Index entries and file lost on crash

[Marathon1908]

Disaster!  I started the index for my book today.  All went well.  I completed the indexing of Chapter 1 by lunchtime, entries and Titles, created a new chapter called Index, added it to the book, put a text box on the first page selected Insert Index, and .bingo, there it was.

This afternoon I set up Chapter 2, equally straightforward.  I thought to myself, that after all the problems getting here, this was the best yet.  I spoke too soon. Having finished Chapter 2 I went to the Index chapter, selected update index from the Index panel, and Publisher vanished.  It has crashed before, quite regularly in fact, but recovery has been fine. Not this time.

When I reopened the program and reopened the book not only had the index chapter gone, but so too have all the index entries.  I have toggled show/hide - nothing. The chapter is there as a separate chapter, outside the book, but only has the chapter 1 entries. I haven't yet added it back to the book, because without index entries updating index will wipe it I suspect.

I'm working on a Mac, (using 2.5.3) so, no panic, I opened Time Machine and recovered the book from an hour before the crash. Nothing! No index entries, no Index chapter within the book.  This I do not understand - why have I lost the index entries and file that were there when the back up was made?  There seems to be something seriously wrong with Publisher's index function.  I had been saving the book each time I had a break, for lunch, tea breaks etc, but I had not closed the book since I started indexing.

HELP PLEASE! I am reluctant to spend another day indexing not knowing if it's going to crash again, and another day's work will be lost.

(Apologies, I accidentally posted this originally on Windows)

[MikeTO]

Did you save the Book after adding the index chapter? If not, that would account for the index chapter no longer being part of the Book.

51 minutes ago, Marathon1908 said:

When I reopened the program and reopened the book not only had the index chapter gone, but so too have all the index entries.

What was the state of the Book and chapters 1 and 2 before the crash? Was chapter 1 open or closed? Did you save chapter 2 after adding the index marks to it and before updating the index in the final chapter? When had the Book last been saved?

If you hadn't saved chapter 2 before updating the index, the crash would definitely wipe out the chapter 2 index marks.

I don't know what files you had open at the time of the crash and which of them were saved immediately before clicking update index, and I'm not entirely clear whether all index topics and references are gone or whether it's just the references or just the ones in chapter 2, so to clarify:

1. Start Publisher and do not open the Book
2. Open chapter 1 - are the index topics that you added for it still present? If they're present, are the chapter 1 index references present?
3. Are the chapter 2 index topics in chapter 1?
4. Close chapter 1 without saving if prompted and open chapter 2. Are the chapter 1 index topics present in it? Are the additional chapter 2 index topics present? Are the index references present?
5. Close chapter 2 without saving if prompted and open any chapter other than 1, 2, or the index chapter, especially one that you had open while indexing either chapter 1 or 2 or which you opened after indexing chapter 1. Are there any index topics in it?

Publisher stores the full index topic list in the Book file and in every chapter of the Book. If you index Apples in chapter 1, the topic will be added to chapter 2 if it's open at the same time. If it's closed, it will be added when it's next opened (as long as the Book is open). Hopefully, at least the topics will be recoverable even if the index marks have vanished.

 

 

[Marathon1908]

Mike, sadly nothing has worked and I am concerned that the indexing app within the program is fundamentally flawed, or else my copy is corrupted perhaps.  Yesterday was the first time I used it.

Firstly, what caused the crash?  The action that triggered it was to click on the update index button in the index panel.  The program did not freeze it quit.  It triggered a report to Apple but I haven't kept a copy.  It was only the second time I had used the update button..

Publisher crashes far more often than any other program on the machine (most have never crashed). Previously I've had a message about a recovery file, and it opens with recent changes saved.  Not this time.

Within Publisher I had open only Chapters 1 & 2 plus the index chapter. There might have been one other chapter open where I was looking up something that had arisen, I'm not sure. Affinity photo was also open, and still is.  Otherwise I had a pretty standard mix of regular programs open, nothing new.

What I got on reopening was the books panel without the Index Chapter.  That chapter is still there as a chapter, and is as it was when Chapter 1 was updated.  There are no entries for Chapter 2.  However the index panel shows all the titles from chapters 1 & 2, but no index entries even though topics and references is ticked.

Leaving the index chapter open, I now switch to chapter 1.  It is within the book but the book is not open.  No index entries,, the index panel has gone blank.  Chapter 2 the same.   If I now open Chapter 2 from Time Machine an hour before the crash the index panel has topics from Chapter 1 only.  But when I open Chapter 1 restored from the same time the index panel goes blank.  Opening the book and the index panels for both chapters 1 & 2 are blank.  I have now opened the book and added back the index chapter. Opening that chapter within the book the index panel is blank, yet when it was opened as a standalone document the panel was there.

I have now closed the index chapter from within the book, without saving changes, then closed the book and re-opened the index chapter.  The topics are there.  Re-opening the book the index topics are still there while the index chapter is open and selected.  Switch to Chapter 1 and the index panel empties.  Switch back to index chapter (using tabs, or the books panel) and index topics return.  However when I tried clicking Insert Index with Chapter 1 selected in the hope the panel might be populated it has not, and has gone blank when the index chapter is selected. I closed it without saving to restore the panel entries.

I think you will agree that this variation in the index panel from document to document is weird.  It is all very well having the index topics for the index chapter, it is no use when I want to re-index chapters 1 & 2 & index later chapters.

I save regularly.  As far as yesterday is concerned I certainly saved the book after completing different stages of indexing.  I'm not certain whether I also saved the chapters. I think so but am not sure.  I don't think I saved book or chapter immediately before clicking the update index button, my habit would be to do it after.

However, changes I made to layout and to text during the indexing process ARE saved.

I recovered previous versions of the book from Time Machine including in particular an hour before the crash. Indexing not saved, all gone, so I could not recover anything from back up.  I've just reopened Chapter 1 from the same time.  Nothing. However Chapter 2 has the index titles listed, but no entries, and the index marks are missing from the chapter.

So we have three big issues: why indexing crashed the program, why all the indexing was lost yet other changes to book and files were not, and why even Time Machine back-up failed - why weren't the index entries being recorded?

I have no choice, this morning I shall start again, and shall be regularly saving files and book, and updating the index regularly, on the basis that if updating causes it to crash again I won't lose too much.  I think I might be wise to copy the book at intervals too. I can't find that other people have reported this problem with indexing.  Should I uninstall and reinstall? Any other advice, or preferably a solution will be most welcome!

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Marathon1908 said:

It triggered a report to Apple but I haven't kept a copy.  It was only the second time I had used the update button..

Crash reports are stored on your computer. You can find it using this FAQ and upload it here for Serif to see.

3 hours ago, Marathon1908 said:

Within Publisher I had open only Chapters 1 & 2 plus the index chapter.
...
What I got on reopening was the books panel without the Index Chapter.

This sounds like you added the Index chapter to the Book but did not save the Book again prior to clicking Update Index. This isn't a big deal, you can simply re-add the Index chapter to the Book. It can be difficult to remember to save a Book because you can only save it from the panel menu and can't assign a keyboard shortcut for it.

3 hours ago, Marathon1908 said:

What I got on reopening was the books panel without the Index Chapter.  That chapter is still there as a chapter, and is as it was when Chapter 1 was updated.  There are no entries for Chapter 2.  However the index panel shows all the titles from chapters 1 & 2, but no index entries even though topics and references is ticked.

By titles I assume you mean index topics and by index entries I assume you mean index references. I think you're saying that when you opened the Index chapter, that you saw the list of index topics from chapters 1 and 2 but no index references. This makes sense, the index chapter would have a copy of all the topics but no references of its own. And this shows you saved the index chapter prior to clicking Update Index or else there wouldn't be topics from chapter 2. The good news is you have a useful list of your chapter 1 and 2 topics.

3 hours ago, Marathon1908 said:

Leaving the index chapter open, I now switch to chapter 1.  It is within the book but the book is not open.  No index entries,, the index panel has gone blank.  Chapter 2 the same.

This is odd - not only did you lose your index references in chapters 1 and 2, which is obviously a nasty bug, but you lost your topics. I don't know how that could happen. But you do have a list of the topics in your index chapter so you can restore those to chapters 1 and 2. Here's how to do that:

1. Open the Book
2. Open the index chapter which has the list of index topics
3. Open chapters 1 and 2 - Publisher should automatically sync the index topics to it

I tested the above and it worked for me but if for some reason the topics don't sync to chapters 1 and 2, try this:

1. Open the Book
2. Open the index chapter which has the list of index topics
3. Draw a temporary text frame - it doesn't matter where and it doesn't have to be very big
4. Using the Index panel, double-click on the first topic. This will insert an index reference for that topic into the frame you just drew. Repeat this for every remaining topic. You'll end up with lots of index references and no text in that frame.
5. Open chapters 1 and 2 - all of the topics you just indexed in the index chapter should appear in those chapters after a moment or two.
6. Delete that temporary frame from the index chapter.

Now you could use Find in Document to re-index chapter 1 without having to recreate the topics. This will be much faster than the first time.

As for why this happened? I don't know, but it's obviously a bug in index syncing with the Books feature.

Good luck.

[Marathon1908]

Mike,

Here are 3 crash reports in quick succession. I hope they provide an answer.

It may be all very well doing the workarounds you suggest, but they don't seem to offer any reassurance that the problem won't happen again,

  I've already lost a day and a half because of this crash, another crash late on in the process would be a nightmare.  

Subject to your advice, I don't see I've anything to lose by doing an uninstall and re-install, and it just may do the trick.  If it doesn't we'll know there really is a bug!

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-08-190939.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-08-190844.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-08-190640.ips

[DWright]

Do you have any 3rd party text tools running alongside the Publisher app and also is it possible to save your chapters as packages and then send me these along with your Book file for me to test using the following Dropbox link

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Szrta24VSttHoMZjIevc

[Marathon1908]

Firstly, no I do not have any 3rd party text tools running alongside Publisher, I just have Affinity Publisher 2.5.3 and Photo.

Secondly, presumably you would just like a couple of chapters as packages, plus the index chapter, plus the afbook file.  In the first instance I am sending Chapter 7 which has been successfully indexed, and chapter 8 which I had indexed but the index file crashed when I tried to save the update.  If I don't include images and fonts these files are small enough to attach.  If you do need images and/or fonts let me know and I'll repackage and if over 2 gb use dropbox.

Sadly, the problem continues.  I have to get on with my book, I have it programmed to go to the printers by the end of the month, and that is looking increasingly unlikely.  So, noticing that the crash reports referred to the length of time the Mac had been running, I rebooted the machine, and started again.  It worked, yesterday afternoon and this morning,  I inserted index entries on a few pages, saved the chapter, opened the index chapter, updated the entries, saved the file, saved the book.  It has worked and I got overconfident.

I spent 2 1/2 hours indexing chapter 8, saving the chapter, but not updating the index chapter.  When I finished chapter 8 it updated the index chapter  fine, but when I hit the save button it crashed and all this afternoon's work has been lost.  You will see  that there are some index marks in the chapter, but most are missing (it is odd what there are, I think publisher has run a search for terms though I did not specifically ask it to).  Updating the index after the crash, it has found those marks.  I have not tried to save the index, in case it crashes again, but while I am awaiting your response I shall be trying to add the first of the lost entries and then trying to update and save. 

I attach the latest crash report.  Earlier, after I had put the computer to sleep while I had lunch Publisher would not reopen properly.  I therefore quit and reopened.  The system generated a report and that is also attached.

You will see when you get the files, that I am deliberately setting out to create a series of indexes.  All the entries have a parent topic MILLERS.  I will then be creating a second index topic MILLS and a third for OTHER PERSONS.  In principle this is straightforward, but I would comment:

• to get surname first I find you have to type surname first in the topic - using the select by box just results in the names being in surname order but first names first
• there seems to be no way of getting the classical index format whereby the surname is followed by the forenames in order eg SMITH Alan, 21, 23; John 17, 45; Robert 12 etc.  It seems each person must have separate entry.  If there is a way I shall be grateful to have it drawn to my attention
• occasionally the indexer gets the order wrong.  You will see in the index file ENGLISH, Matthew is in the correct place, but ENGLISH, Mathew comes after Richard, and after several updatings it keeps the wrong order - I will have to correct it manually
• I recognise that if the index is manually reformatted it is essential to make sure update index before output is not checked (it is the same with page numbers; updating regularly introduces errors, one chapter being treated as start from NN instead of continue from previous, and it has to be manually changed through the books panel.)

Thank you for your help,

Bob

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-12-163541.ips ExcUserFault_launchservicesd-2024-08-12-141714.ips Chapter 7 Baldslow Mills.afpackage Chapter 8 Silverhill, St Leonards.afpackage Index.afpackage Mills and Millers copy.afbook

[Marathon1908]

Further to the last post  I am making halting progress.  the index file is still crashing or failing to respond, but a new crash point has emerged.  When the index file has been updated and there is a text overflow on the last page shift double click to autoflow has twice led to a crash.  The second time I had saved the index file before trying to autoflow.  It crashed, but when the program and file were re-opened some entries had been saved, some not, but autoflow worked, creating the extra page. I am now having to index those couple of pages for a third time.  That will have to be tomorrow.

I honestly do not know how complete or accurate the indexing is.  With hundreds of entries over 170 pages so far it is going to be a nightmare to check, and this is having a serious effect on the quality of the book and the time it is taking to complete.  If the problem can be resolved and a solution found and implemented it will be an enormous relief.  Thank you.

Crash reports attached.

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-14-183519.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-14-180806.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-14-084349.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-13-184909.ips ExcUserFault_launchservicesd-2024-08-13-090725.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-08-12-163541.ips ExcUserFault_launchservicesd-2024-08-12-141714.ips

[Marathon1908]

It gets weirder.  I reopened the file and was able to use text autoflow to deal with the text overflow. Then I saw that the index file has entries from the latest update, but there were no index marks on the page, and those entries were not in the index panel,  Sure enough updating the index removed those entries from the file,  Undo last action restored those entries but did not add them to the panel.  I guess all I can do tomorrow is restore the index marks and hope they stick, the file saves, and I can bobble on until the solution emerges.

[Marathon1908]

I am disappointed not to have had any response to my posts despite sending files and crash reports.  I have soldiered on for the last 3 weeks and have been managing to make progress by indexing only a few pages at a time, saving the file being indexed, opening the index file, updating it, allowing it to fully index, which can take up to a minute, and then saving it.  Highly or wrongly I fear trying to save too early may cause a crash.  That has worked, and I have not had another crash until the last couple of days.  The latest crash is a complete disaster, and it is after upgrading to 2.5.5.

I had been working on a file for over 2 hours, saving all regularly.  The last crash has undone all that work.  It is the same problem as per the 14 August report above, only worse.  Every index marker placed on the document this morning appears to have vanished, despite several saves.  Those entries are however still in the index file listing itself, but not in the index panel on the left - screen print shows this with the opening entries. As before, updating the index loses the entries and takes us back to the panel - I have restored it by undoing last action, saving again.  I closed the files and reopened them but it has not cleared the problem. HELP! Is there a way of restoring the index markers to the file so that it has all the entries that are in the index file?  SECONDLY, can I be sure it won't happen again?

OTHER BUGS

PARENT TOPIC not biting: occasionally an entry gets added to the list without its parent topic, possibly because I forgot to enter it (I'm not sure).  Editing it in the index panel and adding the main topic can fail, repeatedly (see screen print).  The only option I have found is to delete the entry then re-enter it with the main title added.  That works.

Carriage return does not work on dialog box Add Index Topic.

Selected text is entered automatically using Insert Marker, but not Add Topic - you have to copy & paste

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-09-06-112151.ips Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-09-05-055513.ips