Data Missing?

[rick.ca]

I have been using PVD for several years. I have not added any new movies to my database since 2010. I wanted to update my video collection in PVD but I have run into a problem. When I tried to import the data for "The Mist"2007 from IMDB my PVD crashed. When I open it again all my data is gone. How can I recover all my 211 movies that I had in my database? I am using Windows 7. I have donated money twice because I love the program.

Check the data file. Hopefully, it's size will suggest it still contains something like 211 movies. If not, you'll have to restore from whatever backup you may have. If so, start the program and make sure it loaded that file (as indicated by the title bar). If the movies still don't appear, make sure Filters and Search are cleared. If that doesn't help, set Filters for 'invisible'. This may show a very long list. Check it carefully to see if your movies are included. Let us know what you find.

[searay]

Thanks, I was able to get my database back.

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

I am having the same issue, and that fix didn't work.  The data file shows a file with 1688KB of data.  There are approximately 1000 movies in my collection.  The program worked yesterday when I last added a title.

On launching today, it shows 0 movies.  Resetting filters, ticking "not visible", making sure search is blank/cleared hasn't changed anything.  It still says 0 movies.  It was a tremendous amount of work inputting all these originally, and has been an ongoing project keeping them current.  Help!

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

I am attaching a screen capture of what happens when I now try to open the database.  Do I need to uninstall/reinstall?  Get a different program?  As stated, this worked perfectly until I added my last title yesterday.  I now cannot access any titles, add anything new, or do anything else with this program.  The amount of work required to completely recatalog my collection is overwhelming, and not something I really want to have to do.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[rick.ca]

The data file shows a file with 1688KB of data.

That suggests an empty database.

I am attaching a screen capture of what happens when I now try to open the database.

The error message says the database is already in use. If the same error is happening, use Task Manager to see if there is already a viddb.exe or some other process running that may be accessing the database.

If the program is unable to find or use the last used database, it will create another at the default location—which is what the error message is referring to. It obviously shouldn't overwrite an existing database of the same name. Are you sure your original database does not have a different name or exist in some other location? Try the installation folder. If not there, search the computer for '*.pvd'.

I'm guessing PVD may not have shut down properly. When you started it again, it was unable to open the last used database because it was locked by the first instance. So it opened a new, empty database. Hopefully, the original database still exists somewhere.

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

After spending the entire afternoon reinputting films, and closing the program after each 10 or so to "save", I just reopened.  Suddenly I have 824 films (an old database?) that have appeared from nowhere.  But the titles I just entered are nowhere to be found.  I had re-entered approximately 150 titles.  This time I don't get any message--just what is clearly an out of date database and a bunch of missing titles.  That means I'm going to have to begin from scratch since I have no idea what is and isn't there (at least in terms of double checking what's in the DB with what's in my library).

I don't know what's going on.  Do I have too many titles for your DB to support?  I really like this program, but if I can't depend on its reliability, I'm wondering if I shouldn't look elsewhere.  I am extremely frustrated right now.

[rick.ca]

The program is reliable. Please consider my previous post. Is there more than one database? It seems there must be, but if you think not, are all Filters and Advanced Search cleared? Do you find any 'missing' movies when the visible/invisible filter is set to show invisible records? Are you sure the program is not already running (but not visible) when starting it? What version of the program are you using?

[Ivek23]

If the program is unable to find or use the last used database, it will create another at the default location—which is what the error message is referring to. It obviously shouldn't overwrite an existing database of the same name. Are you sure your original database does not have a different name or exist in some other location? Try the installation folder. If not there, search the computer for '*.pvd'.

Or find pvdconf.ini (one pvdconf.ini is in the installation folder and another somewhere else). In other pvdconf.ini (by open), you might find information to locate the database with movies, data looks something like this:

[DataBase]
Network=0
FileName=..\..\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Personal Video Database\movies.pvd
Mode=0
RecentFiles=D:\MyWorks\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database 11M\0\Nova mapa (2)\Nova mapa (6)\MOVIES PEOPLE EXTRA TEST3.PVD|D:\MyWorks\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database 11M\0\Nova mapa (2)\Nova mapa (5)\MOVIES PEOPLE EXTRA TEST2.PVD|D:\MyWorks\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database\Personal Video Database 11M\0\Nova mapa (2)\Nova mapa (6)\Nova mapa\MOVIES PEOPLE EXTRA TEST3.PVD
RecentTypes=0;0;0;

More about pvdconf.ini and what else you can do with it, find described here.

[Ivek23]

According database will be this may help:

1.)  Before you save it, rename it, it may be less of a problem that you lose.
2.)  Save it to another location.
3.)  Then it would be a really good thing you do at this location also has a copy of this database, for example, if there is something wrong, you can still restore at least partial information or almost all the information that you have stored.

Last verified true because I have some experience with similar problems as described above. I have several times in the same way lost my movies database (example: ALL MYMOVIES), with a copy of such a database is able to return back already existing database (example: ALL MYMOVIES 1).

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

This morning I restarted my computer and opened PVD.  824 movies came up (old files, apparently, from months ago, but same as the one that magically appeared yesterday).  I cannot find a pvdconf.ini, or indeed ANY .ini files associated with PVD.  Searched computer for movies.pvd, which was the database file I had been using.  One file comes up under that name, and when opened, I'm back to NO movies once more, and can't find where the 824 went.  Still no luck locating the 150 I entered yesterday.  A search of my entire computer for *.pvd showed no files.  Ctrl-alt-del shows no processes from the program running.

I am running version 0.9.9.21.

[rick.ca]

I cannot find a pvdconf.ini, or indeed ANY .ini files associated with PVD.

It will be in your Application Data folder, something like: C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Personal Video Database. As Ivek indicated, the [DataBase] section of that file will tell you the database loaded last and others recently (if any).

Did you try clearing the filters and examining the 'invisible' records?

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

I tried clearing all filters, with no response.  I can only see one database file in pvdconf.ini (attached).

I reopened the program and the previous old file came up.  I re-entered the approximately 150 missing movies (for the second time in 24 hours), and resaved that file both on the C drive as default and on a CD-RW as backup.  I hope I now have everything entered.  Things appear to be working now, but the whereabouts of the data remains a mystery, and I am left wondering how long before this happens again (though at least this time, I will know to backup each time I use the program, much like Quicken).

Prior to your note this morning, btw, a computer search for pvdconf.ini repeatedly showed "no file found".

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Ivek23]

Try also by searching for the file "MOVIES.PVD" to see, how many of these files are on your computer.

[jrb1021@gmail.com]

It looks like there are 7 now.  The first two appear to be identical in name and size.  The "moviesbu0112" is the backup, on a thumb drive.  Should I delete the next four? (360 bytes, and 3.70kb x 3)  The "old" files wont open anyway with any software I have--should they also be deleted?  I don't know what the "internet explorer files" are or how they were created?  Delete as well?

Thanks for your help.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Ivek23]

It looks like there are 7 now.  The first two appear to be identical in name and size.  The "moviesbu0112" is the backup, on a thumb drive.  Should I delete the next four? (360 bytes, and 3.70kb x 3)  The "old" files wont open anyway with any software I have--should they also be deleted?  I don't know what the "internet explorer files" are or how they were created?  Delete as well?

Thanks for your help.

If you have any of found files has not been deleted, they are not delete.

Both  movies.pvd.old  file move each in a new folder and remove it  .old extension, and you'll see what is the size of an individual file.
If the small size is probably empty, otherwise it is stored in the specified data.
Then open this file with PVD, and you'll see what's in them.

According database will be this may help:

1.)  Before you save it, rename it, it may be less of a problem that you lose.
2.)  Save it to another location.
3.)  Then it would be a really good thing you do at this location also has a copy of this database, for example, if there is something wrong, you can still restore at least partial information or almost all the information that you have stored.

Last verified true because I have some experience with similar problems as described above. I have several times in the same way lost my movies database (example: ALL MYMOVIES), with a copy of such a database is able to return back already existing database (example: ALL MYMOVIES 1).

[rick.ca]

It looks like there are 7 now.

There's only one MOVIES.PVD and, from what you've said, it seems fine now (i.e., it contains ~ 1000 movies). If that's the case, it won't help to investigate the OLD file (it's probably the new file you entered the 150 records into) or delete anything. I don't recall the circumstances in which an OLD file is created, but it surely has to do with a new database being created with the same name as an existing one.

RecentFiles=L:\MOVIESBU0112.PVD|\\localhost\C$\@GMT-2013.01.11-19.26.35\Users\JayBee\Documents\Personal Video

Do you have any idea what this is about? Were you trying to access the database remotely? As I mentioned before, that could lock the file, force the local PVD to create a new file without deleting the old...

[gaz]

I came here because this same thing happened to me today. All of a sudden the database disappeared following an application error in PVD.
I had watched a movie from within PVD and then closed PVD. I then reopened PVD because I wanted to edit a couple of details about the video. There was an application error on opening, and the database showed 0 movies. It was down to 1688kB in size. I hadn't made any backups, but fortunately the crash must have created a movies.pvd.old file which I was able to rename and retrieve all the data.
It was scary. Only 76 videos in there so far, but that'd still be an awful lot of work to have to re-enter.
The .old file is handy, but it might be a nice idea to see if it could be possible to change the behaviour that seems to make PVD want to create a new database that overwrites the existing one.