Items disappearing from samba

Hello Everybody

This is the third time m bringing my issue to this forum but nobody yet solved my problem. Last time @VehbiEmiroglu told me to send him a copy of database from one of my client. I send a copy of database and he tell me he will get back to me. After few days i asked him if any updates? He said hes still working on it. I said ok and after few days again i message him if any updates but this time he didnt answer me and after that i never heared anything from him.
I am a registered reseller and i sell no of licenses already but i have only 1 issue and they cant solve it.
Now again i want to explain my problem and that is:
I have 3 customers who have big groceries and they are using our software sambapos. The problem they are facing is items getting disappear. Whenever they get new items they to put some items 2 times in samba. First time when they put next day it will disappear from samba and endup putting same item 2nd time.
Some times if there is any price change in any item they will change it instantly but after few days the price revert back to old price.
These are the 2 main problems i have but both are almost similar. Once i face a problem when i was putting some custom buttons on menu screen and that day i test it too those buttons was working and it was on the menu screen. But next day customer call me and tell me those buttons is not showing on the screen, so when i check the menu it wasnt on menu its just disappear.

Guys i really need some advices here. According to my experience i think i might have to buy sql server instead of using sql express. These grocries have plenty items and it have more frequent transactions. So my thinking is sql express is a free version so might be not working correctly. As samba works on totally sql database so might be data disappearing from database.
In restraunts i have no issues but only in grocries i have these problems.

Anybody who having same issues??

If you can try running Dev machine for several days with the exact same setup, do the same things they would do on a normal day(s) and see if it occurs. If not then I would suggest someone at their end is changing things - disgruntled member of staff maybe?

You could use a macro to simulate usage, ideally set to run at similar times as they would be using it. If they make any changes to their products or prices during this test period do the same on your test machine.

Another thing you could try us running a trace on the SQL database (Google how to do it) this will show you everything that is happening and may help narrow down time/source of the data change. This isn’t for the faint hearted though and will take some time to check through the resultant logs.

I would suspect human error before hardware/software failure. Possible human causes-

  • restoring database instead of backing up
  • malicious intent ( someone may be deliberately changing things )
  • lack of knowledge ( may not be saving changes )
  • switching off terminal/server power without shutting down properly

Other possible causes are any triggered events which may have been setup - auto backup, etc. I assume you have already safely auto sized columns using dB maintenance.

Data doesn’t just disappear for no reason

Have you actually witnessed it yourself?
Its not uncommon for crazy strange senarios like this to end up being something stupid the client is doing so don’t rule that out.

Most of the time this ends up being something the client is doing and not telling you or just lying about it. Why they do that I have no idea but it’s more common than you would think
Vehbi is lead developer for Sambapos and is very busy. Most resellers solve these things on their own. Data does not just disappear there is more at play here. Something is getting changed and they are not telling you.

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If your experience comes to this conclusion, it is really showing a lack of your knowledge as to what the real issue here. Going to buy licenses for SQL server randomly because of “unknown issues” is really like pouring money down the drain.

With all respect, please do not expect other resellers who are busy to do your job for you, you have time and time again came on this forum looking for help and providing very little or no info about what the issue is, expecting others to provide help for your lack of knowledge of using SambaPOS. You have received lots of help and yet you still seem to be struggling with the basics. This is definitely not the type of scenario I would expect a reseller to be in, especially one who is supposed to be providing a service for money to clients.

Please do not blame SambaPOS, nobody else has these issues, you either don’t know how to setup properly or you don’t know when your customer is actually restoring an old backup or messing you around.

You really need to consider, if you cannot provide a good service to your customer directly as a reseller, I think this is not a good business for you to operate in. Did you know SambaPOS can provide setup and support service on your behalf? You just pay SambaPOS to do all the setup and support and you take a commission on top, then you just don’t get involved with the service towards your end customers.

You can see the SambaPOS setup and support services available for purchase in your CP login.

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First of all i never asked anybody to solve my problem here. I clearly mentioned above that if there is anybody who have the same issue??
Now with respect to my personal experience regarding this issue i mentioned above how i added custom buttons few days before and next day it was disappear.
Now regarding customer doing wrong things and restore database. So i am sure about this, those customers they dont do these things i mostly handling things like these. They just add items and print reports.
I had the same thinking about customer doing wrong things or may be i doing something wrong but i want to tell you this that its now happening with three different customers. Same thing happening and even databases was bulit from scratch.
Before you guys put blame on me i want you guys to prove me wrobg and where is the problem in that case i can provide you my database. But now according to my experience with samba i think there is something wrong with sql express or samba.
And please if you dont have proper information dont just say things about people that this is not a proper business for you. I am providing all the support for customers and i know how much knowledge i have, so please dont just insult people. If you dont know the solution for my problem, no problem it have other people who can step forward answer to my oroblem nicely.

It has to be specific to your setup though hundreds of places using samba for years without issue like this

SQL powers huge amounts of things beyond samba or POS.
The fact your claiming this issue is effecting multiple installs to me makes most likely things something wrong in your setup.
Although I’m not aware of any automation which can remove products directly without SQL scripting.

The issue is your not offering much info for anyone to work with.
‘my clients have had products disapear’
No attempt at sequence of evenets leading up to this or details of any of your own investigations.

I would suggest starting by checking tickets/orders tables in SQL and ensuring that there are no gaps in records that would suggest database level changes such as training mode or backup restores.

If you want to pm me the database that is affected go ahead. I’ll look at it when I get time.

Yes i can pm you the database

Thank you

Members are passionate about Sambapos and some Of our bigger resellers get a bit miffed when other resellers expect them to help with configurations they are charging customers for and no compensation for that.

However we are not employees of Sambapos we are passionate community members. Your case we have seen before many times and it always ends up as user error. However that’s not to say we may discover something. I’ll try and take a look this weekend, maybe tonight.

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LOL,

I think this is a big problem in our community. You are coming to SambaPOS and seeking to use the software as your primary business model. You are telling your clients you are a point of sale professional. You cant just download samba and say whoop I can now start selling this and start using it in a professional environment.

We have all been installing samba daily on different machines and I have never seen someone report something crazy like this. Im pretty sure our clients would call us cussing us out if this ever happened.

What I would do if I was you:
Before ever even remotely considering putting this in a professional workplace
 spend minimum 3 months reading on forum and learning learning and learning.

Then spend another 1-2 months learning what it takes to build a windows server machine, windows terminals, and reliable networks.

Then setup some demo samples at your place and test the heck out of them.

Please dont use up Vehbi’s time like this. I know its easy to ask and hope he just magically fixes it but we have much much more important tasks for him right now. You made a mistake installing something, please spend the time to learn it and put in the extra hours now and get your customers out of this mess.

You should be installing SQL Server express 2017 separately directly from Microsoft’s website.

FYI, I have SambaPOS installed in a 14 station bar and have no speed issues on SQL Express 2017. They are very very busy. Dont waste your time on SQL Server misconceptions unless its an extremely large store. Use that time instead to install SQL server and samba and test and learn.

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@Faisal So did you ever find out if they are using spaces or unique characters in the names?

I have no problem paying to any resller to fix my problem. This time m sure its not a user end because i saw from my own eyes some madness.
Again m requesting for a solution and dont want to force anybody to cleanup my shit.

@Jesse if you want i can pay u for your services and i will give you direct access to my customer so u will monitor first for 3 to 4 days and then solve this problem. I will also point out things that causing problems.

In my case its a grocery and it have1000 of items.

Just throwing it out there but they are clicking the show more text on products for the 100 product cap on first loading product list?

Did you check if they used any spaces or special characters in names? Command buttons disappearing could be because of order or ticket states not setup properly.

They normally use space like coca cola 355ml and they really dont use special characters but they might use dot sometimes like coca cola. 355ml.
Command buttons only disappear only once and regarding ticket or order states i didbt check on that. How is the proper way to setup ticket or order states? I didnt really setup those.

The command buttons are still in settings but not the POS screen ?

Still waiting on that backup. Can you send me a backup and tell me which commands disappeared. And which items.

I have seen this before and I get the sense that someone is manually manipulating the database and not telling you. Deleting records or trying to modify the db directly. Have you tried logging it to see who may be doing it?

People dont understand sometimes so they look up ways to manipulate a database since they do understand what a database is and they try deleting or changing things from the database and then they wont tell you because they realize they did something they shouldnt have.

Chances that its SambaPOS deleting things is practically 0. It is most likely someone there doing it. You should probably setup a system to log this and see if you can catch who is doing it.

Are you using any outside scripts or apps to manipulate adding/removing stock?