Repeated data loss

[larsolino]

I use Zavala with iCloud Drive and really like the app — it does what I want. After having corrupted data and data loss a few times, I have to abandon it. It's also not an option to back up every single tree by hand all the time. I am unable to reproduce the problem, it seems to happen randomly. After losing data on the Mac App, the iOS version once was able to restore them — but not recently. It's the worst bug you can imagine. Too bad as there seems no other option that is not overkill for having a few lists.

[larsolino]

I also tried to store some lists outside iCloud Drive. But I think I also had the same problem, and the tool is a lot less useful when setting it up like this.

[vincode-io]

Thanks for reporting this bug. I understand that data loss bugs are completely unacceptable. Anything you could tell me about how you use Zavala or what you think may trigger this to happen would be greatly appreciated.

[larsolino]

The problem is that I really have no clue how to reproduce it. I assume that the issue is the macOS version and maybe iCloud. But now it happened around 5 times. I moved the lists to the “On my Mac" section, but then it's not that useful anymore. The iOS app did resolve the issue two or three times, but not recently. I created a backup after the first crash but as there is no possibility to save all the data at once, it is too much work. I have no other app using iCloud drive that ever had a similar issue. The only hint is to examine this “should I fix the corrupted” data message and then find out what could have caused it. I moved the rest of the data to Obsidian now, which has a similar setup but is stable.

[vincode-io]

@larsolino Release 3.3.1 has a couple of fixes that should help with iCloud syncing corruption. I have no idea if your issue has been resolved as neither of us knows how to recreate what happened.

If you could try to test with an Outline that is non-critical by just doing what you normally do, I would greatly appreciate it. Even if you don't see a pattern in what you are doing, at least we might find out if there is still an unknown data corruption bug.

A few things to look for. Are you frequently disconnected from the internet while editing Outlines? For some reason, do your devices go long times between syncs (maybe they are turned off)? Do you do a lot of row reordering on one or more disconnected devices that may contradict each other?