Suddenly lost ALL current tabs state

[cosmito]

I updated to 1.5b some time ago. All seemed fine, I think I also did beta upgrade twice.

I shut down the PC today after more than 3 weeks. After boot, I opened Everything and I found EXTREMELY OLD TABS opening instead of my normal tabs. I have no idea how this could have happened since during the upgrade I also shut down Everything and upon reopening everything seemed normal.

How could this mess have happened, I never did anything else except shutting down the PC and booting it up. I lost an incredible amount of tabs and search filters. I see that my Session.json file is GONE and I have a Session.backup.json but it's from when I closed Everything AGAIN, AFTER I NOTICED MY TABS STATE WAS REVERTED TO VERY VERY OLD STATE.

[cosmito]

All I can think of is the fact that I shut down Windows without shutting down Everything first. But this, in no way shape or form should have caused this mess. It seems that the backup logic of this program is incredibly fragile and VERY PRONE to tabs state loss. A well designed backup system should have been enough to help me recover the current state. But somehow I got the VERY OLD STATE instead. How is that state even still available???

[cosmito]

I should have not relied on the apparent stability of this software and make copies of copies of copies.
The very operational basics are pre-alpha, buggy and prone to data loss. I have 3 session files WITH IDENTICAL CONTENT (THE OLD ONE).
Lesson learned.

[tuska]

Please see:  Everything 1.5b Beta - Upgrade Guide

Before installing, please backup your settings and data.

[cosmito]

Please see:  Everything 1.5b Beta - Upgrade Guide

Before installing, please backup your settings and data.

I did the beta upgrade already more than 3 weeks ago and I did another update to a new beta version without any issues.
The issue is NOT data loss from Alpha to Beta. It did not occur after any update. The OLD tabs state is from BEFORE I did the beta updates.

[void]

Sorry to hear Everything lost your tabs.

Please make your Session.json is not read only.
Otherwise, Everything will not update your session file.

Please make sure Session.backup.json is not read only.

When you launch Everything, Session.json is renamed to Session.backup.json.
When you restore a previous session, the session is restored from Session.backup.json.

If Everything is still running, please check the date modified on your Session.backup.json.
Is it recent?

Sessions


edit: There's an issue with Everything using an old session from Session-1.5a.json.
Please delete the following files:
Session-1.5a.json
Session-1.5a.backup.json

[cosmito]

Please make your Session.json is not read only.
Otherwise, Everything will not update your session file.

Please make sure Session.backup.json is not read only.

No files are read-only.

If Everything is still running, please check the date modified on your Session.backup.json.
Is it recent?

Yes the date is recent with timestamp when I last exited Everything, after I observed the very old tabs state from more than 4 weeks ago.

edit: There's an issue with Everything using an old session from Session-1.5a.json.
Please delete the following files:
Session-1.5a.json
Session-1.5a.backup.json

I deleted all 1.5a files.

The issue is: I updated to beta successfully and did another beta version update successfully, no issues with my sessions (complete Everything shutdown and start). Then some time passed and yesterday I did an update to Windows (it rebooted) then I shut down the PC and booted back up. At this point, the session state was completely lost and reverted to a very old one, from a long time ago.

This shows that whatever the current backup and saving mechanism is implemented for sessions state, is highly unreliable and prone to data loss. The session state was FINE after alpha to beta update and a subsequent beta update. Then it suddenly reverted to something I used 4+ weeks ago. My tabs and searches are now lost forever.

[therube]

All I can think of is the fact that I shut down Windows without shutting down Everything first.

Unsure offhand how an ungraceful act may affect things.
Unsure offhand how often (timed?) or when (other then on Everything exit) that Session* are written to disk, but if only on exit, & if a session is kept open for an extended period of time, & if during that time Session had not been written out, & if the computer crashed (or whatever), without writing, then that would leave Session* at an older state.

That said, it sounds like your Session* had been written out, at least with the alpha to 1515b, & then to 1516b, so you would think it would be be at least as of the date you put 1516b in. So to be coming up with very old tabs is odd.

Might you have different "profiles" laying about?
If you search for 'Session .json' (or 'Everything .db' ...) & other then physical backups you may have made, do multiples of them exist - in different directories (& you're inadvertently running something you weren't expecting)?

[Herkules97]

For all software, if you care about it make backups.
There is no perfect stability to rely on.

If you care a lot, make copies all over the place. It's a tiny file. If you have 3 HDDs, you can afford to make copies to all 3 for example.
Idk how many you have, maybe just the OS device. Then you're one breakage away from losing everything. Teehee. Cloud backup might work, if you want to upload all your files to there..Apparently you get a year's worth of security updates if on Windows 10 if you do it via MicroSoft.

As for the other stuff, if it somehow restored an old file maybe it's Windows' fault you have an older version. I won't speak much else on sessions as I do not use them so Idk what sort of problems may arise with them.
It is ultimately your fault for not making backups and believing all software works flawlessly. Windows might screw up, EBV might screw up..But if you made copies you would be able to simply copy it back in when that happens.

And why delete old files, why does the upgrade guide say to delete files..Why not "Move these files off to a sub-folder or elsewhere in case you want old backups"? They are tiny, even if they're kept for 10 years they won't be why you run out of space on the OS device.

There is also software that deliberately deletes/empties your files, such as Google Chrome when you start it with different hardware(At least on my end it happened). I believe I found the report about why that system exists and they admitted it wasn't a bug but a feature. You never know what they'll do, copies are more reliant. However this issue leans more toward user-error/software bug than software feature.

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1417b fixes an issue with restoring an session from an old Everything 1.5a session.