The latest update seems to have overwritten some of my Condition field entries. Specifically, at least four issues of Uncle Scrooge that I assigned conditions to using the grading tool have been switched back to "Near Mint." The grading notes are still there, but the grades (and values) are now wrong. It is an inconsistent problem, because other issues of the same title that I entered on the same day still have their correct lower grades assigned.

I suspect the update only because I entered these issues a few days ago and then noticed the problem after last night's update.

I thought this happened to me once before with an issue of Captain Marvel Adventures, but I wasn't sure at the time and decided to ignore it, redoing the grade. I entered these Uncle Scrooge issues just a few days ago, so I know the switch is not in my imagination. Hard to say if it's happened with other titles/issues.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there some factor or step I'm missing?

Not a problem i've ever heard reported with the grading tool. If you're able to reproduce it with detailed steps we'd love to know about it. Please email us at support@comicbase.com if you're able to figure it out those steps and our programming team will look further into it.

Mentioned your problem to our programming team and this isn't something they've seen before. If you'd like to follow up with them give them a call at 408-266-6883

I'll try to watch this more closely going forward.

All I can really do right now is point to a few issues that still have the grading notes from the grading tool but conditions of Near Mint. I don't know if that would help with anything. In my current database, I've noticed this with Uncle Scrooge #59, 84, 114, and 147. I haven't tried to fix them yet.

Do you have a backup from before the update that you can compare? If you do, screen shots of the before (non-NM condition) and After (NM condition) could help?

Unfortunately, I don't have a backup that shows the "before" state. I only have them from before I entered those issues and after the condition got changed to NM. I'll try to remember to make a new backup just before installing an update from now on.

For what it's worth, here's the detail from Uncle Scrooge #59.The Grading Notes field contains all the defects I selected using the tool, but the appropriately-adjusted Condition has not been retained; instead, it's Near Mint. The value has also reverted to the Near Mint value.

Wasn't able to replicate the problem.

What update settings do you go with? Maybe that's important to replicating the problem.

My update settings are shown below. I don't know how easy it is to replicate the problem. It hasn't happened to every item for which I used the grading tool, only some of them, so there must be some additional factor I haven't figured out yet. I'm also not 100% certain that the update caused the problem; I only know that I noticed that the conditions were changed back to "Near Mint" sometime after updating. It's possible that they changed before I updated but I didn't notice it until afterward.

I've got more comics coming up in my cataloging project that I'll be using the grading tool for. When I get to those, I'll pay very close attention and take notes to see if I can figure it out, assuming it happens again.

Can you check an issue or two that were changed against whether those issues had any information updated in that update from the log file?

Only one of the four affected issues (#114) is listed as changed in last week's update log.

Tried to replicate again a couple more times with the latest CB2022 build and still wasn't able to make the problem happen. If its not happening every time, this will be tough to figure out. There might be a setting or step missing to make this problem 100% replicate-able.

I understand that the factors causing this problem are likely obscure. I've added another batch of comics graded with the grading tool that I'll be keeping an eye on. Probably nothing will happen now that I'm paying special attention, but we'll see. So far, I closed the program and went back in, and none of this batch changed conditions. I'll do a new backup right before this week's update, and I'll check things again after the update is installed.

As I pretty much expected, none of the comics I entered and started watching changed conditions after the new update. I can't provide any further information or evidence as to why or how some conditions have changed before, but I'll try to watch out for it in the future. At least the Grading Notes field helps to show that I'm not imagining it.

Randall, If you have Archive (or I think, Pro) Edition with Advanced Find you can use this to find any issues you own, with a Grading Note and a Condition of NM (you can do an Order By with anything you like or use what I supplied):

Where:
I.[GradingNotes] > ' ' AND I.Condition = 'NM' AND I.[QtyInStock] >= 1

Order By:
I.Title, I.[ItemNumber]

PS There may be a few rows with stray 'junk' in the Grading Notes (that you probably don't own).

Thank you for that. It took me a minute to locate the Advanced Find function (first-timer!), but plugging that search in turned up 11 issues that have changed back to NM but retained the grading notes. That includes the four issues of Uncle Scrooge I've already mentioned. It does not include the issue of Captain Marvel Adventures that I went back and fixed. Twelve comics is not a lot, but it's about 16% of the ones I've used the grading tool on. I'm still not sure what else they have in common.

Since you mention you are a first-timer, here is a suggestion (if you have the disk space).
In Setup->Preferences

Check 'Automatically backup database when you close the Program' (this may already be checked).
Set the Number of backups to 100 (or less is space is a problem).

This way, you can go back through the backups to find when something changed.

For example, before running an update (if you are not using Sidekick), you can open then close your database to make a backup before the update. After the update, run the Advanced Find to see if something changed.

When you noticed something changed unexpectedly, you can go back through the backups and at least determine the date/time it happened.

I meant that it was my first time using the Advanced Find feature. I've spent the last six months or so entering my collection into the database, so I'm still relatively new. I've been doing the automatic backups, but I've only been keeping five of them. I'll have to go in and change that. Thanks.

It has happened again: another comic that I graded using the grading tool somehow got switched back to Near Mint. I checked through my backups, and unfortunately, I don't have a backup that shows the comic with the grade it was originally assigned. Its first appearance in a backup shows it in Near Mint with the grading tool's data in the Grading Notes field.

I can eliminate the ComicBase update as the cause of the problem, however. I added this comic after last week's update. I found it using the Advanced Search option outlined earlier in this thread. I'm still not sure why or exactly when these are changing, but updates were not a factor this time.

I just noticed that every comic this has happened with has had a cover price of 0.75 or less (USD), whether it's an old Dell comic or a recent FCBD issue. I don't know if that could have anything to do with it, but it's kind of odd. On the other hand, it could just be that most of the comics I've used the grading tool on have been older (and more beat-up) or FCBD issues with store stamps or stickers. It's the only commonality I'm seeing among the affected comics, though.

I can't do anything about the actual problem but you mentioned that you didn't have a backup showing what you previously had.

If you have the disk space, in Preferences, you can check the box by 'Automatically backup database when you close the program' and set number of backups to 100.

This way you will have a backup every time you use CB (up to 100 times).

NOTE: With this set up, if you ever DON'T want to take a backup, just press and hold the SHIFT key when you exit CB and it will bypass making a backup.

Since you seem to have eliminated Updates, the next culprits I would think of would be Rebuild List (and maybe Optimize Database) as they are actions that can change things.

I increased the number of backups kept after your previous suggestion. The change in condition occurred relatively quickly after I added this last example--before a backup could show it in its previous state--because I added the comic on Friday (or possibly Thursday) after the update last week and made a backup on Friday night.

I've never manually selected or scheduled Rebuild Lists or Optimize Database. I've sent my data to the cloud periodically, which seems to trigger one or both of those actions.

mentioned your initial trouble awhile back to our programming team and with your latest post we still don't know what could be causing the problem without 100% reproducible steps.

What was the condition of the comic before it got switched to NM?

Yes, I still can't consistently reproduce the problem myself. It only happens with some of them. I still have a lot of question marks. I'll keep trying to figure it out. This was the first time I'd seen it happen since I initially posted.

The condition of this one was Fine before it got changed to NM. They've been changed from other conditions, though. I can't add much else at this point.