Fatal Error

[wx-watch]

Just got this error

 Fatal error in WeatherCatDataManager - trying to load month data into cache but file does not exist. WeatherCat will quit.

Tried restoring from backup but still the same error??

I have reset the Vantage Pro 2 station and rebooted the Mac mini to no avail!

Help please

JH

[elagache]

Dear JH and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Fatal error in WeatherCatDataManager - trying to load month data into cache but file does not exist. WeatherCat will quit.

. . . . .

How long have you had WeatherCat running on this Mac?  I assume this is a well-established installation that has been going for a while.  If so, my guess is that there is a problem in loading the file.  That points to possible file system trouble.  Attempting to restore the file might not work until the file system is repaired.  Have you tried running the First Aid feature of Disk Utility?  Better still if you have it, try using the file system repair tools in Tech Tool Pro.

Let us know what you discover.

Cheers, Edouard 

[wx-watch]

It had been running for over two years without a problem and the Mac Mini WeatherCat is running on was new then. In the end the only way I could get things running again was to restore the entire disk from a Time Capsule backup from just before the error occurred. WeatherCat then imported missing data from the station. All is well but I have no idea what caused the problem! Thank goodness for backups! I have tweaked things over the years and I would not like to have to start again as I have forgotten most of my tweaks!

JH

[xairbusdriver]

Great news! And quite a bit of work, I'm sure! A big thanks for reporting how you handled the problem!

As for the quite large number of WC prefs/tweaks, I would suggest a screen/window capture of every single page and tab. Might even be worth printing them out and put in a safe deposit box!!

Of course having backups of just the prefs is always good insurance... I do hope you are using a second type of backup, also. I highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner, but others like Superduper. Thankfully, hard drives are cheaper than ever!

[Blicj11]

• Thanks for letting us know the outcome. I love it when a WeatherCatter figures something out that works!
• My bacon has been saved by having a screenshot record of every WC Preference, just as X-Air suggests.
• In addition, and much better, I have also saved myself hours of tweaking time by copying the WeatherCat Preferences file off to a safe location. That file can become corrupt and it is much, much easier to just move that duplicate preference file back into place than it is to re-create all of your preferences.
• Absolutely agree on the backup redundancy. I use both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner and have had to restore from both. Time Capsule is awesome for restoring a file or a few folders. CCC (or SuperDuper) is the way to go when restoring your entire drive, as I had to do a few months ago when an iMac hard drive failed. You only have to have one failed hard drive to know you need something a little more robust than just a Time Machine backup.

[wx-watch]

Ok - I have found out what caused the problem and how to fix it! I caused it. My Mac Mini runs headless and every now and again I connect to it via screen sharing to check everything is up to date and running ok. Just before the first error I noticed (after after two years!!) the clock was set to 24 hour format in system settings. So I changed it to 12 hour and am/pm, my preferred format, and forgot about it. Later I noticed the fatal error so as per above I restored the whole disk via Time Capsule and all was well. Today checking I remembered the clock and set it to 12hour format again. WeatherCat immediatley crashed with the fatal error. Changing the clock back to 12 hour format and WeatherCat runs fine again

JH

[xairbusdriver]

Whenever I have computer problems, the first place I look is the person in front of the monitor.

Earlier this year, I bought a small, cheap monitor for my previously headless mini to make that person more "visible"!    

[Blicj11]

Thanks for the update JH. That will help someone else out down the road.

[wx-watch]

It would be nice to know why WeatherCat can't cope with a change of the clock fro 24hr to 12hr!

JH