Help - Homewave changes not saving

[jamac]

I've got a frustrating problem. I'm using Homewave on an ipad as my home automation front end. I am using version 2.4 and have 11 control panels.

Sometimes when i start Homewave it will revert back to a prior version of my GUI and all of the changes that I've made have 'disappreared'. Often I will have lost several iterations on changes (ie, not just the most recent changes). I'm vigilant in saving my changes and the configuration as I go. However, when I load the configuration - it's not the latest version either!

Something is definitely no quite right!

Has anyone seen similar behavior?

[mda]

Perhaps try saving the config to Dropbox, deleting HomeWave, installing HomeWave again from the App Store, and loading the configuration back in?

[jamac]

Thanks.

Some further information. I received a message from Datamine earlier today that my Vera had restarted and that i should reload the graphing GUI. When I did that Datamine was showing that I only had 2 graph channels rather than ~19.

So... I suspect something is causing my Vera to crash and restart, which is then causing certain plugins (eg, Homewave and Datamine) to lose configuration data.

I'll do some more investigating...

[intveltr]

A crashing Vera should not affect the configuration of HomeWave!  When you save your changes, does the app crash at all? 

The advice to save a good config to Dropbox is a good one, just in case...

[jamac]

The app doesn't crash and the changes appears to save (ie, I can close the app and open it a number of times and the changes are still 'there'). But then I'll open the app again - often several days later - and it has reverted to an old configuration.

Vera support cleared some cache files and suggested that I delete a couple of plugins, which I've done. But the configuration file is saved on the ipad (or dropbox) not the Vera so this 'housekeeping' won't fix the issue.

I also saved the configuration to dropbox, deleted the app, reinstalled it and re-loaded the configuration. This worked but didn't solve the problem.

I've resorted to religiously saving the configuration to both the ipad and dropbox. This has limited the impact of the issue but I'm still losing changes.

Not sure if its relevant but I have quite a complex configuration with 11 control screens - lots of dimmer sliders and on/off buttons and quite a few web tiles.

[intveltr]

11 Screens is by no means at the limit of what the app can handle.  I've looked into this issue further, but I haven't found anything that could cause this.  I've also not have anyone else report this bug.

Have you lost changes after saving and reloading a config from Dropbox?

[jamac]

Thanks for looking into this.

Yes, it's happened a couple of times since I started saving the configuration file to dropbox.

I'm trying to establishing if there is a pattern. I'll report back if I notice anything.

[jamac]

Reviving this thread as I'm still having problems saving my configuration files.

I have Homewave installed on two different ipads (a dedicated HA ipad and a development ipad) and am seeing the same behaviour on both, ie, 'save configuration' does not save the current configuration properly (to the ipad or dropbox) resulting in a 'load configuration' uploading an old configuration file.

A recent example:

• I made some changed on the development ipad and saved the configuration file to dropbox
• then I tried to upload that configuration file to the HA ipad - although I could see then new configuration file in dropbox but when I uploaded it I received an old configuration
• I went back to the dev ipad a number of times and re-saved the configuration file but could never get it to save the current configuration (ie, the configuration I could see on the dev ipad)
• finally I shut down HomeWave on the dev ipad and restarted it and it reverted back to the previous configuration (ie, the configuration I was seeing on the HA ipad)

I've seen the same behavior on both iPads and have deleted and reinstalled Homewave on both devices a couple of times but continue to have this problem.

Has anyone seen similar behavior? Any tips?

[intveltr]

Does anyone else have this issue?  I have tried to reproduce it but no lock so far.

[jamac]

The configuration file seems to be saving ok right now but this problem recurs periodically.

I've also noticed the following behaviour, which might be related:

• press spanner icon enter edit mode, select a control panel for editing, press spanner icon to edit the control panel
• scroll down to the bottom of the editing screen and 'select save control panel'
• enter a unique filename and press 'save' - Homewave immediately crashes
• However, if I restart Homewave, return to the control panel editing screen and select 'load control panel' I can see that the file saved (ie, I can see the unique filename)
• If I load that control panel file, it appears to be ok (ie, it seems to have saved properly despite the crash).

Related?

[intveltr]

Probably not related, but I'll look into it

[sk1.publicc]

Does anyone else have this issue?  I have tried to reproduce it but no lock so far.

I've been setting up a lot of new control panels on some iPads recently and have been absolutely plagued by this issue.  Sometimes I've lost an entire hour of configuration work. 
I save the new panel, navigate into it and back to other panels... everything appears to be fine.  But if I then force close the app (via iOS) and then start it again - the panel update is completely gone.
The most frustrating thing is that I cannot predict when it will happen.  Sometimes the changes are retained without issue.  I just can't see a pattern to it.

To limit the impact of it happening, I've found that if I keep my changes to small chunks of work, save the config regularly (from the layout editor), navigate to a different control panel and then force close the app there... most of the time that chunk of work is retained.  Maybe it's an unnecessary ritual given I don't know what the actual cause is, but it gets me through.   I'm running v2.9 of the app.

[intveltr]

I've been setting up a lot of new control panels on some iPads recently and have been absolutely plagued by this issue.  Sometimes I've lost an entire hour of configuration work. 
I save the new panel, navigate into it and back to other panels... everything appears to be fine.  But if I then force close the app (via iOS) and then start it again - the panel update is completely gone.
The most frustrating thing is that I cannot predict when it will happen.  Sometimes the changes are retained without issue.  I just can't see a pattern to it.

To limit the impact of it happening, I've found that if I keep my changes to small chunks of work, save the config regularly (from the layout editor), navigate to a different control panel and then force close the app there... most of the time that chunk of work is retained.  Maybe it's an unnecessary ritual given I don't know what the actual cause is, but it gets me through.   I'm running v2.9 of the app.

How old were the setups on those iPads?  Have you been using HomeWave for a long time (several versions) on the devices? 

I may have tracked this down to a bug having to do with older configuration files.  What you could try is:
- Save your current configuration to a file on your iPad (Settings->Files->Save Configuration)
- Clear the current config (Settings->Files->Clear all settings)
- Reload the configuration you saved earlier.

This will hopefully get rid of the legacy stuff in the config file, so that the problem no longer occurs.

Edit: if you use one device for creating screens that you use on aother device, do this on both devices.

[sk1.publicc]

How old were the setups on those iPads?  Have you been using HomeWave for a long time (several versions) on the devices? 
\\.....\\

This will hopefully get rid of the legacy stuff in the config file, so that the problem no longer occurs.

Edit: if you use one device for creating screens that you use on aother device, do this on both devices.

The original configs were from 18mths ago and I have been building upon them ever since (so I'd say they probably do have some legacy stuff in them).  I'll try the steps you've suggested and let you know what happens later this week.