I'm getting this "? warning": Could not load capture history from /volumes/the volume/name.quanta

What bugs me is I don't get the warning from the other backup set. Two identical capture scenarios, aiming at two identical (named differently) external usb drives. Scenarios set up to ignore if no archive, so we just swap them out daily and one runs, while the other doesn't. Worked great for a while, then there was some type of error on one of them (cannot obtain FSRef for file:package.index). I "repaired" that archive, and it captures data to it, but I now always get the "Could not load capture history" warning after the capture runs.

Anything I should do?

Josh Davenport wrote:I'm getting this "? warning": Could not load capture history from /volumes/the volume/name.quanta

That's odd that you continue to get this error. Normally, a bad capture history file will be rewritten on the next capture so this doesn't repeat. Please send a diagnostic report (Help > Send Report...) so I can look for any other capture history related errors in the log.

Anything I should do?

Ignore it.

Capture history is non-essential information about the top-level items that have been captured in your archive. So, as an example, if you capture your Applications folder to an archive named MyStuff, two things happen: a tiny file named outline.index is written inside the archive package that records that this archive may contains items in your Applications folder. At the same time, an alias to that archive is created and written to <your home folder>/Library/Preferences/QRecall/Recent Captures.

Now what's all this good for? When you use the QRecall contextual menu (OS X 10.5) or the QRecall Service (OS X 10.6) to recall or recapture an item directly in the finder, QRecall scans the archives in the Recent Captures folder and quickly reads their history (outline.index) files in order to determine which archive(s) the item you've selected might be captured. So if you selected the iTunes application in the Finder and choose the "Reveal in Archive" command, the history information would tell QRecall that the archive MyStuff might contain that application.

It's superfluous information as far as the integrity of your archive or captured data is concerned. Why it's repeated failing is somewhat of a mystery, because the alias and outline.index files gets rewritten every time you complete a capture. So anything that I can image that would go wrong should get fixed after the next capture.

If you want to try to fix this, start by opening the archive package (select the archive in the Finder, control/right+click on the icon, and choose Show Package Contents). Locate and trash the outline.index file.

If that doesn't do the trick, try discarding all of the alias files in ~/Library/Preferences/QRecall/Recent Captures.

You might also consider repairing the volume that contains your archives using Disk Utility. A lot of strange file system problems (like the infamous "cannot obtain FSRef") can be caused by subtle errors in the volume's structure.

Josh,

I looked at the code for this this morning, and another thought occurred to me. It's the QRecallMonitor process (the invisible app that runs the QRecall Activity monitor window) that loads the history. Following a capture, it reloads the history for every known archive. This gives it a "bird's eye" view of what's been captured in every on-line archive. So the error might not be from either of your rotating archives. Again, you can test this by discarding all of the aliases in the Recent Captures folder, and waiting to see when the problem reoccurs.

Thanks for the quick response, James. I've been out of the office the last two days (I got elected in November as a State Representative in NH - wow, a lot of work!) and just received the email notification. I'll send along the log, and try your recommended fixes.

Josh