunes since the update. I wanted to check to see what a fix could be before writing over the data anymore

[Joel]

Just did a little test, and here's what I've got so far (even though it doesn't appear to help much):

- I updated OmniFocus to 1.0.1 on my iPhone
- Seeing that I could go one of two directions afterwards, I chose to download the 1.0.1 update on iTunes, instead of plugging in the iPhone first
- Plugged in the iPhone after the update had downloaded
- Everything backed up and synced, no issues here on my end

That all said, I am wondering if the iTunes Backup Lottery (http://www.macworld.com/article/134525/2008/07/iphonebackingup.html) may have come into play here for jahn, when I first got OmniFocus on my phone, it took three attempts to successfully back it up into iTunes.

I don't know how that played into hassler's use case.

Another follow-up question, are you both on Mac or Windows?

[hassler]

I'm on a Mac running 10.5.4

[jahn]

I'm on a Mac. I'm also working on doing a restore from my latest backup in the hopes that my data will be there.

[Joel]

Just chatted Ken up about this, and from what we can tell, if there's an issue here, it may in how the iPhone decides to update an application.

Whether it's a situation where the older app gets deleted first, and then updated or vice-versa.

Given that I have updated and successfully kept my database, I'm not too keen on believing the above.

The other option that popped up was the use of more than one Mac with iTunes onboard, where one version had the phone authorized and the other did not, and the update was performed on the latter.

Recommendation has been made to also contact Apple about this problem, it may be an issue with their installation tools, we're looking at it as well.

[jahn]

So what I'm hearing is that this problem likely comes from the way Apple updates apps and the data is shot unless Apple's flaky backup system worked? That has troubling implications for any iPhone application that stores mission critical data on the phone instead of in the cloud.

Thanks for investigating things on your end Joel. Also, is there any possibility of users being able to sync OmniFocus with MobileMe or a WebDAV server even if they don't have the desktop version?

[Joel]

Oh yes, you can still sync using just OmniFocus for iPhone, and treat it like a backup -- a "safety net" for all intents and purposes.

Just tap the Settings in the OmniFocus home screen, then set up synchronization there using iDisk or WebDAV.

[jen71]

i updated omnifocus via the phone on my EDGE phone, and it wiped out my existing databases. several hundred entries. needless to say, i am not a happy camper right now.

what gives?

[jen71]

Oh yes, you can still sync using just OmniFocus for iPhone, and treat it like a backup -- a "safety net" for all intents and purposes.

Just tap the Settings in the OmniFocus home screen, then set up synchronization there using iDisk or WebDAV.

sorry for the semi-cross-posting, but i'm getting frantic. what does this MEAN?

i don't have an iDisk, and i have no clue what a WebDAV server is. all i want is to back up my omnifocus data to my computer (and no, i don't have omnifocus for the desktop), so it doesn't all disappear the next time i install an update.

thanks.

[Lizard]

sorry for the semi-cross-posting, but i'm getting frantic. what does this MEAN?

i don't have an iDisk, and i have no clue what a WebDAV server is. all i want is to back up my omnifocus data to my computer (and no, i don't have omnifocus for the desktop), so it doesn't all disappear the next time i install an update.

thanks.

WebDAV is (approximately) a way of making files on a server accessible through Finder instead of just through a web browser. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV)

Although we created the WebDAV connectivity primarily for syncing, it has the convenient side effect of putting a copy of your data somewhere other than your phone, which means you can likely get your data back from there if something eats all the data on your phone.

While the setup is simplest with a .mac/MobileMe account, you can also set up WebDAV on your own Mac, if you're comfortable using tools like Terminal. Here are some of the clearest instructions for getting that going.
http://manas.tungare.name/blog/2008/07/10/howto-setup-webdav-on-mac-os-x-leopard-for-syncing-omnifocus-to-iphone/
After step 8, the screenshots refer to OmniFocus for the Mac, but you can use the settings pane in OmniFocus for the iPhone to do the same configurations.

[prutherford]

I'm on a PC. Standalone Omnifocus on iPhone...I love it. (When I purchase a Mac this will be the second application I purchase after TextMate). I updated through App Store (via badge notification of update). All of my data is now gone. I have a backup from yesterday that I can probably use, but I have been using heavily and will still be losing a day's worth of data if it works which is still a significant amount of data. My confidence is diminished a little, but I don't know who is responsible. Very frustrating. I do have MobileMe...is there a way to backup (sync) without a version of the Mac software?

-perry

(Update)
I just saw that you can indeed sync to MobileMe iDisk without having the Desktop Mac client...now have that level of backup protection. Thank you for that, but maybe that feature should be more thoroughly explained. Of course, maybe I'm the only one who didn't know that, but I doubt it. Anyway - lesson learned.

I still want to thank you for a wonderful iPhone app!

[Andrew]

Perry, you can sync OmniFocus for the iPhone/iPod touch to your iDisk (or a WebDAV-enabled web server, and in fact we use WebDAV for iDisk syncing) regardless of whether or not you have the desktop version of OmniFocus.

The benefit is that this gives you a backup that is off the device, in case anything happens to your data (such as apparently happened to you). It's also used here at Omni a decent bit to let us easily switch between different OmniFocus databases for testing purposes.

Since you have MobileMe, in OmniFocus go to the Settings screen, scroll down to the Synchronization section, choose iDisk, and fill in your MobileMe user name. (At some point you'll get prompted for your MobileMe password as well, but it's been a while since I did this and I don't remember exactly.) By default, it will set the path to "Documents" and it's easiest to just leave it at that. But if you have other things on your iDisk and want to stick your OmniFocus database in a subfolder, type that path here. (For instance: "Documents/iPhone".) Make sure that you have created the corresponding folder on your iDisk first - I don't think OmniFocus will create it for you, and you will receive an error when you try to sync if the folder doesn't exist.

-andrew

[prutherford]

Thank you very much Andrew. I updated my post just before you replied, but thank you for the quick response!

[MrMediaMan]

When I updated on 1.0.1, all my data that I inputed with Omnifocus 1.0 was wiped off my iPhone. A restore, which took two hours didn't bring the data back. It's gone, and it's going to take me hours to try to reconstruct it from memory, after I spent hours last week plugging all the data in. To be honest, I'm kind of ticked off right now. I thought this application was supposed to SAVE ME TIME!!! :(

I don't have a mac, so I had no way to back up the data on a PC. When an iPhone to-do app comes along that has a real sync with a PC, I plan to switch to that one. I'm extremely disappointed right now.

[Ken Case]

MrMediaMan, I'm sorry for your data loss! This isn't something OmniFocus does, so it's not something we can fix. It appears this is caused by a bug in the iPhone operating system, and can affect any iPhone application: so please report the issue to Apple so they can fix it.

That said, iTunes will back up the OmniFocus database when it backs up your other iPhone data; did you back up your phone after entering those tasks, and can you restore that backup to get them back?

Another approach you can use is to sync your data with a web server using the WebDAV protocol, so your data is safely stored outside of both the phone and iTunes. The easiest way to do this might be to sign up with Apple's Mobile Me (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/) service, but you can also sign up with other (less expensive) services such as BingoDisk (http://www.bingodisk.com/) or bluehost (http://www.bluehost.com/).

But just because syncing is a possible safety net doesn't mean the iPhone should have lost your data in the first place! Please remember to report that issue to Apple, so they can work with you to figure out what happened and how to fix it.

[Woofer]

Interesting. I upgraded to 1.01 (via iTunes) and was asked the same about the database. Now I have OF on my desktop and synced to MobileMe, so it was just a matter of resetting that link.

I feel bad for people who lost data.

Is there a future recommendation for upgrading? Update over the air only?

[MrMediaMan]

iPhone restore did not work. When I opened OmniFocus after a two hour restore, I was told there was no database on the phone and to either choose a sync or to start a new database.

Will those Web sync services work with a PC?

Are you guys at OmniFocus planning on adding a feature, where you can e-mail to-do entries/project to-do lists from the iPhone, like you can e-mail notes from the iPhone?

[al_f]

I had a slightly different issue: my data was still there, but after the update OF on the phone said it couldn't be synced to my iDisk as the database had reverted since the last sync. I knew the server version was up to date (had synced before updating), so I opted to use that instead of the local copy. On next sync with the desktop version, I got the same error message and opted to use the local copy (again, I had synced the desktop version with the server before updating the phone so I knew the desktop was up to date). On next sync with the phone, I was told that the database couldn't sync as it was incompatible. Opted to use copy on server, all is now (apparently) good.

I was reasonably confident through all this as I had synced everything and backed up the desktop database before running the update. It wasn't at all clear what the best practice was in each of the 3 scenarios above, however (i.e. whether to use server or local copy). Maybe a sticky on here or FAQ detailing that would be useful?

[AlexG]

I am NOT a happy guy right now. What was a great application that I used on an hourly basis is now going to give me a huge headache while I try to rewrite my data from memory, since I got rid of my post-it notes all over the place in order to use OmniFocus in the first place!

Similar situation as others on this thread. Updated on the iPhone this morning, and my database got wiped. Won't be home until after work to see if using a backup from iPhone will restore my database. Any idea where I can find that backup?? I don't want to click restore cuz that'll just reset my phone to factory settings if I'm not mistaken. Will start using iDisk from now on to back up my database. Any answer on how often this will back up to iDisk??

Thanks and I sure hope you guys resolve this issue