Bug: HomeManage 2020 install process deletes your data file and images

[dealio]

Following the directions on the install process, I upgraded HM2019 to HM2020 by supplying the same directory information for the 2020 upgrade as I was using for the 2019 version. The application installed into the old program directory with no issues. However the installation process deleted my Assets.mdb data file and all images in my AssetImages folder and replaced both with the stock demo Assets.mdb data file and the accompanying 2 images. This is an outrageous upgrade process! This would have been DISASTROUS has I not had backups of the data file and the images available through Windows 10 recovery. When I pointed the installation to the old program directory, it read the Assets.mdb file to find the location of the Data, AssetImages, and Reports directories, automatically filled them into the appropriate installation fields, then happily deleted everything in those folders with no warning or notification. It's just inconceivable that the installation process would go through the trouble of reading the old Assets.mdb file to determine the old file locations, to then delete all of them!!

I also find that no images appear in the main window next to the AssetNum. field like they use to. Dunno what happened to them -- even with the black bars that use to plague those images, they were still helpful in identifying assets quickly by image. Is this a bug? It appears so. In version 2019, the exact same data setup had no issue with the images displaying in the main window.

Hoping I don't regret this upgrade, but I'm already headed in that direction.

David

[admin]

Hi, there is no code in the install program that would delete image files or delete the assets.mdb file.  Is it possible those files are still in another folder?  that is usually the case when we remote to a user's computer.

We just had many people upgrade to version 2020 in the last few weeks, there was a couple issues like this but the data file and images were in another folder.

For customers who already have 2020, we have put up a new update last night.  Select:

HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES

from the main menu.

Regarding the thumbnail images.  If you select:

TOOLS  > CREATE THUMBNAILS FOR ALL IMAGES

then exit and restart the program does the problem continue

[dealio]

On 5/14/2020 at 2:05 PM, admin said:

Hi, there is no code in the install program that would delete image files or delete the assets.mdb file.  Is it possible those files are still in another folder?  that is usually the case when we remote to a user's computer.

Another folder? I didn't look an any other folders -- I had no reason to. Which other folder should I look in? And how are you thinking the files moved? I didn't manually move them. The way I recovered the data was using Windows Previous Version facility.

We just had many people upgrade to version 2020 in the last few weeks, there was a couple issues like this but the data file and images were in another folder.

For customers who already have 2020, we have put up a new update last night.  Select:

HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES

from the main menu.

I followed these instructions and got a surprising result. The update program downloaded and ran. On the Welcome dialog, the version is from May 14, 2020 (build 20.0.0.8). The oddity is that the version on my machine (Help/About) is build 20.0.0.10. So either the update process doesn't recognize that I have a more recent version already installed, or there's something strange with the version numbers. Should I "upgrade" or not?

Regarding the thumbnail images.  If you select:

TOOLS  > CREATE THUMBNAILS FOR ALL IMAGES

then exit and restart the program does the problem continue

Yes this process works, and I did it. But I have never had to do this in previous upgrades. Something is amiss. I decided not to use it because the thumbnails it creates are very low quality. If there's any text in the picture, it's a challenge to read if possible at all, and the blotchiness (.jpg artifacts) is really ugly in many cases. I just copied the original image to the thumbnail image's name and that fixed image quality. I prefer to have a clear picture show in the interface and will sacrifice any speed gains that the low quality thumbnails provide for it.

Thanks

David

 

[dealio]

On 5/14/2020 at 2:05 PM, admin said:

Hi, there is no code in the install program that would delete image files or delete the assets.mdb file.

I've been wondering about that.

I learned a bit more about the circumstances that may have contributed to this because it happened a second time on my laptop, where I had HomeManage 2018 installed -- all my image files deleted and my assets.mdb file overlaid with the default assets.mdb file!

So I have a question. What will the installation program do in this scenario below:

What happens if upon installation of HomeManage 2020 on a machine that has HomeManage 2018 already installed I choose NOT to have the application installed in the existing program folder (the existing program folder is called HomeManage 2018, so installing HomeManage 2020 into that folder seems like it could cause confusion down the road). Instead I allow the application to install in a new program folder called HomeManage 2020 on the same drive. I noticed that the 2020 installation application read all of my 2018 folder locations -- they were prepopulated into the corresponding folder locations in the installation program. The only folder location that was different was the program folder, which I allowed to remain HomeManage 2020. I proceeded with the install which ran to completion without error and without pause to ask me if I wanted to overwrite any files. It was after the installation was completed that I learned that yet again, it had deleted all my images and my assets.mdb file.

In this scenario, does the installation program check for the existence of an assets.mdb file before it attempts to create the default assets.mdb file? I suspect it does not. If it does not, then creation of the default assets.mdb file would clobber any existing file with the same name in the target folder. That would explain how my file got deleted. Not sure how the image files would have been deleted, but they were deleted. I had to restore them in their original folder to get them back.

TIA
David