Bruji

I’m about to take delivery of a new iMac in the next few week. My current 14 year old iMac is showing signs of age.

I set the ‘Pedias up badly when I first installed it. I can fix that now. My wife and I will have different log in screens (we have a big difference of opinion about the dock position) but would like the ‘pedias to be shared. Not least so we can both sync phones and iPads to CDpedia and Bookpedia so we can have the same information on both.

Are there any tips? Do I just download the Pedias on the new Mac then copy the Databases across from the old Mac or is there a compatibility issue between the old and new Pedias. I haven’t been able to update for a while as the version I’m using couldn’t be updated to the latest version.

Cheers

Steve.

Ensure you are using the latest stable beta's DVDpedia 6.1.1 beta 206

Regular visitors to these forums will know I am big on the following:

1 - When I am updating App's to a new WHOLE number version or upgrading to a new OS version or even a brand new machine, or I know that there has been a major rewrite of the App such as with the case of all the pedia's for 64 bit technology and Apple's new OS 11.0.0 Big Sur and the upcoming Monterey OS 12.0.

2 - These are the Folders and Files you need and should be in ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia/ .

Covers
InfoTemplates
Plug-ins
Templates
AddMultiple.xml
autofill.xml
backup1Month.*****pd
backup2Months.*****pd
*****pedia Backup.zip
Database.******pd
Database.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd
Pocketpedia.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd-wal

The above entries in blue are Folders do not delete them or their contents.

AND of course do not delete: Database.*****pd OR Pocketpedia.*****pd

NOTE: ***** represents the particular pedia - Book, DVD, CD or Game

The Files with the suffix; .shm & .wal can be deleted as they are changed and recreated automatically again on each starting up of your pedia. You can think of them as a temporary index cache files. The Database and Backup files are self explanatory so not advisable to delete those. The .xml are again a type of index file for your autofill fields and are important so do not delete those two. You can clean these up to some extend within each Pedia's Preferences > Autofill.

NOTE: ensure that each pedia knows where to find its database: Preferences > General > Data folder location: which is preferable in the default location of ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia/ .

3 - There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. Also especially in this case concerning the new macOS 11.0.* Big Sur and also with brand new machines after initial install and setup of the OS, immigration and all my App's.

This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

It is available in many languages and is regularly updated (about once a month).

4 - Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: 'hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields' these may not solve your problems but it wont hurt either.

5 - And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

Send them to Bruji Support: support@bruji.com

AND of course always carry out a general machine BACKUP first. Remember that all the pedia's also have the ability to create individual data base backups: File > Export Collection > Backup > Location of your choice

Hope you find these Tips & Hints helpful

Thank you Fine Wine. Comprehensive. I’ll take it all onboard when the new machine is delivered in a weeks time.

Thanks for the info again.

Sadly I have had a number of problems with the new 24" iMac. After many weekends on the phone to support I have come to the conclusion it is a poor machine and I should have waited for V2.

But, I'm stuck with it now. I have already gad problems with two databases. Which can't be found on the new Mac. Because they aren't Mac programmes I get "contact the maker" message, despite it being an obvious file path problem within Mac OS.

Consequently I want to get it right with the 'Media as they are the main driver for the "upgrade" I want the information to be in a shared database so that while my wife and I log in using different screens, I want the programmes and the database to be shareable to us both. Do I download the new versions of CDPedia and BookPedia to the new Mac.

Do I have to load them to both my wife and my login page. If so where do I point the databases and where is the best place to put them, please?

Sadly I have had a number of problems with the new 24" iMac. After many weekends on the phone to support I have come to the conclusion it is a poor machine and I should have waited for V2.

That is a shame. My country has "Lemon" laws and a "Consumers Guarantee Act" on product quality and usability.

But, I'm stuck with it now. I have already gad problems with two databases. Which can't be found on the new Mac. Because they aren't Mac programmes I get "contact the maker" message, despite it being an obvious file path problem within Mac OS.

Those problem programs were probably written for 32bit machines and operating systems only. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208436

Consequently I want to get it right with the 'Media as they are the main driver for the "upgrade" I want the information to be in a shared database so that while my wife and I log in using different screens, I want the programmes and the database to be shareable to us both. Do I download the new versions of CDPedia and BookPedia to the new Mac.

Do I have to load them to both my wife and my login page. If so where do I point the databases and where is the best place to put them, please?

Are you using ONE computer with two screens and with two different Log-ins or are your using TWO separate computers networked together?
Either way you point the Pedia program to the respective database within: Preferences > General > Data folder location: Have a read of this: The DVDpedia database and data folder

Hi Finewine

Thank you again for your response. The other two databases are a ToDo list and editing software, both available on the current Mac OS App Store. There are work arounds. The editing stuff could be imported into iTunes (or whatever it is called these days) and I can retype the to dos from scratch.

This is a non starter with the 'Pedias as there is way too much info. Going back to 2013 (if memory serves) and I found Bruji. The conversations with Conor and Nora at the time were that I'd had four music databases in my time, re-typing each one, a process I hoped never to have to do again. I love CD (and subsequently) Book pedia for its ease of use and availability everywhere. Anyway, I've had an idea.

For clarification, my wife and I use the same computer - the only one in the household - BUT crucially we like different Home Screen layouts / screen savers etc. so flick between them. Idealy she would like the Bookpedia app in her dock and I would like the CDpedia and Bookpedia in my dock, both pointing to the same "master" shared database. When we sync our iPhones to the iMac we'd like the same info on both phones when we go shopping. As an aside I enter the CD info into the iMac then sync out to the phone. My wife, by convention enters books, usually using her iPhone, them syncs into the iMac (which id subsequently like to sync out to my phone to show the same data.

To the thought, given the frustrating time I've had copying data from my old computer. I currently have a back up of both 'Pedias with the latest info. In simple stages can I let the 'Pedias do the work for me?

Download from the store the latest versions (obviously paying any upgrade fees as necessary) to the relevant section of the iMac. With Bookpedia for her, Bookpedia and CDpedia for me on our respective docks.

Open each one, empty of data, to do the "trick" where you tell them where to find the database - in this case the shared folder on the Mac.

Then "Import from a backup" the data from the cloud.

Do you think that would work?