The 0031 clublog ALTER hit split settings databases (their qso table
moved to the logbook years of QSOs ago) and the whole open failed —
silently, because the error went to a println the GUI subsystem
discards. The app then ran with no settings store: every panel showed
defaults, 'db not initialized' in Preferences, and operators read it as
their database being lost. Nothing was ever touched: the failed
migration rolled back on every attempt.
The SQLite migration path now tolerates what the MySQL path always has —
plus the one case it never meets: ALTER/CREATE INDEX/DROP on a table
this database legitimately does not hold. And a failed open is written
to the rotating log, where the next such morning can actually be
diagnosed.