Lost data for the first time in maybe a decade

[passingby]

There is a first time for everything. I lost data worth a few hours today. Its not the end of the world but I am at my wits end as to how it happened. I am sharing this to find out if you have any strange explanations or if it has happened to you like this ever.

Here are the facts of the case:

1. I am on windows 10, chrome browser which I just checked, is up-to-date.

2. I was using the default saver, and I was over writing my file on the disk. 

3. The file was physically located in Google drive folder, which is in sync all the time

4. I had been making notes since morning and periodically I pressed the save button and overwrote the local file. 

5. I remember the dialog box warning for overwriting coming up, and I saying yes to it. I remember the sound of the warning too. (this makes me feel sure that I did save my file a couple of times at least)

6.  At around 5pm PST, I closed the browser and shut down my laptop because my brain was fatigued and I thought I should move around a bit

7. I came back to the room after about half an hour and started my laptop.

8. When I opened my TW it had only one tiddler in it and that was the very first one from early afternoon. No other tiddlers were there.

9. I checked the local file time stamp and it had 12.30pm !

10. I was dumbfounded! I went to my google drive on web and check the file version. There were none after 12.30pm!

11. I searched my chrome history to see if I accidentally was working on any other TW simultaneously with a similar name. Nope, nothing.

12. I searched my windows machine to see if I could find any local file I worked on. None.

So what happened? The only explanation is that I did not save at all. This I am not ready to accept. I definitely saved a couple of times. But timestamp on my file as well as google driver version time says last modification was 12.30 pm. This is very strange. 

At one time during my workflow I pulled out the TW tab from my chrome and made it into separate window. And about an hour later I merged all the tabs back. I do not know, but I am suspecting maybe that splitting and merging did something. 

Well, the data was lost. That's okay. 

Assuming that I did press the save button and followed the process, is it in any way possible that Chrome did not overwrite the local file? 

[Mark S.]

Wait, 5pm PST? That's not right. But it got me thinking.

I suspect that the problem is an imperfect storm of  GD and DST. Are you continuously connected to the net? Did your laptop automatically  update the time over the weekend? Did you use the laptop over the weekend? I'm thinking that  when you first started writing to the disk it did so with a timestamp that was an hour behind. GD then thought the file in the cloud was newer. So GD wrote over your file. Unless you double-checked the timestamp yourself and/or reloaded the TW file, you wouldn't know that it had happened.

That's my theory any way. Some variety of that.

Well, hopefully it won't happen again for another 10 years.  Or at least until Oct. 26.

-- Mark

[passingby]

Thank you for your input. 

The TW was a fresh one which I downloaded today in the morning. The clocks were already 'spring ahead' on my laptop on sunday (should have, because I have on internet). So I dunno. 

Maybe I am just dreaming things. I suspected that maybe instead of 'Save' I have been hitting 'Cancel' all the time. But its really hard to accept that. Or maybe I did not save at all and I am not sleeping well. 

Sometimes I deeply suspect the nature of reality. I suspect that there is no objective reality and that world does not exist outside of our mind. But if the world of our mind does exist, then in that mind I DID save the file, so it should be there now. I don't know.

[Mark S.]

 I suspect that there is no objective reality and that world does not exist outside of our mind.

Ut oh. You're catching on ...

Speaking of alternate realities, if you go the google drive web interface, Google keeps versions of your files for 30 days. Have you checked those for your lost work?

Good luck!

-- Mark

[TonyM]

Passingby

• I assume it was a single file wiki?
• I would not be surprised if the same wiki was in two tabs/windows, you worked on the second, but saved the first last. This overwrite step would look identical to your regular save.
• This is one reason I use Timimi because the download saver is error prone to human error.
• Personally I use Timimi in FireFox with the backup settings. As well as TiddlyServer with backup settings. I am yet to establish this in Bob as well.

Something I plan to do is to update my Directory of wikis to have a link that uses a target=wikiname, I would use this for new wikis as well. At least in the same browser every time you access the wiki using the directory link it will open in the same tab, ensuring you have only one copy in edit at a time. Bob also helps by allowing you to have more than one tab open with the same wiki safely.

I feel for your frustration.

Regards

Tony

[JD]

Hi,

I love that we are now on different realities because of this problem, which has also happened to me... But maybe your problem might really have been alien in nature?

I also use the download saver method, overwriting the same file and then once in a while saving to a backup location. All of this on Google Drive, too, like you. 

And you know what, sometimes Google Drive does this thing where it looks like it has saved the file... until you look closely at the bottom bar of the browser where it says "Failed - Insufficient permissions". Trouble with this is you have to delete the file, wait for the deletion to sync and then re-save. Mendokusai! Most worrying is, it looks exactly as if the file actually saved.

 

Maybe this is what happened? Well anyway, my condolences to your lost data.

-jd

[passingby]

Speaking of alternate realities, if you go the google drive web interface, Google keeps versions of your files for 30 days. Have you checked those for your lost work?

Good luck!

-- Mark

I did. The timestamp found on google drive web interface matched (I checked at that time) with the one which is on the local file on the hard disk. It was around 12.30 pm. And I closed my laptop at 5 pm in the evening. 

[passingby]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for inputting. The thing is, between 12.30 pm and 5 pm, I am sure I saved a couple of times, and even if I saved a previous version, the time timestamp shows 12.30 pm, as if the local file wan not touched at all in this while. This is what I am finding spooky.

And you are right about timimi. I LOVED timimi plugin. In my old laptop I was using a previous version of it. This, my current laptop is a new one ( Acer Aspire 5) and I chose not to install an old version of timimi (and last I checked Timimi was not out for chrome yet) and therefore all this mess.

But now I have installed Tiddlydrive plugin and it seems to be working well. I have to open my TW through google drive web interface and choose tiddlydrive as the application to open. It saves automatically, so every commit is saved. I am liking it so far.

[passingby]

Hello JD,

WOW. WE FOUND IT!!

Yes! I knew that I did save and I was not imagining anything.

THANK YOU. I have attached a screenshot from chrome's download's page. 

 

You know what, this only proves an old adage from my native language. It means something like, if you have a problem, go to your rooftop and shout it out, somebody would have an answer to your problem. And this is what happened here.I reached out and found a solution. Ancients were right. Thank you JD.

[JD]

Hi!

Wow, so that means the data really is lost then :(

It's a great feeling to confirm that you haven't imagined things isn't it? :D

-jd