Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
window shade (or whatever you call the slide-out drop-down)
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Officially, Apple calls it a sheet. But window shade is probably more descriptive.
I always like to know the correct terms and hoped you would let me know - thanks!
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
Much to my dismay, upon import (yes, import was AFTER the export as mentioned above), ALL the RECENTLY changed bookmarks (from the past 30-40 min of organizing) were gone from both the browser & BookMacster bookshelf. The new folders I created endured, but they were all empty
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Arghhh. This is probably the work of iCloud.
Good to know what's up and who's affecting things. Thanks.
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
My attempt to resolve: I used Time Machine to grab a pre-problem version of the bookshelf file and open it instead
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Since you have OS X Lion, there is a more modern and convenient method for reverting to old document versions, for applications which have adopted Lion's Auto Save and Versions feature. Click in the title bar of the window, just to the right of the title. Details here…
Good call, thanks. I'm a veteran with Time Machine but new into that feature of Lion. Thanks for the tip.
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
but it just kept reverting to the same as described above.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
This is probably because the document is configured to automatically import from Safari when it is opened. (That's another reason to use Lion's Versions Browser… BookMacster skips those automatic actions when restoring from Lion's Versions.)
Good to know, thanks.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
For now, you should probably disable Auto Import and Auto Export. Click the tool Settings ▸ Open/Save and then switch those two checkboxes OFF.
I stopped auto import but left the auto export. Especially right now as I'm only forcing changes OUT and not wanting anything IN. I think this is ok (?).
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
What worked: I used Time Machine to grab a pre-problem version … I denied all import requests.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Besides Auto Import when the document opens, you're also getting import requests from your BookMacster Agent, which are probably triggered by iCloud. Some days iCloud only pipes up when it changes are made from Safari, BookMacster or the cloud (another Mac or iOS device). Other days, it does so every 15 minutes, usually close to the quarter hour. Yesterday I noticed that it was on its 15-minute schtick.
Very interesting, thanks.
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
I changed the Settings:Clients to only Export to Safari & Chrome and NOT to import.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
OK, I was going to suggest that you switch off Agents, but switching off the Import checkboxes on all Clients switches off both automatic (Agents) Imports, as well as any manual imports. Starting in BookMacster 1.11, a new menu item BookMacster ▸ Stop Workers, Agents will turn off and shut down all Agents and their Works immediately.
that item in the menu is grayed out - which probably makes sense since I have nothing checked under Agents and only Export checked under clients.
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
I exported the desired structure using Command+U
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Good. Now the question: Is iCloud happy? Have another look…
- Activate Safari.
- Click in the menu: Bookmarks ▸ Show All Bookmarks
- Scroll to one of the trouble spots, where you were seeing empty folders, or whatever. Is it still OK?
- Activate BookMacster and Export (⌘U).
- The Show All Bookmarks display will go blank, then reappear after a few seconds.
- Verify that the bookmarks now appear as in BookMacster.
- Watch it carefully for 30 seconds or more. If things go bad, it means that iCloud didn't like what it saw, and downloaded the bad old stuff from the cloud.
- If things are OK, come back to Safari after 20 minutes, inspect Show All Bookmarks again and see if things are still OK.
If things look OK after 20 minutes, your changes have
stuck, and you're probably out of the woods. If not, repeat the export. iCloud can stubbornly keep pushing old items in particular, and I've seen repetition help to convince it that
I really mean it. I've seen it take 3 exports.
Yes, after the first re-do things were all fine.
I was wondering if it was picking up some age discrepancy thing (well, yes, perhaps iCloud did have some issue like that) but whatever, when making changes of the magnitude I am currently making I will take heed to let iCloud finish it's convulsions before importing
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
I will not attempt to do any importing for now. For now I will endeavor to keep the Bookmarkshelf as the only import source and for now will add bookmarks by BookMacterizing (maybe I should do this anyway?)
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
The BookMacsterize Bookmarklet still works, although in recent BookMacster versions the Status Menulet (Preferences ▸ General) and Anywhere Menu (Preferences ▸ Shortcuts) deserve a look because they allow you to visit bookmarks too, and add bookmarks immediately to a desired folder.
I love the BookMacsterize Bookmarklet and it's presence encourages me to operate MORE in the BookMacster environment.
And thanks to this prompt I am now (the last 5 min) using the Anywhere menu. Wow - that is awesome!
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Regarding importing, you'll need to import eventually if you ever add bookmarks from your iOS devices. iCloud will push them into Safari, but an import from Safari is necessary for them to be processed in BookMacster.
True. I will come back to thinking about that one ... I'm making SO many changes at this time that I don't want to risk another iCloud spaz-out yet
Clyde wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 9:58pm:
So it would seem that I have done something wrong (I configured something wrong, didn't wait long enough between export & import, etc). Ultimately I want as much automation as possible with bookmark syncing, and of course, I don't want to LOSE any of my organization time & bookmarks.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Well, I don't see anything you did wrong. Cleaning out iCloud before you got started was a good idea.
Good, thanks.
Jerry Krinock wrote on May 18
th, 2012 at 11:27pm:
Assuming that the problem is iCloud reverting to the bad old bookmarks, this can be caused by several things…
- BookMacster did not export in an iCloud-friendly way. This would be a bug in BookMacster. Although we've spent a lot of time on that, and no such bug is known, it's possible.
- iCloud was unhappy to begin with, for some reason. When iCloud is unhappy, it will repeatedly push old bookmarks and/or structure back from the cloud. This may not happen for 20 minutes. I think this is probably what happened after you were done yesterday.
- A bug in iCloud. Yup, these have been seen.
Let us know if you're able to get your changes to
stick in Safari, which means that iCloud is happy. Once iCloud is happily syncing, it will generally stay happy.
Great advice all around. Thanks very much for taking the time to give such a detailed reply!
Cheers,
Clyde