Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing

[LongTimeUser]

Suddenly, the top button row (where you can normally find the refresh button etc.) of my Feeds display disappeared. At the same time, at the bottom there appeared the "Database Error Detected", with a "Restore Feeds" button.

Clicking "Restore Feeds" makes the button turn into "Restoring feeds..." shortly, but then reverts back to "Restore Feeds". The "Database Error Detected" does not go away.

If I enter the Feeds page in the settings dialog, I can click "Refresh" there, and Vivaldi successfully refreshes feeds.

I have no indication towards which feed is broken, or what the cause is, or what I could do about it. Restarting the browser didn't help.

My version info:

Vivaldi 6.5.3206.59 (Stable channel) (32-bit)
Revision 2b37337cc1b01680ba70e18da89e697b290a2d3e
OS Windows 10 Version 22H2 (Build 19045.3930)
JavaScript V8 12.0.267.19

What now?

[Zalex108]

@LongTimeUser

Hi,
Welcome to Vivaldi's Forum

I don't know how to recover them, what happened right before?
Crashes, OS / V Updates?

Meanwhile other users gives you better support, I suggest to Back up your Profile.
As to avoid worst happenings as to learn about overcome Data loss situations.

Steps at the bottom.

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Also,
Some useful links:

Forums	Community	Official Tutorials	Official Help
Forum Categories	Modding Vivaldi	Vivaldi Features	Vivaldi Help
Forum Markdown	Panels • Engines	Vivaldi Tutorials	Issues
Feature Requests ¿?	Menus • Guides • FAQ	Vivaldi How To	Bug Reports

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---

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Avoid Data loss
Follow the Backup | Reset links below

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Vivaldi Backup | Reset + Extra Steps

[LongTimeUser]

Thanks @Zalex108.

I do not remember anything in particular just before - certainly no crashes or big updates. There was a Vivaldi update recently, but I cannot recall where exactly it was in relationship to the problem starten.

I have daily filesystem backups available reaching back months; the error cropped up 2-3 days ago. Do you know which files contain the feeds DB, and whether it's possible to just pull them back out of a daily from a few days ago? I tried the User Data/Default/MailDB and MaiDB-journal files (if I look into MailDB, it does seem to contain at least some aspect of the feeds, i.e. I find the feed titles there), and restoring older copies did nothing.

(Note, I am not using the mail accounts in Vivaldi; just feeds.)

Is this forum the right place to get support for things like this? Should I be opening a bug report somewhere? I mean whatever caused the issue, the behaviour now means the feeds are "stuck"; the "Restore Feeds" button is there but does nothing.

[Zalex108]

@LongTimeUser

I don't use RSS, but had them added on the Main Profile despite the RSS is disabled.

I've tried and the RSS entries appears at Settings/Feeds but are not fetched.

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Have to say I've added that time ago and the structure and settings has possibly changed.

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So,
Have you checked there?
At least to recover their URLs

I've had to go to the stored Feeds URL and "add them again" to fetch.

Maybe would be needed a Feature Request for a "ReFetch" button for Zombie RSS.

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The .eml files are either for Mails as for Feeds, that are located at ../User Data/Default/Mail and on random folder parent and childs.

You could check both and depending on what's there, restore both and the Preferences file at Desktop.
About this, not sure since the possible changes being the Feeds entry is duplicated on the test I'm doing.

Explain what you have in your Settings and we would check

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Regardin an Official Bug Report, wait til middle of the next week to other users and Dev Team to read the post, they may give more info aside they would need to know what's on Settings/Feeds.

Before any Restore, Clone and Disconnect from Sync.

Check here:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/94705/guide-troubleshoot-disconnected

[deneban]

@LongTimeUser said in Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing:

Suddenly, the top button row (where you can normally find the refresh button etc.) of my Feeds display disappeared. At the same time, at the bottom there appeared the "Database Error Detected", with a "Restore Feeds" button.

What now?

The answer lies one topic over in https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/94681/guide-lost-or-corrupted-feed-mitigation

[deneban]

@Zalex108 said in [Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing]

Check here:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/94705/guide-troubleshoot-disconnected

Zalex, the post you just pinned: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/94681/guide-lost-or-corrupted-feed-mitigation

[Zalex108]

@deneban

But I don't know if the user has that list on Feeds yet.

[deneban]

@Zalex108 said in Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing:

@deneban

But I don't know if the user has that list on Feeds yet.

It deals with his/her symptom "Database Error Detected" . I have improved it since you pinned it.

[LongTimeUser]

Thanks all. It turns out the issue was that one of the feeds URLs had become inaccessible (not available anymore / HTTP 5xx). For some reason, this lead to Vivaldi's behaviour described in my top post, which I find unlucky.

So if a Vivaldi member is reading here, my suggestion would be to make it clear to the user what the cause of the issue is. To repeat: Vivaldi displays "Database Error" and offers a button to "Restore Feeds". But in this case (i.e. the URL of an erstwhile functioning RSS feeds which had already been fetched in the past has gone away and only returns some HTTP 5xx error now), both the error message and the button label make no sense. First of all, it is not a Database Error for the feed provider to go down. Second, the button does nothing. Thirdly, there is no indication to the user what the actual problem is.

If one goes to Settings -> Feeds and attentively scrolls through the list, the error condition is, actually, displayed there. Still it is unclear (not indicated by the GUI) that deleting the feed is the solution. Also, coincidentally, in my case, I would have preferred not to delete it: it would be fine for me not to get updates if the owner of that feed (i.e., the .xml or .rss URL) goes out of business; in this case all the individual entry URLs within the feed still worked, so it would be perfectly fine for me to finish consuming that feed on my own time, and delete it eventually (or heck, the URL might come back from the dead...).

I suggest for Vivaldi to recognize this case, and maybe display the feed itself (in the regular feed sidebar) in a way that indicates the error. And not to show the "Database Error" and "Restore Feeds" elements. This would solve the problem fully and be much more user friendly.

The issue is also shown in the other topic pinned ("Guide Lost or Corrupted Feed Mitigation"). There it says:

My experience is that the Database error is cleared when you delete one or two offending Feed entries in the Feed Settings dialog. It is likely that the Feed for which you are seeking history on is the same Feed messing up the database, so it's a good bet that deleting that one will clear the database condition.
Usually the user or their conscience knows which Feed(s) caused the database error. Another approach is to delete the Feeds in the reverse order they were created.

This is very unconvincing. Asking the user to randomly delete feeds is not very useful; fine, in my particular case it was obvious in hindsight (but again, the broken URL was not displayed as a reason for "Database Errors" in the GUI). Any feed's URL can break, even a very old one. The above advice would not have helped me; the broken feed was not a particularly recent one.

Again, thanks all for the help; just take the feedback as constructive criticism on how to improve the UX please.

[Zalex108]

@LongTimeUser

Good for the finding.

About the request,
Better if you open a specific Feature Request instead, otherwise will get lost here.

Sometimes VDevs read here but usually are focused on other things.

As FR would be better also for other users.

[deneban]

@LongTimeUser said in Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing:

Thanks all. It turns out the issue was that one of the feeds URLs had become inaccessible (not available anymore / HTTP 5xx). For some reason, this lead to Vivaldi's behaviour described in my top post, which I find unlucky.
...
The issue is also shown in the other topic pinned ("Guide Lost or Corrupted Feed Mitigation"). There it says:

My experience is that the Database error is cleared when you delete one or two offending Feed entries in the Feed Settings dialog. It is likely that the Feed for which you are seeking history on is the same Feed messing up the database, so it's a good bet that deleting that one will clear the database condition.
Usually the user or their conscience knows which Feed(s) caused the database error. Another approach is to delete the Feeds in the reverse order they were created.

This is very unconvincing. Asking the user to randomly delete feeds is not very useful; fine, in my particular case it was obvious in hindsight (but again, the broken URL was not displayed as a reason for "Database Errors" in the GUI). Any feed's URL can break, even a very old one. The above advice would not have helped me; the broken feed was not a particularly recent one.

That characterization of the guide is a little too quick: it does not promote random deletion; it provides some guidance for a deletion sequence. But I see your underlying point: Vivaldi may indicate the problem feed in the Feed Settings interface:

If one goes to Settings -> Feeds and attentively scrolls through the list, the error condition is, actually, displayed there...

I have revised the guide to indicate this, but be advised you were more fortunate than other cases where the problem feed is not always indicated to the user. Case in point: when it is really a database error, Vivaldi does not proactively localize it to a single feed.

In the end, wasn't it the deletion of a feed that cleared the Database error? It was your experience that convinced you rather than the guide, but the guide was aligned with the solution.

I agree the "Database Error" is used to flag more than its namesake. It is also flagging retrieval errors. Every evolving program is a work in progress.

[rwp0]

Thanks @LongTimeUser for your post and answer.
I had the same issue, caused by the most recent feed I attempted to add which is not "broken". I deleted and re-added it (through the settings page), and now everything is alright.

The most horrifying thing for me was that I found no way to export my hardly-accumulated feeds.

Seems like we can import but unfortunately not export feeds in Vivaldi:

https://help.vivaldi.com/mail/mail-feeds/import-feeds-from-other-feed-readers/

So how can we backup our feeds given that there's also no syncing thereof (I believe)?

One of the reason I use Vivaldi rather than Edge for instance is the built-in availability and integration of feeds so that I can check my favorites news quickly and in a central place without leaving the browser.

[janrif]

@LongTimeUser said in Database Error Detected - Restore Feeds - does nothing:

If I enter the Feeds page in the settings dialog, I can click "Refresh" there, and Vivaldi successfully refreshes feeds.

Hi @LongTimeUser. Settings > Feeds > 'Restore' or 'Update' do nothing here even though I see a list of my Feeds.

I wonder what the difference is in our results...Hmm