About Missing Selenium Ide Extension File
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That’s a tough situation — I completely understand how stressful it is to lose an important Selenium IDE project you’ve been maintaining for so long. Let’s go through a structured recovery approach — both technical and forensic — to maximize your chances of finding your missing .side file.
🔍 Step 1. Clarify how Selenium IDE stores data
Selenium IDE does not auto-save to a cloud service by default. It stores data either:
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As .side files (if you exported or manually saved them to disk), or
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In browser extension storage (temporary local storage managed by your browser).
So your project might still be stored internally by the Selenium IDE browser extension, even if the file itself is gone.
🧠 Step 2. Check Selenium IDE’s internal storage
Depending on your browser, here’s how to look:
For
Google Chrome
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Open Chrome.
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Go to chrome://extensions/.
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Enable Developer mode (top right).
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Find Selenium IDE and click “Details” → “Inspect views: background page”.
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In the new Developer Tools window:
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Go to the Application tab.
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On the left sidebar, open IndexedDB → look for entries related to Selenium IDE.
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You may also check Local Storage and Session Storage entries.
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Look for JSON-like data — you might see your test names or structure there.
If you find something, it can often be manually exported as JSON, renamed to .side, and reopened in Selenium IDE.
For
Mozilla Firefox
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Type about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox in the address bar.
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Find Selenium IDE, click “Inspect”.
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In the opened debugger:
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Go to Storage → IndexedDB or Local Storage.
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Search for any Selenium or project-related data.
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🗂 Step 3. Search for backup copies or remnants
Sometimes Selenium IDE (or your OS) creates copies or backups:
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Search your drive for recently modified files:
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in Windows Explorer search bar (adjust the date).
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Check your “Recent Files” list in File Explorer.
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Search hidden folders on your Desktop:
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Go to your desktop folder.
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In File Explorer → View → check “Hidden items.”
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Look for any file starting with ~$, or with unusual extensions.
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Check temp directories:
🧩 Step 4. Use recovery tools effectively
You mentioned using Recuva and Everything, which is good — but Recuva might miss Chrome/Firefox extension storage because those aren’t normal files.
If you still want to try a deeper scan:
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Run Recuva (deep scan) or R-Studio / Disk Drill on the disk where your Desktop resides.
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Make sure the scan covers the browser profile directory, e.g.:
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Chrome:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Extension Settings
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Firefox:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profileid>\storage\default
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Search inside those folders for recently modified files or .log, .json, .ldb, .sqlite, etc.
☁️ Step 5. Check cloud / backup sources
If your desktop is part of:
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OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox,
→ check their trash/recycle bin or file history features.
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Windows File History (if enabled):
Control Panel → File History → “Restore personal files.”
Even if you didn’t explicitly back it up, Windows sometimes creates Previous Versions of Desktop files:
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Right-click the Desktop folder → Properties → Previous Versions tab.
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Check if any version from before the restart exists.
⚙️ Step 6. Last resort: inspect browser profile archives
If nothing else works:
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Zip and copy your entire browser profile (so you don’t damage it further).
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Inside, look for large .ldb, .log, .sqlite files under:
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(for Chrome: usually mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd).
Those files may still contain your project data in encoded JSON form — which can be extracted.
🧾 Optional: Future prevention
Once recovered (or when starting over):
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Always export your Selenium IDE projects to .side files and store them in a backed-up location.
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Optionally, use version control (GitHub, GitLab) to keep your tests safe and track changes.
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Consider using the Selenium IDE command-line runner (side-runner) for CI backup.
If you tell me:
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Which browser you’re using Selenium IDE with (Chrome or Firefox),
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And whether you remember the name of your project or tests,
Hi,I use the Selenium IDE plugin for my job about 1 year. But yesterday I encountered a problem. And for a year, I kept saving it to my desktop. I restarted my computer because it was running very slow. When I turned on the computer, I saw that the Selenium IDE project file I was working on was missing. I say "lost" because when I had it checked by the system team at the company I work for, it didn't appear to have been deleted. Also, I don't have any files with the ".side" extension in the recycle bin. I tried to find it with programs like Recuva and Everything, but it is not found. Can you help me please?
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When I checked the indexedDb and local storage in Firefox, I saw that there was no data in them. When I looked at Recent files, I saw the file MevaTest.side, but I couldn't find it on my computer and couldn't open it.
In the C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Temp folder, there is a 1.445KB file "tmp-ctg.xpi". But, I couldn't find the exact contents.
When I checked the C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming folder, the ".sqlite" and ".idb" files appear to be organized. However, when I checked the sqlite file using "dbbrowser for sqlite," the data column appears as a "blob" and I can't view its contents. I tried converting it to HEX, but it still didn't work.
Unfortunately, since I don't use the cloud, I couldn't check this.
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