FD 3.0.0.22 RC1

IE 8 (IE7 when Rc1 ws installed)

Windows XPSP3, AMD Turion 64 (Windows is 32-bit), 2 Gb RAM

Upon syncing with Greader the first time every folder and every feed, except one, was duplicated.  For example, I now have two "Favorite Channels" folders, one with a blue dot icon, and one without.  The one with the blue icon seems to be staying in sync with Greader.

I had a large number of folders/feeds/items when I started, but now after duplication, and after running the Cleanup Wizzard, with default settings, I have: 81 folders, 3,537 feeds, 236,922 items, 138,996 unread items, 34 flagged items and 3712 tagged items.

Performance was significantly degraded.  I had only run Cleanup once before yesterday and that was when I first started using version 2.  I wish I'd taken the statistics before I ran Cleanup, but I didn't think to. 

I like the ability to keep items.  However after installing RC1 and syncing Greader, performance was so bad, FD would only open if I shut down every other program.  Then it would take 20 min plus just to get FD to open and begin checking feeds.  It would frequently freeze for 10-30 seconds.  HD activity was almost solid during FD startup and when checking feeds.  I could run other programs after FD was open and then go back to FD.  The other programs were not freezing.

FeedDemon became unusable with the freezing so I decided to use Cleanup to reduce the size of everything and see if performance improved.  It did, but it still freezes, but less frequently and for shorter times (~22 sec while I typed this sentence).  If I go offline, it won't freeze.

If I go to the folders w/o the blue dot and try to move those feeds to the folders with the blue dot's, I get "a feed with this title already exists in the selected folder." If I re-name the folder, I get the same error. Neither can I move them from blue-dot to w/o-dot.

The one exception to this whole issue is the single folder I was syncing to Newsgator before syncing to Greader.  Because I have so many feeds, folders and items, I had restricted my Newsgator syncing to one folder with one feed.  I just don't get much out of using Newsgator.  That folder/feed was not duplicated.

The ideal outcome would be to fix this and I'd restore from my pre-RC1 backup. 

What I'll probably try next is to restore from the pre-RC1 backup and then sync all my folders with Newsgator and then try syncing with Greader again.

I'm mostly reporting this as a beta issue versus looking for a fix.  I understand I'm not close to an average FD users.

Cheers.

Regarding the performance problems, although you do store more data than most FD customers, you still shouldn't see FD slow to a crawl.  The first thing I'd recommend is to try selecting File > Manage Cache > Compact.  That will defragment the feed database, which in your case may provide a significant speed boost.

Nick Bradbury
Nick's Blog

FeedDemon synced w/o problems.  When I run a new beta, I shut down everything that can suck CPU or HD activity and suspend AV.

The non-syncing folders contained my FD content from previous versions.  The blue-dot syncing folders seemed to contain only what was in the current RSS content for each feed.  I didn't check, but the item counts were in the neighborhood for every feed.  When FD checked for new items, they would show up in both feeds.  E.g. MSNBC - Top News would be in two "News" folders and new articles would appear in both.  If I read in the GR synced folder, it would become "read" in GReader, if I read in the non-synced folder, it would not.

I scan for errors and compact every time I backup.  It seems like about every third time I check for errors, I'll get a popup "FeedDemon appears to be frozen.  Restart?" or something like that.  I always chose "no" the first time.  Once in a while I'll get it twice and I only pick restart after three of those.  (I just re-checked for errors and compacted and the scan took 2:41 and offered once to restart and the compact took 3:05 and didn't throw an error box.  N.B. I'm now running 3.0.0.13 Beta 2)

What I've done now:  Using Beta1, I went off-line.  I changed my cache to point to the last backup (Beta 5a) and moved it to the default location.  I was hoping restoring from the pre-GR-sync would eliminate all those dupes.  It didn't.  I still had all the blue-dot folders with feeds but w/o any articles in any of the feeds.  I deleted all of the new synced to GR folders.  I then set all but one folder to sync with Newsgator via the properties for each folder.  Then I installed Beta 2.

On starting Beta2 for the first time, I was prompted for my Newsgator account info but when I entered it FeedDemon said it couldn't find the Internet and to connect and retry.  So I skipped past it.  Beta 2 then went through the usual converting database and started.  I went on-line.  I went to Tools | Synchronization Options and entered my NewsGator account w/o an error. 

Something to think about: if FD startup says it's not connected, offer a box to choose to "go online."

However, when I go to the Manage Folders tab, the only folder marked sync is the one I was syncing under the old FD.  If I select all folders, and click "Apply" all the new check marks clear except the one folder I was syncing.  I tried selecting the root "Subscriptions" and the selections would clear when I clicked apply. Or if I select all and click OK and then come back and they're unselected again.

And I can't find the options/prompt to sync to GR now.  I can import feeds from GR, but it's no longer syncing.  I thought the GR options were under Tools | Synchronization Options, but I can't find it now.

I doubt you want to recommend it, but installing a non-GR-enabled version on top of a GR sync version does seem to revert syncing back to Newsgator.  I ran 3.0.0.13 for about a week without significant client-side problems other than the occasional freeze, which *seems* less frequent and duration than they did when I was on 3.0.0.13 when it was the current beta release.  Newsgator syncing has never been wildly successful with all my feeds, going back to 2.8.  But 3.0.0.13 seemed to sync about as well with Newsgator as 2.8 did for me.

/me crosses fingers as I re-try GR syncing.

-dmk

Briefly:  RC1 global duplication except the one folder that was synced to NG

Deleted new, blue, GR synced folders.

Installed 3.0.0.13 by accident.

Synced to NG.

Installed 3.0.0.23 RC2, no dupes, 480 unsynced.

-dmk

The next time you start FeedDemon, it'll pull all your feeds from Google Reader again.

Nick Bradbury
Nick's Blog