Search produces no result and slow behaviour

[Pakou]

First time I have this issue in 10 years... CDPedia is behaving strangely recently.
(Not a single change in the Mac used for Pedias; OS is still Mojave and my laptop is the same 2014 MacBook Pro)
Clicking on an entry to edit it takes forever, and the Edit windows appears behind the main one.
Searching for a title produces... nothing.

[FineWine]

It is always good protocol to do some house cleaning every once in a while here are some maintenance tasks you could try.

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 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, I do a complete uninstall of the old version prior to update. I achieve this by using a FREE program called AppCleaner which you can download from here. On using this App place a check mark IN ALL the boxes EXCEPT: ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia , which is the second line down from the top. This is where your data base is located. Ensure that is NOT ticked. You will loose your Preference settings though but they only take a couple of minutes to redo. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

2 - These are the Folders and Files that 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.

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.

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

[Pakou]

Thanks, FineWine, but I am an IT guy... I use Onyx since it was created, and that was the first thing I did.
And as I said... not one change in anything... except that the Pedias got their usual updates some time before.
Typing a word (even without accents) of an entry present in the main library and having zero result while before it worked flawlessly for years is clearly something inside.
To be more specific: in Bookpedia and DVDpedia, all works.
In CDpedia, a search for a word contained in the "Artists" entries works... but a search for a word contained in the "Title" entries produces no result, regardless of the word chosen.
So this is very specific...

[sitenoise]

Are you sure you don't have your search range to be for something besides "Title" when searching for a title? In other words the search box isn't set to search "artists", or something. I space that one out from time to time

[Conor]

Do click on the magnifying glass to verify the scope of the search for CDpedia.

What MacOS are you running? So that I can look at the edit window appearing behind the main window and not instantly as it should.

[TiggyWink]

Hi Connor

I have read through your advice regarding the use of App Cleaner and which items to unclick so that they don't get deleted. Before I proceed, I would like you to confirm please, if I have made the correct selection. Ooops no facility to attach so will type out:
√ DVDpedia Beta
NOT √ DVDpedia_85C5BF9F-AC58-51A1......plist
√ Library/Application Support/Crashreporter.....
NOT √ Library/Application Support/DCDpedia (1.21 GB)
√ combrujidvdpedialibrary caches/comApple.help*6.2.0
√ com.bruji.dvdpedia
√ com.bruji.dvdpedia.plist

I would add one more thing about the search in DVDpedia is that it is not running through IMDB etc. It shows Mondadori only it seems. Similarly Bookpedia appears only to be searching from Doghouse even though a whole list of sites to search are ticked on both my apps.

I have never had such a problem with "search" in the past having used the apps for many years. I currently have the Beta version of DEVpedia 6.20 and Bookpedia 6.1.1.

[FineWine]

NOT Library/Application Support/DCDpedia (1.21 GB)

√ DVDpedia Beta
NOT √ DVDpedia_85C5BF9F-AC58-51A1......plist
√ Library/Application Support/Crashreporter.....
√ combrujidvdpedialibrary caches/comApple.help*6.2.0
√ com.bruji.dvdpedia
√ com.bruji.dvdpedia.plist

Remove the tick from Library/Application Support/DVDpedia and then delete the rest (above in red). Yes you will loose your Preference settings com.bruji.dvdpedia.plist If you don't wont to, just untick it.

I do not know what DVDpedia_85C5BF9F-AC58-51A1......plist file that is. But it can go as well.

Download the Beta's from https://bruji.com/beta/ and reinstall them.
DVDpedia 6.2.0 Beta220
Bookpedia 6.2.0 Beta220

I would add one more thing about the search in DVDpedia is that it is not running through IMDB etc. It shows Mondadori only it seems. Similarly Bookpedia appears only to be searching from Doghouse even though a whole list of sites to search are ticked on both my apps.

Search settings

1 - Hold down the Option key and click on the main Help menu and ensure there is a Tick against Amazon Test
2 - Preferences > Sites Click on Amazon Settings and ensure that Amazon Test Enabled is in the first top line
3 - Ensure all your required sites are Ticked
4 - You can left click, hold and drag up or down on each site to prioritise the search order.
5 - Close Preferences
6 - Click on the Add button on the Toolbar to bring up the Search box
7 - Click on the Magnifying glass twistie and ensure there is a tick against All Now the pedia will search All the sites you have selected in Preferences in the order you arrange them in.

I hope this is of benefit for you

[TiggyWink]

Thanks for your detailed help. I have found a simple solution (for me). As stated before, all the search engines were ticked in DVDpedia sites preferences but when searching, it was clear that it went straight to Mondadori . My husband suggested that I untick Mondadori. And there you have it. Next time I searched it scrolled through the whole list of sites & found what I needed! I no longer have to enter manually. This is a "pro tem" fix though and do intend to do some thorough houskeeping as suggested when I have the time.