After having to buy a new computer (the old iMac crashed after 7 years), I had to download the newest version. However, since the old database I had was never updated to sqlite (and I only have old backups made months or years before the crash using an old Gramps version) I hoped to convert the salvaged old formatted tree from the old machine to the sqlite. However, the Gramps versions 5.2.x fail to convert, citing a ‘low level corruption’ and gives an error message: ‘str’ object has no attribute ‘decode’. The database locks automatically, and after unlocking, “repair” is grayed out.
Weirdly however, I am able to open my database in 5.1.x versions of Gramps, and even see the homepage statistics (Family names, unique family names etc), but the app crashes when I click on anything else. Otherwise I could’ve made a backup from an older version and try to open that in the newer release.
So, I’ve browsed the help topics related to the error message here and couldn’t find any decent fix for my problem. Now, out of options, I am worried I’ve lost all 3000+ persons etc and a few years work! And thus am hoping you can help!
Sorry to hear of the trouble you’ve having. This is not a solution but a reference to a couple of related defects: 0013437 and 0013327.
Be sure to maintain a pristine copy of the data you were able to salvage from the old Mac, and experiment only with copies.
And to help (others) with investigations, could you post exact versions of Gramps you were using previously and which version of Gramps you installed now?
The problem with the workaround for defect 0013437 is that I have an Apple Silicon mac now and thus cannot run ‘old’ Intel versions of the app.
Old Gramps version I used unknown, but most likely a version from before 2010. New version I’ve tried every ‘Arm’ release, with the before mentioned results. Intel versions also tried but those fail to open on the Silicon mac.
Based on my experience here, I think that I can open your tree on my Intel PC, in Linux or Windows, because it has BSDDB with the proper architecture. It worked for a friend, years ago, so it can work now too.