DB wrongly thinks it is a shared but offline database

I don’t expect you can do much with this info, but it can be noted as something that happened at least once.
We have a database that was shared, but for various reasons, we converted it back to an unshared database several weeks ago. This morning, the database would not execute an Addrecord statement in a procedure, and opened an alert saying that the database is read only and cannot add a record!
Upon closing then opening the database, the standard dialog box appears stating that the database is out of date and offering to update or use off-line. Clicking the update generated another error dialog, which I did not record. After opening then closing Database options window, then closing and opening the database, it resumed working correctly.
It appeared to me that some flag in the database was flipped incorrectly, but flipped back. (Did you ever play a game called black box? (Black Box (game) - Wikipedia) That’s what this feels like to me. You, on the other hand, have some view into the box, so you may have a much better idea of what happened.)

Many of your reports sound like internal database meta-data is being lost. This is really puzzling to me because this information is stored the same way all sorts of other database meta-data is stored, for example the number of records, the current field and record, which windows are open, etc. This is really low tech and I’m struggling to understand how there could be a problem with this. This information is, however, stored in a separate .plist file inside a Panorama document, if you show the package contents you can see the file named data.plist, and you can even look at it in an editor like BBEdit and see the settings – it’s in XML format which is human readable. You can also view this by using the formula dbinfo("datainfoplist",""). If you do this on a shared database you’ll easily see the server name, the fact that sharing is enabled, etc.

Now that I think about it, there have been a couple of sporadic reports of the Exclude from Recent option turning on spontaneously, and that is stored in this plist file. By sporadic I mean two reports in five years. I’ve never heard of a problem with any other saved setting. The API to save settings in a plist is provided by Apple and must be used by thousands of apps. And of course the question is – is it not saving the settings, or not restoring them correctly? If I can’t count on that API to reliably save and restore settings, oh boy. I guess I could make my own API, but I sure would hate to do that at this late stage.

Well, it gives me something else to investigate anyway.

BTW, I have never played nor have I ever heard of a game called black box.

With two reports in five years and my problem rather easily fixed by opening the database options window, I would put that way down on the list of priorities! I thought it would be impossible to investigate unless you have received multiple complaints and/or can reproduce it. But I saw it with my own eyes and it was so surprising that I thought you would also find it curious and possibly a clue to something you have thought about. If this recurs, I will check the data.plist file.

I’m not so much concerned with this specific problem, but rather with the idea that settings information isn’t reliably saved. Forget twice in 5 years, that should NEVER happen. And most of the settings stored that way are very critical. For example, the database ID is stored there, and you’ve said you’ve had problems with that. And the history of new sharing generations is stored there. If saving database settings isn’t reliable, none of that will be reliable. On the other hand, maybe there is just one bug behind all of this, and one fix will make everything magically work perfectly.

Changing subjects completely, wow! How did you ever manage to leave? Amsterdam City Tour CABVIEW HOLLAND [TRAMWAY] Electrische Museumtramlijn Amsterdam 18aug 2019 - YouTube

Thanks for that link. That tram trip went close to our apt in amsterdam and it was great seeing it. We loved our time there but my wife wanted to come home after 19 months.