Queue database gets corrupted

bgallo1725

Downloading some files (Software this time) corrupts queue database file in
/Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp which cause Usenapp to crash as unable to load queue database file.
I have started to manually duplicate the /Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp folder (before adding any new files to queue) to a backup that works in case a newly added file corrupts the queue.
This saves having to repopulate the queue manually with file downloads to pre-crash state. Just delete the corrupted Usenapp folder in /Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp and rename the (/Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp copy) backup folder to /Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp again. Usenapp should restart fine again.

Andre, perhaps you can add a feature to preferences that can be selected to automate this, by automatically duplicating the file folder up to three generations, auto delete older generations, and have a schedule feature like every hour or before adding new files to download to queue.

Andre

I will see what is possible, but it is strange that your queue file keeps getting corrupted.

bgallo1725

I agree. It is strange. Perhaps my security program (Avira Security) detects a virus is being downloaded/prefetched and somehow modifies the queue file which Usenapp doesn’t like. Or a disk read/write error corrupts the file. Or OS 14 finder doesn’t read/write to Usenapp properly certain files. Who knows. It has happened at least 4 times now so something(s) is causing it. It would be interesting to see if anyone else has encountered similar behavior. I will continue to monitor this to see if a cause can be isolated and let you know.
The auto backup is still a good feature add.

bgallo1725

I have set an automated job in Carbon Copy to automatically backup the /Users/“user”/Library/Application Support/Usenapp folder every hour as well.

This entry may be good for the Tutorial Discussion thread to start the Manual Wiki.

bgallo1725

Have discovered something that might be at root of this bug. When using smart folders to distribute completed files to external drives, if the target drive is not present Usenapp will shutdown and fail to restart as if the queue database is corrupted. When replacing the missing target drive to the desktop, Usenapp will restart as normal and show the queue as normal and continue to process the queue. It had hung at the files that were labeled with smart folder to move to the missing target drive.

Perhaps an additional step is needed to verify the presence of any disc selected as target disk in queue would solve this and a warning popup with required action to solve it.

Andre

Thank you for the info. I’ll see what can be done about it.

bgallo1725

You are welcome and I hope this helps.
Usenapp is working great otherwise. I recommend it to anyone I speak to regarding Usenet.