Future Creation Date with Past Modification Date

[Kansas]

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me.

I use FileMaker 14 on OS X Yosemite Server with FMS 14.  We have a file that we just noticed is doing very strange things with the Creation Date and Modification Date fields.  

1) Randomly the wrong creation date will be displayed - ie: we KNOW we created the record on 7/6/2015 and it will say a totally different date.

2) As seen in the image I attached... a future date has been created for a record - but it is showing that it was modified prior to the creation date.

3) Creation date in some records is displaying with strange years.  ie:  06/19/0210.  

4) The creation date created for a few records (random records) has a date when we were not even using this database... ie:  2/16/2013.

I have done a recovery on all files (there are four that are related) with nothing found corrupt.  I have checked permissions for the OS.  The creation and modification dates are not modifiable.

Does anyone have any thoughts?  I hope this is enough information - 

Sarah

[LaRetta]

Hi Sarah, welcome to FMForums!! 

We will need more information to assist you.

1. Can you show us this same screen shot in layout mode?  
2. When you look at that creation date in layout mode, select Inspector and the Data tab and below, look at 'data formatting.'  Click on the calendar icon and what does it show as the format?
3. Can you provide a screen shot of the field definitions for these date fields?
4. What do you mean by item 2) where you say, "a future date has been created for a record but it is showing that it was modified prior to the creation date."?  Do you mean that when you create a new record, it inserts 9/9/2015 in the creation date field?  Is the creation date set up as an auto-enter 'creation date'?
5. Has there been any data migrations moving this data recently?
6. Can you check to see if there are specific Users which produce the incorrect creation dates?  It is possible that someone's OS date setting is either incorrectly set to future date or they are specifying dd/mm/yyyy instead of mm/dd/yyyy.  But if that is the case, that same User's modification date would be off as well.

It would probably be easiest to review the file itself.

Also, the Recover process can potentially damage a file in its attempts to resolve any questionable areas and should only be ran on a copy of the file.  The purpose of Recover is to prepare the file so the data within it can be exported and imported into a clean, undamaged backup copy of the file, i.e. recover data out of a damaged file.

Edited July 7, 2015 by LaRetta

[Rick Whitelaw]

LaRetta, it's my understanding that Recover has no effect whatsoever on the original file being recovered. It's the "file recovered" that Recover produces that should not be used

[LaRetta]

Hi Rick,

Yes, we keep having this discussion, don't we?  One can't tell if a file has been fixed by recover unless they DO use the recovered file.  That's the purpose of recovering it.  If a file is recovered, it creates a new file called recovered.  It does the person no good to continue to use the original file so yes, the original files remains untouched AND it would never  fix anything at all.

The recover log is not dependable - there could be damage not reported.  So folks rename the recovered file to the original and continue to use it.  This is what I am cautioning against and I'll say it again - never use a recovered file.

Are we finally on same page here?  :-)

[Lee Smith]

Hi Rick,

I agree with LaRetta. Once a file has been recovered it shouldn’t be use for anything other than to get your data out, and hopefully you didn’t lose much. I have found that the data lost is usually from the current session.

LaRetta, it's my understanding that Recover has no effect whatsoever on the original file being recovered. It's the "file recovered" that Recover produces that should not be used

So if the File that has been recovered (i.e. YourFile_Recovered.fmp12) is not to be used, why would you trust the original file, provide it would even open?

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Lee Smith

[Rick Whitelaw]

Although Recover should not be used as a maintenance tool it is commonly used as a diagnostic one. Recover extracts data and schema etc from the original file and creates a new one. The log will contain evidence of any problems encountered. It remains my view that Recover does absolutely nothing to the original file.

LaRetta, yes. We agree! Read this after I responded to Lee.

 

rick.

[DanShockley]

Apart from the conversation about what to do with recovered files, it would be great if Sarah (aka "Kansas") could give us the info LaRetta requested.  

One possibility might be that the computer from which the record was created has clock issues, as someone mentioned. There are ways to avoid that, if the database is hosted, using an auto-enter calc:

GetAsDate ( Get ( CurrentHostTimestamp ) ) 

 

[xochi]

Are you accessing the file using WebDirect?  I had some date/time issues myself doing that...

Another idea:  I believe that one can arbitrarily set Modified or Created timestamps using the Import step by disabling the "evaluate calculations" checkbox during import.    

[Kansas]

First of all – my apologies for the delay in getting back to this post.

 

Hi Loretta – and thanks for the welcome. 

 

1)     I attached the same screenshot in layout mode.

2)     When I look at the Inspector under the Data Formatting – next to Format “As entered” is selected.

3)     I attached a screenshot of the field definitions.

4)     This item is confusing.  I cannot replicate this weird issue.  I simply “ran across” one of the records via View -> Index.  When I create a new record this does not happen.  I have only found one record that has done this.  And yes, the creation date is set to auto-enter and not modifiable.

5)     YES.  There have been data migrations with the data.  Our Mac Mini with FMS crashed and I had to move the data to another computer (Mac). 

6)     I checked all user’s OS settings and they are all set properly.

 

 

DanShockley:

 

Thank you for the suggestion.  I will try this auto-enter calc.

 

Xochi:

 

I am not accessing this file using WebDirect.  I also haven’t done any imports/exports.

 

Thanks to all for thoughts and suggestions.