Deleted recurring series keep reappearing (edited)

To anyone that might have this problem, tech support said they are aware of the "issue" and are working to resolve it now.

In the meantime, I did find a workaround by "Ending" series. While this doesn't fix the problem, it minimizes its impact by relegating unwanted series to the "Cancelled" section of the Recurring Series page…thereby keeping them from cluttering the list of active series.

Hi @Coach Jon,

Thank you for asking for details.

I am deleting the Recurring Series via the web application. After deletion, the Recurring Series reappear without signing back in AND when signing out and back in. That is, I've seen them reappear under both conditions. I've also tried using another browser, clearing the cache, using a new session via incognito, etc. Regardless, the Recurring Series return after deletion. At this point, I've deleted some of them a dozen times. Sometimes they come back after a few minutes, other times after a few hours. I've also noticed they reappear as "active" Series when deleted as active…and reappear as "Canceled" Series when deleted as Canceled Series.

Btw, I don't even think I created all of the subject Recurrences (although I did create some of them). That is, some of them seem to have just appeared out of nowhere. Just weird. There are 12 of them in total. Fortunately, though, the number has not grown since they appeared on the scene 24-48 hours ago.

I've also looked for some common attribute that could be the culprit (vendor, category, periodicity, date of creation, etc.), but they don't seem to have any obvious, damning commonality except their stubborn persistence. None of them have any transactions belonging to them, but that's the only similarity I notice.

Also, I don't share the account with anyone. There is no evidence anyone has breached the account. The behavior happens both when "Early Access" is on and when it is not.

If the aforementioned details help theorize a possible solution (or even root cause), please let me know. Also, if you find more information regarding a development team fix (or issue acknowledgement), I'd be interested to hear that, too. Either way, thank you again for your inquiry on the matter.

@housetr Thank you for sharing relevant information on your situation.

It does seem our issues may be similar. Like you, some of the Recurring Series I mentioned above are indeed duplicated Series (none of which, when deleted, stay deleted for long). In one instance, two are duplicates, and in another instance, four are duplicates.

I can say that moving the pesky, unwanted Recurring Series to the "Canceled" window (via "End Series") has helped improve my navigation and maintenance of the active Series by getting them out of the way. Perhaps that could help you…especially if you're having to regularly scroll over 8 duplicates.

Hopefully, the Simplifi Team will stealth fix the issue soon.

@Coach Jon Thank you for the above recommendation.

I logged into the mobile app about 8 hours ago and deleted the offending Recurring Series. They just reappeared in the web application. It took them a while to reappear (I checked via webapp repeatedly throughout the day). Alas, they are again resident in the Recurring Series section. :|

I will continue to tinker with them when I have new ideas about their possible nature and behavior and post any positive findings should I solve the problem.

I spoke too soon.

The previously deleted Recurring Series are back…both on the web and mobile interfaces. They are also accumulating. That is, any series that I delete seems to return. Basically, I can't delete a Recurring Series, full stop. It also seems that any series, deleted via any platform, from any browser, with any state of cache/cookies, on any machine, at any time, returns.

No sir, I don't like it.

Hi @Coach Kristina

Thank you for asking. :)

To clarify, when I delete a Recurring Series "entry", said Recurring Series entry reappears later. Note that I am not deleting transactions (individual instances?) linked to a Recurring Series. In fact, several of the Recurring Series entries I am deleting have no linked transactions (and never did). Note that regardless of whether the deleted Recurring Series entry had linked transactions or not when deleted, that entry will reappear—without any linked transactions associated with it. Entries simply reappear as Recurring Series with "Blank Slate!" histories.

I don't think the reappearing Recurring Series are visible in Bills & Income, Spending Plan, etc.…an interesting data point that I had not discovered. I'm not 100% certain about that, though, because I'm not familiar with those features (yet). Nor do I visit (or confidently digest) the Cash Flow feature because my balances are very high relative to the monthly transaction amounts, thereby rendering the cash flow graph a relatively useless horizontal line. All that disclosure mentioned, I don't think the deleted Recurring Series reflect as Cash Flow either.

Specifically, the struggle I am having is getting the Recurring Series to permanently delete from the list of Recurring Series on the Setting→All Recurring page. They keep returning to the list after deletion. The number of "undeletable" Series is growing—adding data pollution to the "All Recurring" page display list (in Settings).

I will try to DM you screenshots. Thank you for your willingness to review the issue. Also, I'm open to the suggestion that "the issue" is me. :D

Hi @Coach Kristina

I must say, I take great comfort in learning you were able to reproduce the issue. If a user of your caliber experienced the same issue, it isn't "operator error" on my part. :)

Also, thank you for such a thorough response! I must say, your walkthrough above has allowed me to appreciate features I hadn't yet explored. I will incorporate a review of these features into my use of Simplifi.

That said, I'm afraid I'm currently unable to verify the presence or absence of the reappearing Recurring Series. This is because, to mitigate the impact of the reappearing Series issue, I "Ended" all the offenders…relegating them to the "Canceled" section of the Settings→All Recurring page. I did this to eliminate their polluting presence in the list of "un-Canceled" Series. Alas, I suspect the Canceled status of the reappearing Series (along with their empty histories) could prevent them from impacting the Savings Plan, Cash Flow, etc. (regardless of their unpredictable nature).

Fwiw, I did just delete an "un-Canceled" Series to test accordingly. I will let you know if it does return and impacts the Savings Plan, Cash Flow, etc.

Thank you again for engaging. Going forward, I will take stock in your reproduction of the error and report back any changes in the status of my Simplifi data and the issue at hand.

Hi @Coach Jon

I sent you the same screenshots I sent @Coach Kristina. Manage your expectations as I don't think there is anything particularly interesting about them (unless you can access my account and inspect the actual Series themselves).

Fwiw, the fact that Coach Kristina, and now @stacyvance, have the same issue is enough to satisfy my interest in the matter. Honestly, most of my interest was in furtherance of that satisfaction—that I wasn't misunderstanding the nature, utility, and function of Recurring Series.

In short, it seems that reappearing, deleted Series may be an issue…and the issue is probably not me. :)

I am curious about the status of a resolution. I am also curious about whether helpdesk (chat-based) reports of a fix are common knowledge. Beyond that, I am resigned to "Ending" reappearing Series to mitigate the issue until it is addressed.

NOTE:

If I had to guess, something on the server-side is sometimes either persisting a Series object (or Series List object) or retaining a reference to a Series object (or Series List object) without checking the Deleted state of the Series. I suppose it could be on the client-side, but since the issue expresses across machines and browsers, I'd guess server-side…although a client could still originate propagation of stale data to the server, I suppose.

From the app's behavior, it seems Session objects and/or their contents either 1) may not timeout (which I like), or 2) get CRUD-ed from client object data sometimes. In either case, it might create a tricky object management situation, possibly contributing to the issue users are experiencing. It could also be a persistence issue, but that would hint at an egregious coding oversight…so I'd think that's less likely.

Obviously, it could be something else entirely. The app is doing a lot, and doing it well. Sometimes wires cross.

Whatever it is, I hope the issue makes it to the backlog one day.

Hi @Coach Jon,

Done.

Glad to hear the issue is reliably reproducible. That should help diagnose activities. Lemme know if any more data/context is required. I'm happy to help.

My thanks to you, the other Coaches, and community members who have participated in the thread.

I'll watch the thread for updates…and perhaps a resolution!

Hi @Coach Jon

Obviously, it's hard to prove that a sporadic, irregular event is no longer occurring. That said, I deleted a bunch of Recurring Series entries last night, and they have not reappeared (yet). I'll monitor the situation and report back if they do reappear.

Fwiw, I hadn't tried to delete any Recurring Series since @Coach Natalie posted that a fix is expected with the 4.63.0 Web Release. Since we are now using 4.61.0 (?), I didn't think the issue had been addressed.

Did the product team release a fix ahead of schedule?