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I'm really sorry this is a bit of a vague question, but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts that may shed some light on this issue.

I recently installed the "Better Workflow" plugin on a client's website. I literally only installed it and enabled it - I didn't change any configuration - or tweak any other settings. I left it for them to configure the workflow as they wished.

A few days later they informed me that some entries in their EE site were mysteriously going missing. We believed it to be caused by the Workflow plugin automatically submitting entries as Closed. They hadn't yet configured the Workflow themselves - so I disabled both the Add-on and the Module. They're both still disabled as of this moment.

In the week that followed we noticed:

  • Some entries still closing themselves on update
  • Some entries closing themselves overnight (they came back on Monday after the weekend to find several entries auto-closed whilst they were gone)
  • Some entries vanishing from the database completely and irreversibly (not closing - literally deleting)

The client is technically competent and I am certain there's not a rogue user simply deleting entries. But things are going missing - either automatically closing in seemingly mysterious circumstances or vanishing entirely.

So my question is...

  • Could this have anything to do with Better Workflow modifying configurations?
  • Could this have anything to do with Better Workflow at all, or is that a red herring?
  • Are there any EE settings that auto-set expiry dates for tours or auto-close them?
  • Have you seen anything like this before, or do you have any suggestions for how to begin to tackle this issue?

Thanks!

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    The only time I've seen EE close entries is where there wasn't a status group assigned to the channel. I assume with Better Workflow there would be...but thought I'd mention it just the same.
    – Michael Boyink
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 18:34
  • Do you have revision history turned on in the affected channels? If so are the unexpected revisions appearing in the history?
    – AllInOne
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 18:55
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    @AllInOne I've now turned on versioning, so we'll watch and see. But - update - we now have a hunch what it might be. I'm away from my work PC so can't confirm. We deleted a user a few weeks ago. Many of the disappearing entries were originally created by that user. Is this a known bug, or can anyone reproduce this? I will report back when I take an in-depth look tomorrow...
    – Jack
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 21:06
  • I think that's what's wrong indeed.
    – Jelle Dijkstra
    Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 8:56

2 Answers 2

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Perhaps when you deleted a member their entries were deleted as well? This is an option in the "delete member" interface.

See screenshot.enter image description here

Strangely in my testing neither radio button is selected when the page loads. I haven't gone as far as to hit the delete button so I am not certain what the result is... this is on EE 2.8.1 for me.

This could be an explanation for your entries being deleted but it would not seem to explain status changes or expiry dates changing, if that is indeed what your client is experiencing.

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  • Perfect explanation, AllinOne. I had this happening and had checked access logs (logged in users when it happened) and httpd logs ('M=delete_entries'). Nothing weird. Couldn't have been direct database rogue deletion, because it 'cleaned up' all other vestiges, like from exp_channel_data and exp_channel_titles. But I did do a big member cleanup on the day some entries disappeared. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.
    – jphansen
    Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 14:08
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In my case Status Groups was never set in the Channel Administration section of EE. This meant when a member updated an entry, as they had no assignment to Status Groups it defaulted to Closed and did not show Open in the Status field therefore closing the entry on every revision or update.

In my case this only occurred on user interaction as there were no cron jobs or plugins installed that would read/update entries on it's own.

The following answer corrected the issue.

@bhashkar-yadav: Custom Member's Channel Entries Defaulting To "Closed" Status

Check if that channel is assigned a status group from CP -> Admin -> Channel Administration -> Channels -> Edit Group Assignments.

Here make sure that you have selected a status "Status Groups".

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