We decided to collect the common problems All My Movies and All My Books users encounter and describe the ways to solve them. We hope that this page will be useful for those who google the exact error message.
First, a couple of general recommendations. If you get any error messages or strange or unstable behavior from the cataloger, switch to the "Title list" display mode - menu "View - Title list". This is the most stable and fast display mode and is especially recommended using before a mass addition/update of books or movies.
Another important point is the location of the collection's database file. Try not to open the collection from a flash drive or an external hard disk - first copy the file to a local hard disk and open it from there. We encountered several cases of damage to the database file without the possibility of recovery, and in each of these cases, the collection file was on a flash drive. A large number of program glitches associated with the location of the collection file in the cloud folder! Do not store a working database file in OneDrive, Dropbox, Yandex.Disk and similar services! They are great for backups, but when you open a working collection from them, the cataloger will generate a lot of errors. And the problem here is not with the cataloger, but with the fact that cloud services lock the file for writing at random times. Most often during synchronization, and since the size of the database file is large, the lock time is long enough! If the database is located on some slow medium (eg, a network drive), then all view types except "Title list" will be markedly slow!
The first thing you should do if there are any oddities in the work of the program, which may be related to the database, is to run the menu item "Database - Compress...". This will fix possible small internal problems with the database, and will clean the file from the "garbage". Additionally, the key shortcut Shift + Ctrl + F8 can recreate the indexes. This probably fixes weird lags in the database.
If you get connection errors when trying to look up book or movie details, first check if the selected database can be opened in your web browser. Some websites block users from some countries for some reason. Try to use the menu item "Help - Check for updates...". If it doesn't work either, it may be a global app connection issue. This is often an issue with Windows 7. First, make sure that your firewall and antivirus don't block the program.
Then, check the Internet settings:
Press the Win+R keys and paste the following line into the dialog:
rundll32 inetcpl.cpl, LaunchConnectionDialog
and press the Enter key. In the Internet Settings dialog, switch to the "Advanced" tab and check that the "Use TLS1.1" and "Use TLS1.2" options are set there.
If setting those options doesn't help, you'll need to install the SSL certificate as described here:
https://help.examus.net/en/support/solutions/articles/36000320518-windows-7-connection-not-secure
Let's move on to specific error messages.
It appears whenever you try to change something in the collection. The reason is that the cataloger wants to, but cannot write changes to the file. The most common reasons for this are:
Solution: move the database file to a folder with no write access permissions for the current user. Most often it helps to move it to the "Documents" folder (but not inside the "OneDrive" folder!) and open the file from there.
The error occurs if the database file is corrupted. In most cases this problem is not fatal and can be solved with the help of the menu item "Database - Compress". This operation cleans "trash" from the database file and corrects small errors. You can also try to press the CTRL-Shift-F8 key combination - this will recreate the indexes in the database. If all these fails, try opening a backup copy. To find it, use the "Tools - Settings" menu and click on the "Open folder" button there. Backups can be opened by double-clicking on the file. An alternative way to search for backup files is to search for files with the *.amm and *.amb extensions on the disk.
An infrequent error, fairly easy to solve, but not obvious to the user. It usually occurs when the database file has reached a critical size of 2GB and you have not yet moved the image storage to a separate folder. Usually the error just appears when you try belatedly to disable the option "Store all the images inside the database" in the Preferences on the "Expert options" tab. To solve it, you need to delete from the database a couple of books or movies (write down on a piece of paper what it is, so that you can add again later). After deleting must use the menu item "Database - Compress..." and after that move the pictures to a separate folder using that option in the Preferences. Now all should pass without errors.
These are very rare but the most dangerous errors. They are generated right away when launching the program and mean that Windows Data Access Components are corrupted in some way. It often happens after using different Windows "system optimizer" or registry cleaners/optimizer apps. If this is your case, you can try to roll back the changes. The main danger of this error is that the only reliable way to fix it is to reinstall Windows. You cannot reinstall Windows Data Access Components alone. You can also try running "sfc /scannow" command in the console with administrator privileges to search for damaged system files and restore them, but it does not always work.
These are the errors and puzzles, which the author of the cataloger cannot reproduce in any way. If you can steadily repeat them, send a screenshot of the program window (so you can see the display mode, filters enabled, etc.) and describe step by step how to reproduce the error. Maybe we will also need your database file. Write the details to author @ bolidesoft.com, I would be grateful. If I can reproduce these errors, I will be able to fix them. Thank you!
If at startup the program reports that it cannot open the database, you can try the following. Close the program and try starting it while holding down the Shift key. This will force the program to skip reading the settings from the database file. If the database opens successfully, press Shift+Ctrl+F8 to write the default settings to the database file. If the database does not open again, you can try to find a backup. To open the backup folder, go to Preferences (menu item "Tools-Preferences") and click the "Open folder" button on the first tab. By default, backups are stored in C:\ProgramData\AllMyBooks or C:\ProgramData\AllMyMovies. Usually, ProgramData is a hidden folder, but you can go there by copying and pasting the path into the address bar in Windows Explorer. The found backup file can be opened by double-clicking it.
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