InfoPath Dev

Hello, I have a number of InfoPath forms on SharePoint lists that are working well. However, often, when I click "Customize in InfoPath" to make a form adjustment I get the warning that "One or more fields have changed" in SharePoint, and asking if InfoPath should update to accommodate. This is very frightening. I didn't change anything, so what's up? I tried comparing source files in notepad++ before saving any updates. The "Manifest" xml file compare seems to show a number changes for things like "versionToUpgradeTo". So apparently without me making any changes, these forms get ready to upgrade themselves when I open InfoPath. Is accepting these unspecified changes a normal, to be expected, thing if it has been a while since you opened a form in InfoPath? Is there an easier way to confirm that you're not wrecking anything if you accept and save these unspecified changes? Can I be assured the the auto-upgrades will not interfere with any functionality on complex forms? Thanks

The warning you are seeing means that something has changed in the list schema since the last time the form was opened in design mode. Could that be the case here?

I am pretty sure that I did not make any changes in the list. This has happened on multiple lists. The xml file compare seems to tell me that no fields were changed (in the "manifest" compare the only changes are numbers in those odd, long, header type rows) and none of the choices were changed(the "Choices" files match) , that it is something else (hopefully inconsequential but who knows) which has changed. On one big list I OK'd the change and saved and tested and cannot see any change or problem.

 In general, with a SharePoint list form, if when you open it in design mode you get that warning, you do want to update the form. You want the schema to match (or whatever else is being compared on). And you are comparing the prior form files to the new form files, after clicking yes?  This may be helpful: http://marlene.guio.com/2014/03/how-to-find-out-what-infopath-fields-have-changed/#:~:text=One%20or%20more%20fields%20in%20the%20SharePoint%20list%20have%20changed.&text=You%20may%20need%20to%20modify,be%20consequences%20for%20doing%20this.

That is the reference that I used. But I did forget to compare the Schema files. In the Schema1 comparison I see that the "Title" field in the upgraded file has "minLength=1" while the non upgraded file doesn not have that line ("maxLength" is 255 for both). A few weeks ago I was experimenting with data types in a different list and I think I accidentally changed something the master "Item" datatype, from which all "Title" fields inherit. We have seen a few anomalys in Title fields in various lists since. That is probably what caused it. Thanks for bringing me back to Schema. (see attachment)