Im on an older mac Big Sur, and sometimes my memory gets thrashed and if im using Acorn, even if i thought i saved the file, if i killed it when it was beachballing, and then reopen it all the layers dont open properly.
Again, i thought id already saved it in the working state, but perhaps the file got corrupted somewhat when Acorn was killed. It thenafter opens and some layers open but the most of my work layers are not there. Normally that would be like “better luck next time bucko, dont thrash your memory”.
But (1) the preview still shows my work in Finder, and even if i zoom in, unless Mac is using some cool interpolation algorithm, it appears as though the vector files still exist. So it must be somewhere in temporary cached memory.
Im on version 6 and i thought i recall there was a post on here detailing how to restore temp files but im not aure where that post is now. I found a cache folder with .undoimg files in it approx >20mb so could contain the info i seek. Is there any way to restore?
the problem might be that its consuming too much memory and so cant load the layers/data properly.
the file itself is only 10mb, but when opening now Acorn is consuming 860mb and probably more than i have left. so it seems that mightve happened when it was beachballing. so maybe its actually the cache that is clogged up.
I reproduced the same beahviour with the same file on another old mac.
I understand this issue may not happen in newer version, but my license is for the older version.
Anyhow, all is not lost as at least i can screenshot a decent render in finders preview mode,
and its not something i cant do again, but in case it happens to me again, would be good to learn where the cache is stored again or how to restore it.
The .undoimg files are actually TIFF files, and depending on what you were doing it might be the whole layer you were working on, or just part of it. You could try renaming those with a .tiff extension and see what the contents are.
Acorn uses a SQLite database for its layered image format, and if there was a preview that the Finder is showing, then all the data for the layers should be in there. The composite comes at the end of the save process, which is what the Finder preview is showing.
I’d be really interested in seeing your corrupted .acorn file. Since Acorn is using a transactional database to store the layers, it should be very, very hard to corrupt your .acorn file. And I’d love to know how you did that.
If it keeps on happening, you can ping us: support@flyingmeat.com. While we’re not putting out updates to Acorn 6 anymore, there are some diagnostic actions you can do to maybe pin down what the issue is, and possibly the situation could be remedied.
this actually happened again sigh.
i might send the file through this time.
but before i send it through, what diagnostics can i do?
I think it may be corrupting the last session, so it doesnt open the layers properly.
but it may be able to preview based on a preview (in the db) of a previous save?
thats my guess anyhow.
it is being corrupted cos im maxing out my ram, and if then the computer fails with data in memory it seems to be corrupting the saved state.
if i do save as from the previewable file that doesnt load the layers, it saves as if only that last layer that is showing is there, and the file size is much lower. so it is as if the full info is probably in the previewable file, but the layer info is corrupted in the last state such that it only loads the one layer.
But as expected a copy of the file itself reproduces the file.
i cant recall where i found that .undoimg folder last time either.
maybe its empty now as i looked in some usual places.
I’d love to know where on your Mac you’re saving the files (is it an an external drive by any chance? Is it in a folder that does syncing?). And a crash report from Acorn would be great too (to crash Acorn on purpose, choose the Acorn ▸ Preferences menu item with both the control and the command keys down). A crash report will let me know if there’s some 3rd party libraries being thrown into Acorn which might be causing problems. I’m wondering if somehow a non-standard version of SQLite is being used somehow (SQLite is the transactional database that Acorn uses for its files. Corrupting it should be incredibly hard).
oh i shoudve also mentioned, its not just that the memory is maxed out, but it occurs if the system failed after i attempted a save whilst the memory was maxed out. the save fails (due to lack of memory and it makes a sound), and then the system sometimes dies for a diff reason due to the power connection, but that is the sequence that occurs. so the system then tries to restore from its latest OS cache. and yeh i think i have a non standard OS installation off a externalHD, long story, was only way to do a OS transfer/update along time ago. there is no extra syncing nor even time machine really occuring, but it may be due to this cache restoration that it dumps any extra data…but yeh ill send a crash report.