[moneydance] Backup file is newer

[Tom Metro]

Stan wrote:
> ...I've ended up with a popup message warning me that
> the backup file is newer than the one I'm trying to open.
> ...
> I'm also just a little fuzzy on how I end up here...

This is supposed to happen after a program crash, or any other time when 
Moneydance shuts down abruptly and doesn't get to save the file before 
exiting.

I seem to recall the preferences screen having a "save on exit" option, 
and I suppose if that wasn't enabled, you could trigger this by simply 
exiting without saving.

I've seen this dialog a few times myself, and haven't experienced any 
program crashes, so I wonder if there are some holes in the logic.

It'd be nice if Moneydance not only looked at the file time stamps, but 
also did a checksum of the files, and bypassed this dialog if the files 
were identical. (This might happen if you worked on Moneydance, saved 
your work, but left it running in the background. Some time later the 
computer crashes, requiring a reboot. You'll now have a backup that is 
newer, but identical.)

I'm not sure I've seen an explanation of the circumstances under which 
Moneydance creates backup files. I know there is an option somewhere to 
enable multiple backup files or to retain just the most recent backup. 
Are backups created when Moneydance autosaves? Or are they created only 
when the user explicitly saves? How about implicit saves that occur on exit?


> What I *want* to do is go back in time and not do what made this
> message pop up -- typically, this would be handled with some sort of
> "Cancel" option -- and leave all the data intact.  Invariably, no
> matter how much I try to figure out what to click on, it's the wrong
> thing, and I end up losing all the entries I've just made.

Maybe the wording is wrong on the dialog, as there really only needs to 
be two options. If you have two files: 1. the data file you are 
attempting to load, and 2. the backup file for that data file; you 
pretty much always want to load the newer of the two files.

Why wouldn't you want to load the newer file?

-If you believe the backup file is corrupt.

-If there's something wrong with your file system and the time stamp on 
your files (relative to each other) are incorrect.

-If you made some undesirable change to your data just prior to exiting, 
and intentionally chose not to save it.

Each of these scenarios should be very rare, with the last one being 
most likely, but also the one which you'd be most aware of.

Moneydance does seems to have some "workflow" problems with its file 
dialogs, and I did see a report on Trac of a situation where the 
prompting to save an already open file when trying to open another file 
happened at the wrong point.

Have you seen this "backup is newer" dialog appear in circumstances 
other than when you were starting the program or opening a new file?


> It's a bad enough result that I typically...make copies of all the MD
> data files...

When you do tell Moneydance to revert to the backup, it ought to rename 
the current file that's being replaced so that it appears as another 
backup file. I don't know if it does that, or if it destructively 
overwrites it.

  -Tom