!!! Beware of Save Archive !!!

Freeway
1

!!! Beware of Save Archive !!!

We have found a horrible bug in Save Archive, which can cause files to be deleted if you use it on an APFS disk. The files that are deleted (on an APFS disk) are everything that is in the folder you choose from the file dialog which is labelled “Save Archive Folder in”.

Because of this, we advise you to avoid using Save Archive wherever possible. If you do use it, make sure you have a Time Machine backup and follow the following steps (carefully):

The only safe way to use Save Archive (currently) is:

  1. Create an empty folder (the archive folder) in the Finder
  2. Select/open this folder in the dialog that says “Save Archive Folder in:” and ensure that the popup menu at the top of the dialog shows the name of the empty folder you created
  3. Click on “Save Archive”
  4. Type anything you like in the next (“New Folder”) dialog (e.g. “asdf”)
  5. The “asdf” folder will be empty (you can throw it away). Everything else in the archive folder is the actual archive.

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2

eek. Thanks for the warning, Jeremy.

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3

Eeek indeed!

The deletion bug doesn’t seem to happen on an HFS disk, but I’ve looked at the code and it seems that it could potentially happen with HFS in certain situations. The steps I listed above should be safe on any system.

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4

The bug can also happen with HFS. To avoid it happening (if you use Save Archive) - always save the archive into a new empty folder. You don’t have to create this folder in the Finder - you can also create it in the Save Archive file dialog. Here are some (simpler) steps for doing that:

  1. Create a new folder in the dialog that says “Save Archive Folder in:” (and check that the popup menu at the top of the dialog shows the name of the new folder you created). In older systems there is an obvious “New Folder” button, but in newer systems (e.g. Mojave) there is a small icon near the top of the dialog
  2. Click on Save Archive
  3. Type anything you like in the next (“New Folder”) dialog (e.g. “asdf”)
  4. The “asdf” folder will be empty (you can throw it away). Everything else in the archive folder is the actual archive.

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5

Just for reference: the bug appears to be triggered in two situations:

  1. Saving an archive into a folder that already contains a “Media” or “Site Folder” folder
  2. Saving an archive into a folder that contains the Freeway document you are currently working on

We don’t think this is a new bug (the Save Archive code hasn’t changed in many years) but it’s something we’ve only just discovered.

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6

Thank you for sharing.

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