frontiercdk
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2013
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 9
Hey guys,
I want to start by saying I do love Beersmith. I am just posting this in case anyone else has data loss issues in BS3. I found only one solution for this, but is was for a mac. I run Windows, and could find nothing for windows users. I have been using BS2 for ever and recently downloaded the BS3 trial. I imported my files from BS2 and began working on one of those recipes for my next brew. Everything went well for a couple days, then I went to open BS3 and got the message "another copy may be running" after messing around with closing and re-closing the program I checked with task manager and confirmed BS3 was not running. I then started BS3 and bypassed the "another copy may be running" error message and started BS3. I was horrified to find most of my recipes were gone. Just a few recipes remained.
I restored them and emailed Brad. We worked though several emails. His only guidance was that one person had the same issue and Microsoft OneDrive had been the cause. I do not have OneDrive on this computer, so that was not it. I was at a dead end with the issue.
I took it upon my self to find what caused the issue. So, after hours of running all kinds of scenarios I found the what caused the issue. Here it is:
Closing BS then quickly shutting down the computer.
When you close BS3 it continues running for a while until it finishes writing out all its files (your data).
I think almost everyone has seen the message windows gives you when shut down your computer and there is stubborn program still running. It says something like "waiting on a program to close.. force shutdown?" If you don't force shutdown Windows waits for the program to finish up and close before shutting down the computer (all is well). Well, apparently BS3 and Windows don't like each other at this point in their relationship and windows closes before BS3 has time to finish writing out its files (your data). This results in you losing your data. Usually, but not always the next time I start the computer and opened beer smith I get the "another copy may be running" error message. I don't get it every time, but mostly. When I do get it, it is false (BS3 is not running) and the only way to start BS3 is to bypass the message and open it anyway. Whether I get this message or not I lose data every time.
The scary thing is, the amount of data lost varies by how long windows allows BS3 to run before shutting down. I lose anywhere from one recipe to almost all of them (there are a lot) and it is not always the latest recipe I am working on. This means there could be a lot of people that have lost an old recipe or two here and there and don't even know!!!!
I gave Brad the information and he may look at putting some kind of delay icon (hourglass) that indicates BS3 is running until the write out of the file is complete, so you will know when it is safe to shut down your computer.
Until then it is a good idea to hit the old CNTR+ALT+DEL and check task manager to confirm BS3 is completely closed before shutting down you computer. If y'all are having this issue , or mysteriously have lost some old recipes, you may want to give brad a hollar so the fix doesn't get pushed back.
Hope this helps someone.
My computer spec is:
Toshiba NB 505 LAPTOP
Intell Atom processor NA455 1.66GHz
2 gig ram
Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
She is old and pretty slow, but works great for small programs like BS2/BS3.
I want to start by saying I do love Beersmith. I am just posting this in case anyone else has data loss issues in BS3. I found only one solution for this, but is was for a mac. I run Windows, and could find nothing for windows users. I have been using BS2 for ever and recently downloaded the BS3 trial. I imported my files from BS2 and began working on one of those recipes for my next brew. Everything went well for a couple days, then I went to open BS3 and got the message "another copy may be running" after messing around with closing and re-closing the program I checked with task manager and confirmed BS3 was not running. I then started BS3 and bypassed the "another copy may be running" error message and started BS3. I was horrified to find most of my recipes were gone. Just a few recipes remained.
I restored them and emailed Brad. We worked though several emails. His only guidance was that one person had the same issue and Microsoft OneDrive had been the cause. I do not have OneDrive on this computer, so that was not it. I was at a dead end with the issue.
I took it upon my self to find what caused the issue. So, after hours of running all kinds of scenarios I found the what caused the issue. Here it is:
Closing BS then quickly shutting down the computer.
When you close BS3 it continues running for a while until it finishes writing out all its files (your data).
I think almost everyone has seen the message windows gives you when shut down your computer and there is stubborn program still running. It says something like "waiting on a program to close.. force shutdown?" If you don't force shutdown Windows waits for the program to finish up and close before shutting down the computer (all is well). Well, apparently BS3 and Windows don't like each other at this point in their relationship and windows closes before BS3 has time to finish writing out its files (your data). This results in you losing your data. Usually, but not always the next time I start the computer and opened beer smith I get the "another copy may be running" error message. I don't get it every time, but mostly. When I do get it, it is false (BS3 is not running) and the only way to start BS3 is to bypass the message and open it anyway. Whether I get this message or not I lose data every time.
The scary thing is, the amount of data lost varies by how long windows allows BS3 to run before shutting down. I lose anywhere from one recipe to almost all of them (there are a lot) and it is not always the latest recipe I am working on. This means there could be a lot of people that have lost an old recipe or two here and there and don't even know!!!!
I gave Brad the information and he may look at putting some kind of delay icon (hourglass) that indicates BS3 is running until the write out of the file is complete, so you will know when it is safe to shut down your computer.
Until then it is a good idea to hit the old CNTR+ALT+DEL and check task manager to confirm BS3 is completely closed before shutting down you computer. If y'all are having this issue , or mysteriously have lost some old recipes, you may want to give brad a hollar so the fix doesn't get pushed back.
Hope this helps someone.
My computer spec is:
Toshiba NB 505 LAPTOP
Intell Atom processor NA455 1.66GHz
2 gig ram
Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
She is old and pretty slow, but works great for small programs like BS2/BS3.
Last edited:
Really happy Brad releases Beersmith natively for Linux. My only gripe is he often takes foreeeeever to fix bugs or design issues mainly cause, as he put it, he spends most his time working on the mobile app.
