[Toadling]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

P.P.S. — If you're debugging this, it would help to know what clears it up. I know that relaunching the app does, and it seems likely that rebuilding the database (with File->Rebuild Database) does, but does it also start working properly if you close the window and reopen it? Or if you switch view modes?

I ran into this issue again last night. I had several items due next Friday at 5:00 PM. My "Due Soon is in the next:" preference was set to "week".

At around 7:00 PM yesterday (Friday), only one of the items due at 5:00 PM next Friday was colored orange. All the others were still colored blue (SAL tasks).

I tried closing and reopening the window and changing perspectives. Neither updated the tasks. Finally, I relaunched OmniFocus and the coloring was corrected.

Unfortunately, I did not try rebuilding the database and didn't have the debugging preference enable. I wish I had read this thread first. :-(

But I've got debugging enable now and will try rebuilding the database if I see this issue again.

-Dennis

PS - I caught a screenshot of the problem if anyone in support wants to see it. There's really not much to see though, just a couple of obviously mis-colored actions and one properly colored action, all with the same due date and time.

[dsoyzan]

This is biting me as well. Thanks to everyone for pointing the quick and dirty restart OF solution. I look forward to the proper fix arriving.

[wolfneuralnet]

This bug is actually worse than I realized. Since I have two computers that I am syncing, and both sleep overnight, I have to restart OF on BOTH machines in order to get the proper items to show up under the "Due or Flagged View".

Not only that, but when things have gone awry, presumably with the timers, they do not fix themselves, even if another time point that should trigger a change is crossed (i.e. the due time is passed). Items that should be added to the view, are NOT added.

For example, if I have closed my MacBook overnight, and forget to restart OF in the morning, and cross my 7PM boundary for Due Items, new tasks from the next day (next 24hr period) that should be added to the list are NOT added to the due or flagged. Its as if once the timers are off, they do not update that view anymore with new tasks.

I can't understand how this is not a problem for more people, or maybe most people don't have this view set up so that its noticeable.

I am not sure how this is not reproducible easily at Omni -- it happens every day to me on two machines. Perhaps a test machine can be put to sleep every night in order to see what is causing this.

[whpalmer4]

What are your complete view bar settings in the view(s) where you have this problem? I do grouping by Due, actions Due Soon for my views where I'm looking at due dates, and I don't believe I've ever seen the behavior you report, though there are certainly plenty of candidates and opportunities! My machine gets put to sleep frequently (it's a laptop that I carry nearly everywhere), and I tend to keep a couple of windows open (including that Due Soon window -- the Due (soon) or Flagged view tends to be more transient in my usage).

If this really is so easily reproducible for you, why not do this: set your OmniFocus backup prefs to save a copy of the database whenever you quit. Then, before turning in for the night, quit OmniFocus. Make a zip archive of your OmniFocus preferences file and the database backup. Now restart OmniFocus and let your computer go to sleep in the normal fashion. If in the morning you find that it hasn't updated correctly, you can provide the zip archive to the support ninjas, and they can use them to reproduce your environment on a machine that has had the clock dialed back to the timestamp on the backup file.

What is your setting for "Due Soon"? I don't think your default due time setting (7PM) should influence when OmniFocus scans to add new items to the due lists, because it needs to do that work on an item by item basis as each action could have a completely different setting for due time.

[wolfneuralnet]

I have been told by support now that they are aware of the issue and are working on it, but that they are not sure when it will be addressed. Clearly it is affecting a number of users based on the posts here.

@wh -- Your post suggests that not everyone is having this problem, which is interesting. Perhaps it is some combination of software I have on my machines that is interfering with the timers, etc. I don't have any haxies, etc. installed though, just standard stuff.

Support hasn't asked me for anything like what you have suggested -- I am happy to do this if they think it will help diagnose the issue. I try not to bombard them with info unless they ask for it.

-- Ken -- would what he suggests be helpful in figuring this out?

Regarding the view settings -- it doesn't actually matter which view I am in, now that I have looked at it again. When this happens, the labels don't change (due today or tomorrow) on the current tasks, and the windows that use Due in any fashion don't show the new "due in 24 hours" tasks.

Let me know if this answers your questions -- glad this bug isn't affecting everyone.

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by wolfneuralnet

-- Ken -- would what he suggests be helpful in figuring this out?

If anyone can figure out a consistent recipe which we can follow to reproduce the problem, that would be very helpful and by following the recipe here we should be able to track down the problem very quickly. (So if Bill's suggestion results in that sort of consistent recipe, then yes, we'd love to see it!)

But even if you haven't been able to figure out a consistent recipe, it would help to enable our schedule debugging logs (as described in my earlier post) and send us console output covering the period where something should have come due but didn't. (That way we can see if the problem lies in the scheduling code itself or somewhere totally different.)

[Toadling]

This issues seems very sporadic, at least for me. Last week, I saw it occur two days in a row. But since then, I haven't seen it once (and I use OmniFocus *a lot*). I have the debugging preference enabled now, so maybe the problem will crop up again and I'll get some useful info for the Omni folks.

Possibly related observation: When I saw the problem occur last week, I had just changed my "Due soon is in the next:" setting from "3 days" to "week". The problem popped up a few hours after the change. Since then, I've gone back to using a setting of "3 days" and I haven't seen the problem since.

It could just be coincidence, but maybe it's a clue. What settings do you guys use?

-Dennis

[wolfneuralnet]

I have turned on the debugging, and will forward the logs when it happens again. When I get a chance I will try Bill's suggestion as well, since it seems to happen most consistently to me.

I use 24 hrs as my due soon timeframe, so that doesn't seem to be it.

[wolfneuralnet]

OK -- have forwarded logs and screenshots of the problem to the devs.

There didn't appear to be any timers fired when the machine was woken from sleep -- they didn't fire until the app was restarted. The only thing I could see from the logs was that the initial sync didn't work because it started before my machine had fully joined the wireless network, but I don't know whether that is related.

[wolfneuralnet]

Has there been any progress on this issue since I sent the logs and screenshots in? I never heard back from support on this. Thanks!