MLO Desktop deletes data on sync with no explanation

[Joel Azaria]

This is now apparently the 3rd time in about 2 or three months that MLO has just indiscriminately deleted a whole branch of folders and tasks.  For whatever reason it seems to keep eating the same branch though not at every sync but rather at random times.  I'm thankful to have the know-how and tools to merge/recover from these disasters (the first time it happened we went DAYS without it being detected).  I have no idea if it's eating other data (and I hope it isn't but there's just no way to know.)

For reference here's my setup:

MLO 4.3.3 Pro on mine and my assistant's machines.

I share two branches (my Inbox and a Biz tasks branch) from my MLO file to a network share on a NAS

She in turn sync both of those branches into here MLO file.  She does not use MLO for herself and has no data beyond these two branches

I also use MLO v2 on my Android and WiFi sync.

The data that keeps getting eaten is a structure of folders in my Inbox called Speedbox which has a number of folders within (about 12 presently) some of which have tasks within (probably in the 20 or 30 range presently)

On a number of occasions so far my assistant hits sync (F9) and like magic the whole Speedbox disappears.  The first time it happened it took a bunch of tasks that were in the Inbox (but not the Speedbox) with it but this last(3rd) time it didn't appear to.  I don't remember the details of the second time as I was too busy to even write it up and we caught it immediately so just rolled back to a backup.  I don't know what this thing is doing, it just deletes the whole structure without warning, without indication.  They are not conflicts they are just deleted inexplicably.  This first two times there was no conflict dialog at all.  This last time a conflict dialog appeared but  showing only 6 tasks.  None of these tasks were included in the deletion and pretty sure it's just a coincidence.  Since I've gotten decently proficient at dealing with this already, I had saved copies of my file so I tried the conflict resolution multiple ways (remote overwrites local, local over remote, mixed as by default) all ended up eating the Speedbox and in each case it doesn't look like the conflicted tasks even had anything to do with it.  I think it's just coincidental.

So what I can't figure out is just wth is going on here?  Why does MLO just eat this whole structure without any warning.  I'm copying this post as an email to tech support and the email will have my logs attached.  From my (not very informed) reading of the logs I see no trigger, just that the tasks are being deleted.   It's getting ridiculous.

I've resolved it (for now) by opening a backup, saving it as an .ml, changing bidi sync to local overwrites remote, syncing, then syncing that down to my assistant's machine.  Then a full resynch on her machine then switch me back to bidi and full resync on my end then a sync of MLO-A.  Then I tried a various smattering of syncs on all 3 devices to ensure it's good, which it is, for now.  Doubtless the problem will return as it already has twice before.

If anyone has any thoughts, ideas or has experienced this before I want to hear from you please.

J.

Below/attached is a screencap of the conflict resolution dialog with the default suggestions.  As above, no matter the combo here MLO still eats my Speedbox.

[Joel Azaria]

So, 24+ hours later and no reply from support.  Not on this board and no response to my email.  Now what?

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Hi Joel,

First of all I understand your concern and will try to help. Thank you for such detailed explanation. 

I see that you have quite complex setup. You sync two branches to other files located on a network drive and wifi sync to Android. It requires time for analysis considering 1.5 Mb of log you sent to me. Besides it is difficult to understand the full picture without having the same setup locally.

From the logs you sent to support and the the screenshot I see the following:

1. There are several times in December when MLO could NOT access your file on a network drive and as a result could not sync.

2. There are 5 times in January when MLO has been terminated unexpectedly

3. In the conflict screenshot I see that some tasks are changing parents. I do not see if these tasks are in Inbox and do not know if it is master of slave desktop.

In theory such cases may cause the issues you described. 

Here are some ideas which may help us to understand together what happened:

1. When you use branch sync the tasks which are moved out of this branch on one desktop are deleted on other desktop.   

2. Inbox is a special folder which is used for different purposes by MLO. For example it is used to move conflicted tasks to it when you add a task on one end to a parent which was deleted on other end and sync. If you add here the branch sync it complicates the process. If you add here wifi sync to Android it complicates the process even more.

Here are only my initial thoughts after analysis of what I have at hand now. I will ask you via email more specific questions to understand all the details of your setup. 

Thanks,

Andrey.

[Roberto Penzo]

I wish only remember that I am experimenting a minor problem still alive: if I create a task with a name length longer that 255 characters, the exceeding characters are deleted at the first sync action.
What is strange is that this behavior had a exception: at my first synchronization on the first days of last December, date when I bought the Cloud service and Android V pro on 30 trial days, I successfully synced the old Android data (free MLO Android v1) that contained some tasks with names longer that 255 characters, and I found them on MLO Pro desktop with original names, not trimmed.
If necessary I can send more details.

[Joel Azaria]

Robert,

The issue you describe is different and sounds completely unrelated to this one.  I suggest you start another discussion/thread so that your issue can be seen and doesn't get confused in this one.

[Roberto Penzo]

Ok.

[Joel Azaria]

You have logs from all three machines now.  My machine was sent immediately, you have android logs sent a few days ago via the app and today I sent you logs from my assistant's (slave) machine.  Please advise asap thank you.

[Joel Azaria]

Andrey,

Can you please confirm that you have received the logs from all three devices?  I did not get a reply to my last email.

Thank you.

On Friday, February 5, 2016 at 2:18:05 AM UTC-5, Andrey Tkachuk (MLO) wrote:

[Joel Azaria]

Please confirm receipt of logs and is there any status update?  It's now 6 days since I've provided logs and I've heard nothing back.

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Joel,

Yes I received the logs and analyzed the problem. I have started discussion in the beta forum, since the issue is not easy  - please join there.

Thank you for the detailed information. 

Andrey