I discovered an issue with our databases. When we moved from the Powell Street database to the Maple Ridge db, I intentionally set the new database to assign automatic ids to new items starting from numbers beyond the totals reached in the Powell Street db. So (for example) the original Powell Str properties maxed out at 1039, and the Maple Ridge db was set to start at 1105, allowing a buffer of 65 for small changes to the Powell St db.

Similarly, with titles, the Powell St db maxed out at 6459, and I started the Maple Ridge db at 6555, leaving a buffer of just under a hundred.

However, we later made the decision to start entering Kitsilano data into the Powell Street database, and this turned out to be on a scale which pushed it beyond the buffer and created overlapping ids. The result is that we have properties and titles in both databases with identical ids, meaning that we cannot easily combine that data. Similar overlaps are happening with owners, and presumably also lawyers and so on.

This is not a disaster; the two databases are separate, so there's no confusion unless and until we start trying to combine them. Similarly, AC's work on maps is divided into five distinct sets which each map to one or other of the dbs.

However, we had to solve the problem because we are now in the business of merging this data, and overlapping ids are a bad idea generally. My solution, which I tested thoroughly on the dev db before doing it to the live db, was to simply update the Maple Ridge owners, titles and properties tables to add 20,000 to each of their id fields. This propagated automatically through the linking tables, which was very neat. Then I just reset the next-autoincrement value appropriately (that doesn't happen automatically). Seems to have worked perfectly.

I've also corrected some inconsistencies between the location table values in the two dbs, and I'm working on some properties which have no assigned location in the Powell St db.