Leonard B.
Level 1 (52 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Saved ECAMM Call Recorder files vanished, reappeared, vanished again.

(Technical details at end of this post)

 

I downloaded ECAMM Call Recorder for Skype a week and a half ago, in order to record video calls. I tried it out, liked it, then bought the full version. The application records both sides of a Skype call (there's a version for FaceTime, too), then automatically saves it (as a QuickTime movie) to a folder called Saved Calls, which it puts into the Movies folder.

 

I made test recordings of four or five calls. I spot-checked each one. Everything worked fine. I played one of them back again a couple of days later. A couple of nights ago, I opened the Saved Calls folder, in order to show the results to my companion (she had been away and was the person on the other end of three of the calls). The folder was empty. I did a global search for video files made within the week or so I had the program installed. Nothing.

 

I restarted the computer and opened the folder again. The files were back in the folder. It was late, so I put the computer to sleep. I got up next morning and the folder was empty again. Did the search again. Nothing. Nothing in the trash except files that were older than the recordings. Ran a recovery application. Nothing.

 

I've tried restarting, booting from an external drive, repeating the global search, questioning the cat, etc. Still nothing.

 

These files were not anything important. Just test recordings, so I'm not heartbroken. But , of course, they should not have vanished on their own. They COULD have been important.

 

It's not the first time that a file has mysteriously vanished from this machine, but in the past I couldn't be sure it wasn't operator error (and I was able to use recovery software to get those files back). This time I am absolutely certain I did nothing to cause the files to vanish.

 

I think my computer has many "issues," but that's a whole other story, which I hope to post at length when I have more than a minute.

 

Any thoughts, however speculative, would be most appreciated. Thank you.

 

Leonard

 

MacBook Pro mid-2012 (13")

10.8.5

2.9 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB RAM

1 TB Hard Drive (470 GB Free)

 

ECAMM Call Recorder 2.6.1

Skype 6.15

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 8 Gb RAM

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 9:14 AM

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Leonard B.

Q: Saved ECAMM Call Recorder files vanished, reappeared, vanished again.

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  • by Leonard B.,

    Leonard B. Leonard B. Sep 22, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Leonard B.
    Level 1 (52 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 22, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Leonard B.

    An important detail I omitted from the original post:

     

    Yesterday, the day after the files first disappeared (then reappeared), upon discovering that they were gone again, I used Finder's "Get Info" command for the Saved Calls folder. It had a Modified date of  September 20 at 11:17 PM, just around the time of the files' disappearance and reappearance (though I don't know whether they disappeared the second time after or before, or at, that time). That made some sense to me, but what was bizarre is that the Created date was exactly the same. The folder was actually created (by the application) over a week before that.

     

    Call Recorder opens automatically when Skype is opened. And Skype had been opened somewhere around the same time (9/20 at 11:17 PM). I wonder if there's a chance that the application created a new Saved Calls folder at that time and it overwrote the original one (and all its files). So far, it's the only thing that makes sense to me, though I don't know how or why such a thing might have occurred. If that's it, then there is probably a bug in the program. If not, then it's my computer. I have, of course, written to ECAMM (yesterday, before considering posting here), but have not yet heard back.

     

    I'll certainly update this post if I hear anything.

     

    Leonard

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 28, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Leonard B.
    Level 9 (72,134 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 28, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Leonard B.

    Try running this program in your normal account , then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.
      

    Etrecheck – System Information