How long does it take to process a sync file?

[craiggsmith]

I have a computer that has been processing a sync file in MLS for over an hour -- it has the message "Updating finance ..." on screen. How long does this normally take? This machine is about 1.5 years old; I'm thinking something's not right.

[aebrown]

I have a computer that has been processing a sync file in MLS for over an hour -- it has the message "Updating finance ..." on screen. How long does this normally take? This machine is about 1.5 years old; I'm thinking something's not right.

Only a small number of minutes at most. If it's been going for an hour, there's definitely something wrong. I'm not sure what course of action to recommend, but I'm confident that waiting longer is not going to help at this point.

[craiggsmith]

OK, thanks. It's been 2 hours now. I was able to simply close the updating box. I tried another Send/Receive and it didn't download or process anything, so hopefully everything will be OK.

[aebrown]

OK, thanks. It's been 2 hours now. I was able to simply close the updating box. I tried another Send/Receive and it didn't download or process anything, so hopefully everything will be OK.

I think you'll be okay. What I like to do is to show the Send/Receive Status screen (F9). Then you can watch the processing of the files. When they have all changed color to show they have been processed, you can be confident the process is done, even if an "Updating" progress dialog box is still displayed.

[craiggsmith]

Thanks, I'll try that, I didn't know you could do that while a dialog box was displayed. At the bottom of the screen it had the file name displayed so it sure looked like it was still doing something. Thanks again.

[lajackson]

For many years, the MLS Updating progress dialog box has rarely closed for us, even when the updating is complete. I believe this is a display issue. Sometimes minimizing the MLS window and reopening it will cause the box to disappear if the processing is complete, but more often than not, we just close it after a few minutes.

Alan has provided a more certain way to determine if the file is processed. We have just been living dangerously, I guess. But, so far, there has not been a problem.

[dajoker]

I, too, have seen this window get stuck, though infrequently and irregularly. Usually, in my case, it's the membership window. In every case I remember hitting the dialog's 'x' (to close) has had no noticeable adverse effects. Still, makes me twitch each time thinking I'm about to destroy the world by doing something I shouldn't.
AB

[jdlessley]

What is nice about MLS since version 3.1 is that an interruption in a data transfer is not supposed to cause problems. This was part of the data transfer enhancement that introduced the data transfer bar and the F9-show transfer window. I am not sure about MLS updates. If a user interrupts the transfer, or if there is an unexpected interruption, the transfer can be resumed by clicking send/receive changes again. The data transfer will resume where it left off. How that comes into play for the 3.5 upgrade I don't know.

[craiggsmith]

Thanks everyone, good to know. I'll check with some friends at the church today just to make sure but it sounds like we're probably fine.