Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -717,14 +717,15 @@
 					(begin
 					  (sqlite3:interrupt! db)
 					  (sqlite3:finalize! db #t)
 					  ;; (vector-set! *task-db* 0 #f)
 					  (set! *task-db* #f)))))
-                              (if (and *runremote*
-                                       (remote-conndat *runremote*))
-                                  (begin
-                                    (http-client#close-all-connections!))) ;; for http-client
+                              (http-client#close-all-connections!)
+                              ;; (if (and *runremote*
+                              ;;          (remote-conndat *runremote*))
+                              ;;     (begin
+                              ;;       (http-client#close-all-connections!))) ;; for http-client
                               (if (not (eq? *default-log-port* (current-error-port)))
                                   (close-output-port *default-log-port*))
 			      (set! *default-log-port* (current-error-port))) "Cleanup db exit thread"))
 	  (th2 (make-thread (lambda ()
 			      (debug:print 4 *default-log-port* "Attempting clean exit. Please be patient and wait a few seconds...")

Index: db.scm
==================================================================
--- db.scm
+++ db.scm
@@ -1054,14 +1054,15 @@
 				       (db:no-sync-set no-sync-db "LAST_UPDATE" start-time))
 				   (db:tmp->megatest.db-sync dbstruct last-update))
 				 0))
 	 (sync-time           (- (current-seconds) start-time)))
       (debug:print-info 3 *default-log-port* "Sync of newdb to olddb completed in " sync-time " seconds pid="(current-process-id))
-      (if sync-needed
-	  ;;     (common:low-noise-print 30 "sync new to old"))
-	  (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "Sync of " res " records from newdb to olddb completed in " sync-time " seconds pid="(current-process-id)))
-    res))
+      (if (common:low-noise-print 30 "sync new to old")
+          (if sync-needed
+              (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "Sync of " res " records from newdb to olddb completed in " sync-time " seconds pid="(current-process-id))
+              (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "No sync needed, last updated " (- start-time last-update) " seconds ago")))
+      res))
 
 ;; keeping it around for debugging purposes only
 (define (open-run-close-no-exception-handling  proc idb . params)
   (debug:print-info 11 *default-log-port* "open-run-close-no-exception-handling START given a db=" (if idb "yes " "no ") ", params=" params)
   (print "I don't work anymore. open-run-close-no-exception-handling needs fixing or removing...")
@@ -1853,11 +1854,16 @@
      (lambda (val)
        (set! res val))
      db
      "SELECT val FROM no_sync_metadat WHERE var=?;"
      var)
-    res))
+    (if res
+        (let ((newres (string->number res)))
+          (if newres
+              newres
+              res))
+        res)))
 
 (define (db:no-sync-close-db db)
   (db:safely-close-sqlite3-db db))
 
 ;; use a global for some primitive caching, it is just silly to