Is anyone else having this issue?
I like to do tiny updates when posting a new model. Adding details, saving a draft and making edits before posting it.
I make my post, save my draft, go in and make edits, and hit save. If I do this again, the previous edits I just added get overridden or lost. It’s like there is some king of queue in the background that is being lost between edits.
I can’t say for sure (I have a baaaad memory) but I posted a model last night that was missing half of the STL files. I suspect because of this edit bug (or I just flat out forgot but I swear I added them).
I have seen them also, specifically, if I add text. Then go in to add additional text, just to lose the last text that was added.
I am using Firefox.
Make sure you don’t have multiple windows open in Edit mode. This can cause issues. That goes for different browsers at the same time as well and I would guess on different machines at the same time as well, although I have not tested that.
I had only one tab with that particular model open. I did have another tab of a different model open that I could compare against.
I am never sure how a site is configured especially when it is tied to a user account. There may be internal code that is tying the parts together. Unless you write it yourself its hard to tell what shortcuts have been taken and what impact they might have. I make sure that when I am working on anything online associated to the same account I never have more than one instance running. If I need another I actually use a separate browser and access the page without logging into the same account.
Its extremely frustrating working online and losing data. I remember when I was writing report cards I lost hours worth of reports because the system froze just as I was exiting. Shortly after that I started writing my reports offline and just copying and pasting the information. Extra steps but worth it in the long run.
The very same thing happened while I was trying to post my most recent model. I’m using the Brave browser. I would make edits to the introductory text and then scroll down to the text field containing the assembly instructions to work there. When I returned to the intro text field, the edit I just made there would be gone.
I think the page is not properly remembering its state - it cannot remember if a field has been edited or not. And when you scroll up and down the page, or when you open new sections and add a new text field, I think that forces some fields to refresh. And not remembering that they have been edited, they refresh with the last thing that they have saved rather than with what you just typed.
I ended up writing all of my text in notepad and then copying and pasting the text into the fields one at a time. I also made sure to manipulate only one text block at a time, as it seems this problem happened for me when I tried to work in multiple text blocks in the same editing session.
I pasted in the introductory text first and saved my draft. I cleared my browser cache and then reloaded the page to make sure that the text was saved in that section of the page. I then copied and pasted the assembly instructions into the text field further down on the page, saved the draft, cleared my cache, reloaded the page, and made sure that those edits had saved. After that, if I had to make any further corrections, I only edited one text block at a time to avoid any action that might force the page to refresh itself during an editing session.
To refresh the cache and reload the page in just the browser tab you are working in, press (in Windows) Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R. Apparently some people do not like clearing their entire browser cache because then they lose their OnlyFans login information or something like that.
I use those cache shortcuts all the time, especially when I am coding online. There’s nothing worse than writing code, checking the results and not seeing any change, doing that several times until you realize that it was correct the first time and it was just a cache issue. Some sites like cloudflare also cause issues as they store their own cached version and if they are between you and the site you are working on, you have to ensure that cache is cleared as well. I wouldn’t think that would be an issue in this case, although you never know?? I don’t believe that Thingiverse servers are behind a cloudflare firewall.
I will try to remember the clear cache commands.
I was saving my draft and seeing the changes reflect. The issue for me was when modifying the draft again. It then did not remember those changes I just made.
Could anyone else have access to your account and be viewing/editing the same model at the same time?
So you are saying that you create a draft and save it. You can view the initial draft “Thing” on your account. You then Edit that draft and save it again and you never see any of those (new) changes you only see the edits made when you first saved the draft when you created the thing to begin with?
I do all my work alone. The only person accessing my account should be me.
This is what happens:
Step 1: I create new thing, put in text and hit Save as Draft
Step 2: I decide I want to add new text to the description (for example)
Step 3: I click Edit and add new text, then click save draft
Step 4: The draft now shows my recent changes. I decide to add some filament settings (for example)
Step 5: I click edit, add my filament setting and select save draft. When I see the issue, Step 2 and 3 are whipped from existence.
Last night I uploaded a model with half my STL files missing. I thought I uploaded them, though I could be mistaken. But I do know I was making changes at the time.
Is the original data you had in the text field still there?
I am not sure how they are saving data for things? I would assume a DB. Maybe the commit in their procedure is not being implemented so the data is not changing and you are only seeing your cached version that still shows your recent changes.
I do recall a few years ago running into an issue similar to this where my changes never seemed to display but I found that if I didn’t do anything but went back a day or so later the changes were there. I don’t recall seeing this happen recently. Would any local firewalls be interfering with data being transferred in a timely fashion? Are you always working on the same machine or in the same location (IP?)
The original data is there, just the updates since the first save are lost. If I come back at a later time, i can make changes.
I don’t have a controlled study on exactly when or how it happens. But I have seen it a few times now.
Here are some steps that I performed just now to get this problem to appear.
DRAFT 1
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Create a new thing.
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Upload an STL file.
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In the Thing Info section, in the Name field, enter some text.
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In the Thing Info section, in the Summary field, enter some text.
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In the Select Category section, select a category.
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In the Tags section, add some tags.
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Under Terms & Conditions, select the I acknowledge and agree… checkbox.
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Click Save as Draft.
The thing saves and the page refreshes, showing the preview page of the unpublished thing.
DRAFT 2
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Click Edit Thing. The edit page appears.
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In the Thing Info section, in the Summary field, enter some new text.
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Click Save as Draft.
The thing saves and the page refreshes, showing the preview page of the unpublished thing. My changes appear on the page.
DRAFT 3
- Click Edit Thing. The edit page appears.
- In the Thing Info section, in the Summary field, enter some new text.
- Scroll down the page and click Add Print Settings. The Print Settings section appears.
- Enter information in the fields.
- Click Save as Draft.
The thing saves and the page refreshes, showing the preview page of the unpublished thing. My changes appear on the page.
DRAFT 4
This is where the problems begin to appear.
- Click Edit Thing. The edit page appears.
The edits I made in DRAFT 3 in the Thing Info section > Summary field do not appear in the field – they are deleted.
The information I entered in DRAFT 3 in the Print Settings section no longer appears – the information is deleted.
- Click Save as Draft.
The thing saves and the page refreshes, but the information that had been present at the end of DRAFT 3 is no longer there – all that information has been removed.
It seems that this problem occurs whenever you open a new section on the page, such as the Print Settings or Post Printing sections. If you create these new sections and populate them with text, save them, then re-edit the thing, the changes from your previous edit appear to be lost.
After saving your changes, if you refresh the page with CTRL-R before clicking Edit Thing, the changes are preserved and appear on the edit pages.
So the work-around here seems to be to refresh your browser tab before editing the thing. Thingiverse staff should try the steps above to see if they can replicate the problem and determine if the problem is in the browser or something on the server side.
Here’s the thing draft for Thingiverse staff to look at whatever logs might exist for it:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7396294
Hope this helps.
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@hellencharless54 Am curious to see the models you have been working on!
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@thingiro I am going to tag you in on @jonathanpiasecki notes on the data that is lost when editing things. If that needs to get added to the to do list.
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