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Google Reader Offline has failed me {Updated: Solution Included}

Crud. I'm on a flight from PHX to Columbus, and I have an hour to kill. Well I could lay down some code, but I've been doing that and need a little break. Blogging will have to do.

Before I left the office, I excitedly (is that a word) put my Google Reader in Offline Mode. It said It downloaded 2000  posts to read. NICE. Now I'll have some good offline reading material for my flight.

So I fire up my Google Reader while not connected on the plane. Right off the bat I get a JavaScript error. And then the page just sat there. BUMMER! BUMMER!

I'm not sure what I could have done wrong, or if something else went wrong while syncing. I'm sure this works, and I'm sure I'll be able to get it to work in the future, but for now, and for the next 2 hours, it sucks.

[UPDATE: 17 June 2007 5:02pm]
I'm at my travel destination (Miamisburg (AKA:Dayton), Ohio as it may be today) and I've tried this again. Fired up my connection. Logged into Google Reader, and it worked. Well this is weird. The "Offline" mode works when your online, but not when you're offline. Hmm. Let's try again. Go back online. Everything is peachy. Pull the 2000 feeds back into "Offline" mode. Disconnet. no Dice. Still the same error as above.

Also, I've noticed that since I instaled the offline "Gears" my keyboard shortcuts dont' work anymore.

[UPDATE: 18 June 2007 11:07pm]
[SOLVED]
With the help of Chris (below in the comments) I was able to figure this out. Well, we (or I should say I) didn't figure out what went wrong, but we did get it wroking. The solution was to delete the local files (on Vista c:\Users\{YourNameHere}\AppData\LocalLow\Google\Google Gears for Internet Explorer), and the newly created batch of files worked as planned. So now it's working. I'll plan on catching up on some random feeds on the plane ride home.

Posted: Jun 17 2007, 05:29 PM by scott cate | with 8 comment(s)
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Comments

jayson knight said:

Ahh, the beauty of them keeping everything in eternal beta: When stuff doesn't work, they can just say "well, it is a beta!"

And they want us to have enough confidence in a web only office suite?

# June 18, 2007 2:55 AM

Chris Wetherell said:

Hi, Scott. I'd be happy to look into this bug. Just wanted to confirm what browser and version you're using - judging from the screenshot and context you're using IE7 and Vista...is that correct?

We may have passed you a bad set of javascript and markup that's now been captured in the Gears local cache which we know has happened to a few other people as well. Please accept my apology, if that's the case. One possible workaround is to visit a non-cached URL such as http://www.google.com/reader/settings">www.google.com/.../settings and then go back to http://www.google.com/reader and try syncing and going offline. (May also fix the key shortcuts bug as well.)

Chris Wetherell

Google Reader Engineer

# June 18, 2007 5:24 AM

scott cate said:

Chris, I'm trying your suggestions. I'm in the middle of if now, just about to go offline. So far you're right on the money, and the keyboard shortcuts have returned. I'll post another comment in a moment.

# June 18, 2007 10:06 AM

scott cate said:

Chris,

Still no love. I get the same javascript error as above. Also, you're correct, I'm using Vista with IE7. On the reader (both the /settings and the /view) pages before I went "offline" I did the famous CTRL+F5 to try and get new scripts.

So the good news is that the keyboard shortcuts are back, but offline is still a fantasy.

# June 18, 2007 10:23 AM

Chris Wetherell said:

Hmm. Here's another thing I'd like to try, if that's ok? Want to see if the removing the Gears local server and databases help. The file locations for each platform and browser are listed at code.google.com/.../api_database.html and for Vista that means deleting a folder that would be at a location like C:\Users\Bob\AppData\LocalLow\Google\Google Gears for Internet Explorer\www.google.com

You should only have to delete the "www.google.com" to force Gears to start capturing fresh bits of Reader.

And to help with troubleshooting, could you let me know what version of Gears is listed in Tools > Google Gears Settings in a tiny, italicized font at the bottom left?

# June 18, 2007 3:02 PM

Jim Minatel said:

Scott: For what it's worth, you got further with your reader/gears experience than I did:

wroxblog.typepad.com/.../google_gears_re.html

I just chalked it up to beta-ness and moved on. Life's too short to play with broken toys too much.

# June 18, 2007 4:55 PM

scott cate said:

The version is "Google Gears version 0.1.47.0"

I'm deleting the cached data now. Will retry new bits, and then comment on the other side.

# June 19, 2007 1:02 AM

scott cate said:

Chris, we have success! Thank you for taking the time to offer suggestions. Clearing the cached local files worked. I then pulled down a new set of data from /reader/view, and it worked.

Obviously it would use a lot more bandwidth, but is there an option to pull down local iamges as well? I know that opens up a ton of headaches - rewriting the feed with newly mapped local images, etc - but hey, I can ask can't I? :)

Thanks again, i'll update the main post with the solution to help others.

# June 19, 2007 2:06 AM
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