BSS 5.5.2 and earlier Mac version: Undo has very short limit

Seems like my Undo only has about 20 to 30 steps or so that I can go back. We definitely need more than that. Today I was trying to alter some things for a client and didn’t like what it did in the end and wanted to go back where I started from (after already doing some other work prior to it) and I couldn’t go all the way back. I ended up having to create a component for the other part I had added and edited and restart the project to go back to the beginning and then add the component in to get my other work back.

Shouldn’t have to do that, there should be at least 100 steps you go back, or like some apps do they give you the ability to set how many steps you want it to do giving you a maximum that it can do so you know what the max is.

Hopefully this is something that can be looked into as it’s kind of frustrating to have to go through all I did just because I couldn’t go back far enough. Today’s venture probably only needed about 10 t0 20 more steps to get back where I wanted to be.

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The auto-update & install feature of BSS 5.x does have its drawbacks. I preferred when we could download the latest release and choose when to install it ourselves for situations just like this. If there’s a bug in a new release, you’re stuck with it until the devs fix it.

Now you have no choice but to wait for the bug fix (unless there’s a way to downgrade back to 5.51 that I’m not aware of?)

I know there are some websites out there that host older versions of software (I’ve even seen BSS on them), but I’m always leery of such sites because while they could be legit, they could also be ways for hackers to deploy malware on to your machine.

Anyone else got a suggestion?

BTW, what are your backup settings? I have mine set to every 15 minutes, but if you’re by chance your’re doing backups every 5 mins, you might be able to get your old work back by loading the a backed up version of the site.

(Personally, from years of having Adobe programs crash in the middle of jobs, I developed an instinctive habit of saving my file just before I’m going to start to doing major changes that I may find I end up not liking.)

Thank you for the report!

The undo/redo history has a limit of 100 steps and seems to work correctly when I test it. I am not sure what could have caused the problem you’ve faced. As @printninja mentioned, the Auto Backup feature can be of big help in situations where you need an old version recovered.

I would definitely like to see this added as a feature!

Interestingly, this has happened to me quite a few times so there’s definitely something going on here. Most of the time I only go back a few or up to maybe 20 changes, but every once in a while I have to do what I did yesterday (testing stuff for client) and it’s definitely not working right then if it’s supposed to be 100 steps. I’ve had it quit at less than 20 a few times, and this time as mentioned it went a little further. Because of this I do save quite often, but for some reason I didn’t think to do it as I forgot that this happens to me. It’s not a lot mind you, but then again I wouldn’t really know if it’s always or sometimes since I only go back a handful most of the time.

Let me know if you need me to check anything on this and I will. I’ll also try to take some time this weekend and just play with editing a bunch and undoing over and over and see what it does.

Since you’ve brought this up, I will do the same. I’ve never noticed a problem with the undo feature, but I rarely go back more than 40-50 steps. Now I am curious.

BTW, jo, if I may ask, are you working on a laptop/notebook or a desktop computer?

Working on a Mac Mini desktop computer.

I’m not too familiar with the Macs, but I presume the Mac Mini plugs into the wall like any other desktop, so my question is, “do you have your system on an UPS (uninterruptible power supply)?”

Decades ago, I found that to be my biggest nemesis. I’d be writing code or working on a job in Photoshop or Illustrator for hours, I would fail to save it frequently, and then the power would go off for a split second, and I’d lose all my work. The electricity is normally pretty reliable here, but we do get very strong thunderstorms, windstorms, snowstorms, and just occasional “flickers” or voltage drops at 3am that the world doesn’t notice, but crazy night owls like me building website in the wee hours of the morning do.

As a consequence, about 18 years ago I bought two APC battery backups/surge protectors for about $125 each, and have been using them ever since. I’ve replaced the batteries in them twice (they eventually stop holding a charge) at a total cost of $100 so that $350 has save my a** more times than I can remember.

I tell every person I know who owns a computer to consider a UPS a mandatory purchase. Even just to ensure the O.S. doesn’t get corrupted by a sudden, unexpected shut-down (happens on Windows machines.)

Yep, actually have 2 of them. One of them has my computers/monitor/external harddrives/phone slots and the other has my internet, tv and dvd/box in it. Power’s gone of plenty of times here where I had ample time ot finish what I was doing, save and shut down if needed. Should be good to go there. :slight_smile:

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Doesn’t the Bootstrap backup folder serve this purpose?

OK, just trying to help “Valued Member”, sorry for not seeing the suggestion that was discussed and recommended.

Of course help is always appreciated, and yes, I can see how someone might innocently post such advice if they did not notice that it had already been discussed (my inept attempt at humor with the “late to the party” joke nonwithstanding,) so allow me to apologize. I deleted my post.

(FWIW, the “Valued Member” badge just appeared on my profile one day. :man_shrugging: I don’t consider myself any more “valuable” than anyone else here.)

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So it just happened to me again 3 times in the same session, but I think I might know what’s causing it, or at least where it’s happening. I believe it’s when I am focused on another app/window and maybe do some editing (had Sublime open to help edit some complex things just easier to do there sometimes) and when I went back I got like 2 or 3 undos and it stopped … but … that was in the open custom code window and when I clicked into the html window it started to go back again but …

The bigger issue here is it’s bypassing some undos and only doing those in specific areas. The undos shouldn’t be tied to specific areas of the app. An Undo should be an Undo regardless of where it’s being done as far as what I am thinking anyways.

So although I haven’t tracked down exactly what’s going on, it does seem that clicking outside the program (might need to edit something, do an email etc., I’ll check that further later) it loses it’s place somehow? Maybe it’s messing up the count? I dunno, I just know that trying to edit things inside the app is getting to be more work than needed and I’m at this point considering doing my edits to the custom code outside the app and copying it back in. It seems to happen mostly in custom code, but has also happened many times while editing CSS which I guess you would say is Custom Code as well since it’s usually the custom css file that’s being worked in.

Wish I could say you’re not alone in this, but so far I have yet to find any issue with the undo system. At least on my Window 7 x64 system, it seems to work same as always. I will say, I rarely use external code editors when using BSS. I’ve found the program’s built in CSS editor seems to be all I need. I sometimes will do the copy/paste thing you described using Notepad++, especially when I need to do large global replacements, or when I’m working with very large photo galleries and have to sequential numbering. Notepad++ is a great, flexible, free, and surprisingly powerful coding tool for Windows. I like it MUCH better than Atom.

Yeah I have Notepadd++ as well, but I’ve been trying out Subline which I like well also. Unfortunately, I have no choice at this point but to use external editors for pretty much all my custom code blocks or I lose the ability to go back far enough in Undos. Not even 10 steps has been the norm and the last time it did it I got a whole 3 steps and it stopped. It’s like it’s remembering from the start of the session and not moving forward from there? I dunno, it’s just weird and frustrating at best.

Is the undo feature issue limited to only changes in the CSS editor? In other words, can you undo other actions in the program like dragging & dropping components and making changes with the visual tools normally, or are those also limited in the number of “undos?”

It stops all Undo’s if I make changes in a CSS file. Now whether or not it will allow me to do lots of undos with component adding and removing etc. that I’ll test a little later and see as that’s a good point. I do believe it works, but only if I don’t touch the CSS at all, but I’ll test it to be sure.