Exporting to GEDCOM freezes - version 2.9.3

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zegor
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Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 9:56 am
Location: Menlo Park, CA

Exporting to GEDCOM freezes - version 2.9.3

Post by zegor » Sun Jan 01, 2017 6:46 am

When I export my database to GEDCOM it freezes after writing some 2.6 MB or so. I suspect the database has been corrupted somehow, since it worked just fine earlier today.

The major change was that I cleaned up the sources part of the database (lots of duplicates), and (now feeling stupid) did not back up the database prior to starting on that task.

The (partial) GEDCOM file resulting from attempt to export is not usable - lots of missing links. Rolling it back to the previous version of the DB would be painful - I did a lot of minor updates to the data today and would hate to have to recreate the tasks and then to execute them.

Is there any way to un diagnostics on the database to identify the problem and (possibly) fix whatever is broken?

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Warwick Wilson
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Re: Exporting to GEDCOM freezes - version 2.9.3

Post by Warwick Wilson » Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:16 pm

zegor wrote:When I export my database to GEDCOM it freezes after writing some 2.6 MB or so. I suspect the database has been corrupted somehow, since it worked just fine earlier today.

The major change was that I cleaned up the sources part of the database (lots of duplicates), and (now feeling stupid) did not back up the database prior to starting on that task.

The (partial) GEDCOM file resulting from attempt to export is not usable - lots of missing links. Rolling it back to the previous version of the DB would be painful - I did a lot of minor updates to the data today and would hate to have to recreate the tasks and then to execute them.

Is there any way to un diagnostics on the database to identify the problem and (possibly) fix whatever is broken?
Hi zegor,

I am aware of a bug when merging sources which can leave empty links in the database. Sometimes when a source is deleted/merged, the person object will still be referencing the source id which no longer exists. This confuses the logic implemented in the gedcom exporter resulting in the hang.

There is a workaround in place in the latest version, V2.9.4 which will prevent the gedcom exporter from crashing. Please download and install it from the following forum topic and try exporting again:

http://www.ifamilyformac.com/forums/vie ... =11&t=1154

There is still the problem of the orphaned links in the database, but they are ignored for the moment. I will address this in next update.

Let me know how you go.

ww.

SuF
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Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:43 pm

Re: Exporting to GEDCOM freezes - version 2.9.3

Post by SuF » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:13 pm

Alas, version 2.9.4 hasn't fixed the problem for me HOWEVER the clue that the problem lies with 'lost' sources after merging / cleaning up has enabled me track down the problem records.

****
First, I run the export-to-gedcom: when it 'sticks', I open the resulting partial gedcom in a simple text editor and work upwards from the last line till I find the ID of the last person it wrote - the line will look something like
0 @IC613@ _CMTS
- which means that the person with ID 613 is OK but the NEXT person has a missing source.

Meanwhile, I force-quit and restart iFamily.

I then click Index and put the next ID - in this case 614 - in the ID= box (or I could sort the index by ID and scroll to the right place, if there are missing entries)

Double-click to open the 'problem' person, then click on the Sources tab. BINGO!!! The first (or more!) line of sources will have no number.

Most times, the attached note tells me what the source should be (e.g. 1881 census): I can then copy that note into a new reference for the 'problem' event - but that's not part of the solution, just me trying not to lose information :) .

I then got back to the Sources tab and click to select the faulty source line then click the - [minus] button in the bottom left corner to delete the beastly thing.

Repeat from **** as many times as necessary (each time the 'problem' person will be a higher ID number - hurrah!!) ... which in my case is a LOT - one of my parish databases has nearly 20,000 entries. However, at least I'm getting there ... slowly ...

THANKS Warwick for the clue to the problem. I'd been tearing my hair out for months, unable to do gedcom exports - I really love iFamily but was becoming VERY afraid that there was a serious problem with two of my databases, and of course I couldn't check by using another genealogy program.

Apologies for the length of this posting, but hopefully it might help someone else in the same boat.

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