One Bad Formula Category

[Darius1968]

The log file represents the database that is now in a state, where it takes a full 13 minutes to open, and when it does, the only thing I can do is close it again.
It all started when I created a formula category with the wrong syntax:  "@CatDistinct[_Private Keywords|_Interests|Foot Fetish|Sides OR _Private Keywords|_Interests|Foot Fetish|Soles]"

What's happening is that everything is fine, until it gets to the "initializing category view..." stage of the game, at which point the 13 (or so) minute-long hang occurs.  When it finally does open, IMatch is parked on the said category, and I can't click on it to delete it because then, there will be another hang!  What can I do to delete this one offending category, so that I match can smoothly open this database again?? 

[Mario]

IMatch reports several of your categories as being exceptional slow:

__Formulas/Selections (which takes 281 seconds to calculate!), Uncategorized Files, 00 and 01.


Can't you just restore your last daily backup of the database?
There is no feature in IMatch which would allow you to delete a category during the database load or anything or to deactivate the calculation of formula-based categories.

IMatch re-calculates formula-based categories whenever the category cache is invalidated. This means that your category needs to be calculated several times, and every time blocks the database for almost 5 minutes.

The only way I see which might work is:

Rename your settings database "C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch6\config\imatch.pts" to *.bak".
Start IMatch. It will come up with factory defaults.
Open your database via the Database menu and wait until things settle. IMatch will start without a selection in the Category view, which might make this work.
Disable the category counts in the Category View via the Gear button  in the toolbar. This will avoid re-calculation of the category.
Pause the file window in the category view.
Then delete the category.
Close IMatch, delete the new .PTS file and rename your original PTS file back. This will restore all your settings.

If this does not work, the only other idea would be a custom app which you can run and which deletes the category.

[Darius1968]

I was able to get that one bad formula category deleted!
Am I killing two birds with one stone by committing to daily back ups via Pack & Go - compact & optimize/diagnosis, as well as a back up?  Pack & Go says that it does database diagnosis, and then says it is optimizing, and I just wondered if this is the same process as when I effect the processes from within IMatch. 

P.S.
What were the other categories that the log file reported as slow? 

[Mario]

Search the log file for ##SLOWCAT to find them.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, mind. Some categories may take longer than the 2s threshold I use for the log. I log that only in Debug mode anyway.

Diagnosis is checking the database for problems.
Optimizing is compacting the database for optimal performance.

[Darius1968]

But, what I wanted to verify is that am I effectively doing a daily database diagnosis and compact & optimize when I use the Pack & Go module to do a database back up, which can thus, be instead of doing those from within the IMatch interface itself? 

[Mario]

I don't understand.

[jch2103]

I believe he's asking if manually running database diagnostics and database compact are necessary if one uses Pack & Go to back up a database.

[Mario]

Ah. If you use Pack & Go all day, then not.

But Pack & Go is meant to be used as a tool to help moving IMatch databases between multiple computers. Nothing you would do daily.
It is not a replacement for a backup strategy and software.