Restoring from Mnemogogo cards file

[bene...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

I recently got rid of a computer I was using Mnemosyne on, and due to my stupidity I accidentally kept not the Mnemosyne directory, but the Mnemogogo directory (which I used to sync to my phone). I can see the cards I want to save in the CARDS file in that directory---it contains lines like this:

0
107
<div id="q" class="chinese vocab Front-to-back_and_back-to-front"><div><div id="
f">Do you want _ice_?</div>
116
<div id="a" class="chinese vocab Front-to-back_and_back-to-front"><div><div id="
b">ni3 yao4 _bing1 kuair4_ ma?</div>

There are also other files, like the CATS file which contains categories.

However, when I use Mnemogogo to import from that directory, it doesn't seem to do anything, presumably because the related cards don't exist in the Mnemosyne home directory.

So, is there any way I can recover this information? Is the memory history even in the Mnemogogo directory? If not, I guess I can just parse the CARDS file as text and create them all as new cards, but I was hoping there would be a better way.

Thanks very much,
Ben

[Peter Bienstman]

Hi,

As opposed to the new Android client, I don't think Mnemogogo even stores all your cards, only those coming up for review in the next couple of days, but perhaps Tim can tell you more...

Cheers,

Peter

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[Timothy Bourke]

I'm sorry to hear about your data loss. Is there no way to get your
old mnemosyne folder (or the backup files within it) back?

* Peter Bienstman <Peter.B...@UGent.be> [2015-06-11 08:50 +0200]:

> As opposed to the new Android client, I don't think Mnemogogo even
> stores all your cards, only those coming up for review in the next
> couple of days, but perhaps Tim can tell you more...

That's correct. Mnemogogo only exports a subset of upcoming and new
cards.

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mnemosyne-
> > proj-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of bene...@gmail.com
> > Sent: 11 June 2015 00:22
> > To: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Restoring from Mnemogogo cards file
> >

> > I recently got rid of a computer I was using Mnemosyne on, and due to my
> > stupidity I accidentally kept not the Mnemosyne directory, but the
> > Mnemogogo directory (which I used to sync to my phone). I can see the
> > cards I want to save in the CARDS file in that directory---it contains lines like
> > this:
> >
> > 0
> > 107
> > <div id="q" class="chinese vocab Front-to-back_and_back-to-
> > front"><div><div id="
> > f">Do you want _ice_?</div>
> > 116
> > <div id="a" class="chinese vocab Front-to-back_and_back-to-
> > front"><div><div id="
> > b">ni3 yao4 _bing1 kuair4_ ma?</div>
> >
> > There are also other files, like the CATS file which contains categories.

The CARDS and STATS.CSV files will be enough to recover some
information. The first number in STATS.CSV indicates how many cards
were exported.

> > However, when I use Mnemogogo to import from that directory, it doesn't
> > seem to do anything, presumably because the related cards don't exist in the
> > Mnemosyne home directory.

That's right. Mnemogogo only imports statistics (it never overwrites
card contents) and only then when it finds a matching id in the
database (i.e., it drops stats for cards that have been deleted). The
gogo.log file will contain a list of these failures.

> > So, is there any way I can recover this information? Is the memory history
> > even in the Mnemogogo directory? If not, I guess I can just parse the CARDS
> > file as text and create them all as new cards, but I was hoping there would be
> > a better way.

With some effort you will be able to recover the subset of your cards
that were exported and their stats, with a bit more effort you could
even recover their tags. It will be hard however to recover card types
and links between cards (front-to-back and back-to-front).

How many cards are in STATS.CSV? How long have you been reviewing
cards with Mnemosyne/Mnemododo (i.e., how old was your database)?

Tim.

[mis...@emerose.org]

On Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 8:23:02 AM UTC-5, Timothy Bourke wrote:
> I'm sorry to hear about your data loss. Is there no way to get your
> old mnemosyne folder (or the backup files within it) back?

I'm afraid not---it was on a laptop that I reformatted and then sold.

> The CARDS and STATS.CSV files will be enough to recover some
> information. The first number in STATS.CSV indicates how many cards
> were exported.

...

> That's right. Mnemogogo only imports statistics (it never overwrites
> card contents) and only then when it finds a matching id in the
> database (i.e., it drops stats for cards that have been deleted). The
> gogo.log file will contain a list of these failures.
>

> With some effort you will be able to recover the subset of your cards
> that were exported and their stats, with a bit more effort you could
> even recover their tags. It will be hard however to recover card types
> and links between cards (front-to-back and back-to-front).
>
> How many cards are in STATS.CSV? How long have you been reviewing
> cards with Mnemosyne/Mnemododo (i.e., how old was your database)?

Thanks for the reply, it's great to get a quick reply from both Mnemosyne and Mnemogogo authors.

I had an earlier backup (maybe six months old) of my Mnemosyne home directory, and it looks like I can recover about 300 cards by manually parsing the cards file. So in the end it looks like I'm totally out about 300-400 cards (and apparently the history on the 300 in the Mnemogogo directory, which were generally new so that history isn't really that important). So anyway, it's a pain, but in the end equivalent to losing perhaps a few hours of time.

Thanks again for the responses,
Ben

[Peter Bienstman]

> I had an earlier backup (maybe six months old) of my Mnemosyne home
> directory, and it looks like I can recover about 300 cards by manually parsing
> the cards file.

No need for manual parsing, in the latest version you can just do 'file - import' from a *.db file, which will import cards + learning data.

Cheers,

Peter