Can't find the unsaved tabs after Window 10 automatic update

Vincent Pringalle · Aug 7, 2023, 3:27 PM

Usually, Windows update does not impact Notepad++
I had once a Windows crash but could recover all my unsaved tabs on C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\backup
2 days ago after an unsollicited Windows 10 update, Notepad+ reopened without any tabs. The C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\ does not contain any Notepad++. Moreover as I use Notepad++ in Portable mode, the dir …_portable_Notepad++\App\Notepad++\backup\ defined in Settings / Preferences / Backup contains some unsaved tabs but with outdated contents : the tabs modified last week were dated feb 2022… In order to proceed with my works, I backuped this backup dir before reusing Notepad++ again.
Could someone help me retrieving my recent unsaved tabs dated last week ?

PeterJones · Aug 7, 2023, 3:58 PM

@Vincent-Pringalle said in Can’t find the unsaved tabs after Window 10 automatic update:

2 days ago after an unsollicited Windows 10 update, Notepad+ reopened without any tabs. The C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\ does not contain any Notepad++.

If you only use Portable with doLocalConf.xml in the portable directory, then then it will never create anything in the AppData hierarchy. So looking there most likely won’t help you with your portable version.

Moreover as I use Notepad++ in Portable mode, the dir …_portable_Notepad++\App\Notepad++\backup\ defined in Settings / Preferences / Backup contains some unsaved tabs but with outdated contents : the tabs modified last week were dated feb 2022…

Could you show us

A screenshot of Settings > Preferences > Backup
Paste a copy of your ?-menu’s Debug Info
let us know where you got your portable Notepad++

Do you have nppLogNulContentCorruptionIssue.xml in your portable directory? if so, did it create nppLogNulContentCorruptionIssue.log in the portable directory when the crash occurred? If so, its contents might be able to give some insight into the sequence of events that led to your periodic-backup-and-session-snapshot being corrupted.

In order to proceed with my works, I backuped this backup dir before reusing Notepad++ again.
Could someone help me retrieving my recent unsaved tabs dated last week ?

Most likely not: if the files aren’t in the portable backup directory, then somehow Notepad++ was convinced that you had told it that it was okay to delete the unsaved files, and so they haven’t been saved. At that point, as it mentions in our backup FAQ, you might have to resort to file recovery software (we give the example of “Recuva”, but make no guarantees or warranties regarding that separate piece of software), which may or may not be able to see the no-longer-visible files in the portable backup directory. That FAQ has suggestions for how to prevent this loss of data in the future.