Can't delete subscriptions

Gustavos

I tried to delete some of my subscriptions and they will not delete. They are grayed out with an endless downloading icon next to them. Any suggestions?

Andre

If the subscriptions are gray then they are probably downloading. You must first stop the download process before you can delete the subscriptions.

You can do this by choosing ‘Cancel Downloads’ in the context menu (right mouse button)

Gary_S

I am having this issue too. When I right click on the subscription the ’Cancel Downloads" item is greyed out, so I can’t deactivate it, but the endless spinning icon just keeps going. Is there anything else I can try to get rid of this phantom group?

Andre

Can’t you select the subscription and click the trashcan at the bottom of the panel?

Gary_S

Right clicking and selecting ‘Delete’ or clicking on the trash can icon brings up a dialog box that says “Delete selected items?” with the options of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ - clicking yes to do so clears the dialog box and the subscription remains in the list, greyed out and with the spinning ‘activity’ icon to the right.

I have tried all other options in the context menu, clear, optimise database, clear cache etc, nothing seems to work and the subscription remains.

Andre

Try the following:

1) Select the subscription
2) Select with the right mouse button for “Edit Subscription”
3) Set the 2 settings as shown below to ‘No’ and then Save.
4) Restart Usenapp
5) The spinner should not be spinning now and you can delete the subscription.

If the above does not work, you can also turn off the 3 settings for this subscription in
Preferences->Newsreader->Subscriptions, then restart Usenapp and delete the subscription.

I hope this helps.

Gary_S

Thanks for your prompt responses Andre.

I tried the above suggestion and the spinning icon of frustration is still spinning away. I did have one of the items in your first suggestion ticked, so I followed you instructions and there is no change unfortunately. The second suggestion I had already done before.

Is it possible it’s a database corruption? I’m very tempted to delete everything but I have a couple of subscriptions that have years of headers downloaded for ease of searching, so I’d lose all of that if I started from scratch.

Andre

It is always a good idea to make a backup.
If you copy everything in ~/Library/Application Support/Usenapp (close Usenapp first) you can always put them back.

I hope you can wait a little longer for a new release. I’ll include a force-delete capability for situations like this.

Gary_S

Ok, I will wait for that to be implemented, thanks again for your effort, I love Usenapp, it took a little while to get used to after being a long time Unison user, but as with most things I’m very comfortable with it now.

Andre

Added in Usenapp v1.23.

Gary_S

Just downloaded the update. I have 4 subscriptions, 3 active and one with the spinning ball of frustration. If I select any of the active subs I get very limited options (I will try to upload a screen grab), force delete is one of the options. If I click on the misbehaving sub I get all options apart from ‘Force Delete’, sorry to hassle you with this, I’m sure you have much better things to do.

Should have shrunk those images, didn’t think they would come out as large as they have :-/

Andre

That is correct and is the intention.
The force-delete function only works on a single selected subscription with an endless running spinner.

So what you have to do is select such a subscription and then choose force-delete.

Gary_S

Sorry, think I over complicated my reply. What I am saying is the sub with the endless running spinner doesn’t have ‘Force Delete’ available to me, it is greyed out, can’t be selected.

Andre

Okay, I’ll look further into it.

Gary_S

Any further info on this Andre? My stuck subscription is still stuck and still spinning away - is there anyway I can edit the db without borking it, I’ve had a quick look but it looks like dark arts to me.

Andre

Hi Gary, it totally slipped my mind 🙁

Would you mind sending me the ‘subscriptions.db’ file via email? This file has probably become corrupted (or something similar) causing this problem. I just don’t know what exactly so that’s why I want to look into it.

To locate the file, follow the steps below:

1) Close Usenapp.
2) In Finder press SHIFT-CMD-G (or in menu Go->Go to Folder)
3) Then in the text field enter the following text (including the tilde ~) and press “Go”

~/Library/Application Support/Usenapp/articles

4) In the folder that opens there is a file called ‘subscriptions.db’.

Would you mind emailing me that file to: usenapp@xoroxsoft.com

Thank you in advance.