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#1519 Leaving an entry prompts for change, but no change was made

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closed
None
Low
2020-10-24
2020-08-03
No

When I edit a certain entry, make no changes to it, press "Cancel" or "Esc", I will get a prompt for "This entry has been changed. Are you sure you wish to cancel?"

The workaround is to copy the notes out to a text editor, clear the notes, save the entry, re-copy the notes back to the entry, save the entry.

When I viewed the text in Notepad++ with "Show All Characters" enabled, nothing appears out of the ordinary to me. There's some tabs and cr/lf's. No extended ASCII or other escape charcters. I compared (Notepad++ diff) the text from a working version to a non-working (backup) version and found no differences.

This occurs in the Windows version 3.52 but not in the Linux/Ubuntu version 1.10

I'd love to be able to share a sample database that has this issue, but the entries that are doing this have sensitive data in it. Since there's a viable workaround and it will be difficult to reproduce/troubleshoot, I see this as a low priority issue.

1 Attachments

Discussion

  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-02

    How much text is there in the Notes field of the entry in question?

     
    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-03

      Hi Rony - when i copy it into notepad++ the summary reads
      Characters: 482
      Words: 79
      Lines: 34
      Length: 548

      A different one is
      Characters: 61
      Words: 11
      Lines: 5
      Length: 69

      And yet another...
      Characters: 875
      Words: 145
      Lines: 14
      Length: 901

       
  • MrMe

    MrMe - 2020-10-04

    Does the issue occur if using the latest Windows release, which is v3.53

     
    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-05

      Yes. I upgraded to 3.53 today and the issue persists.

       
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-05

    What made you suspect Notes in the first place?

     
    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-05

      I don't recall that Notes was my first suspicion or not. I might have tried other fields, but I don't recall now. I can say with certainty that an edit to the Notes field is what resolves the error.

       
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      1
    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-05

      I've reviewed every entry (200+) in my database. 142 entries have notes. Of those, 35 experience the issue.

      I can change the Group, Title, Username, Password, URL, E-mail and the issue persists.
      I can change the notes and the issue resolves.

       
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-06

    Thanks @Trevor for the time you've put into this.
    I'm wondering if your could export a single problematic entry (right-click on entry, export to PasswordSafe), "sanitze" it and reproduce the problem with that?

     
    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-06

      yes... I was able to export a single problematic entry. Sanitized the Group, Title, Username,URL, and E-mail fields, leaving the Notes field untouched. The problem persists. I'll send a DM to you with the database.

       
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-07
    • status: open --> pending
    • assigned_to: Rony Shapiro
     
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-07

    Fixed in commit ab2cc3c49, will be in next release.

     
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    1
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-08

    Fixed in commit ab2cc3c49, will be in next release.

    I've uploaded a version with the fix, if anyone would like to verify it:
    https://pwsafe.org/tmp//3.54.0/pwsafe64-3.54.0.exe (64 bit installer) or https://pwsafe.org/tmp/3.54.0/pwsafe-3.54.0.exe (32 bit).

     
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    • Trevor Vance

      Trevor Vance - 2020-10-08

      Installed v3.54.0
      Issue is no longer present.

      Thanks Rony!

       
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-09
    • Status: pending --> closed
     
  • Tim

    Tim - 2020-10-12

    I just updated the app from 3.51 to 3.54.0 and experiencing this problem. After installing the update most entries give this error "This entry has been changed. Are you sure you wish to cancel?", while a few do not.

    I've read the information above and run some tests on different entries that cause the error and some entries that do not. Nothing stands out as a definitive that I can put my finger on, even copying and pasting the notes field mentioned above.

     
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-12
    • status: closed --> open
     
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-12

    Re-opening :-(

    If someone can attach a sample database with a single test entry that reproduces the problem, that would help a lot

     
    • Tim

      Tim - 2020-10-12

      A bit of a naive question... I'm curious... if the db would retain any history of the 291 entries that I would delete, so that I can attach a copy of the db without exposing the deleted entries - yet provide you with a few examples?

      What I just tried... similar to Trevor's notes above:
      1.) I've created a new db with a few entries and could not replicate the problem.
      2.) I've created a new entry in the existing db and the new entry does not replicate the problem.
      2.) I can remove 291 entries and the one remaining entry -will- replicate the problem.
      3.) I can change the settings on the db, including change the password of the safe, and the one remaining entry -will- continue to replicate the problem.
      4.) If I add a character and remove that character in the Notes section and save the entry it resolves the issue for that entry, much like Trevor experienced in his comments above.

       
    • Tim

      Tim - 2020-10-22

      Hi Rony,

      Per my response below, is there anything additional I can add to help?

      In the interim, I'm simply adding a space and removing it - in the notes field - when the error comes up. It's annoying, but uninstalling the 3.54 version and installing an earlier version made no difference.

      Again, Thank you. :)

       
  • Mitch Ames

    Mitch Ames - 2020-10-22

    I can reproduce the problem with a single test entry.
    On Windows 7 SP1 64-bit, with 64bit versions of Password Safe, and default configuration:
    Run v3.53
    Create new database
    In options, enable "Show Notes in Edit" (may not be required)
    Add the single entry, with multi-line Notes. The Notes text was typed into the pwsafe dialog, not copy-pasted.
    (file is autosaved by default)
    File, Exit

    Run v3.54.01 (heads/master-0-g86388a52f+)
    Open the database
    Right-click the entry, and Edit Entry
    (without changing anything) Click Cancel
    Password Safe says "This entry has been changed..."

    Database attached. Safe combination: 0000

    The problem does not appear if I do the same thing but create the database with v3.54.01, so presumably there is some subtle difference in how the data is stored by the two different versions.

     
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    • Mitch Ames

      Mitch Ames - 2020-10-22

      I just checked on Windows 10, 64-bit, and get the same behaviour.

       
  • Mitch Ames

    Mitch Ames - 2020-10-23

    The new version (...g7e41430b6+) seems to be working OK.
    I did notice that if I create a new database with the new version, with a single entry with multiple paragraphs in the Notes (pwsafe2.psafe3, same combination) as before, then open that database with v3.53 (or 3.52), then 3.53 has the same issue - telling me the entry has changed if I display it, when I haven't changed anything.
    I get the same thing if I add an entry to my real database with 3.54.1, then open it with 3.53.
    (Possibly this is a consequence of a bug in 3.53 that I have not seen previously?)

    This is probably not a problem, but I do need to consider the possibility of having to rollback to the earlier version if any major problem appears in the newer version (that's not immediately apparent and becomes evident after I have added/changed an entry in my database) - it has happened a couple of times in the past. I don't think it's a high risk - and wouldn't stop me using 3.54.1 - I can fix the problem with 3.53 by simply adding a space to the end of the Notes, then deleting it and Applying the change (and 3.54.1 accepts that without any problems)

     
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-24
    • status: open --> closed
     
  • Rony Shapiro

    Rony Shapiro - 2020-10-24

    The problem is in how newlines are represented in the last couple of versions.
    As the fix was to have PasswordSafe ignore differnces in the representations, the problem will still manifest itself in older versions, as you've described.

     

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