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    Fix corrupted txt file (NULL)

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    corruptedfixtextnullfile
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    • Igor GalochkinI
      Igor Galochkin
      last edited by Igor Galochkin

      Oh my, just found out that setting “Verbose backup” in Notepad++ now creates a folder named “nppBackup” at the same place as the txt file and saves the backups there each time you save. If you don’t want to clog your folders with all these multiple nppBackup subfolders, you can set a custom path where all the backups of all edited files will be saved, e.g. some folder inside Dropbox.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Alessandro Lo CuocoA
        Alessandro Lo Cuoco
        last edited by Alessandro Lo Cuoco

        It seems that when data is apparently replaced by null characters information is not actually lost. I searched on the web and I found that using a file recovery application (Recuva) one can still obtain the original file without any loss of information (I tried this myself). This is very strange, as it’s not clear where this information come from if the “null” characters are really “null”…

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • chcgC
          chcg
          last edited by

          @Claudia-Frank @pnedev
          See https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/blob/master/PowerEditor/src/CMakeLists.txt and https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/tree/master/PowerEditor/gcc
          for cross compilation. Open PRs needed:
          https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/4320
          https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/3918
          https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/4145

          Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Claudia FrankC
            Claudia Frank @chcg
            last edited by

            @chcg

            thank you but since installing VS2017 in my VM it is good enough.
            It does take <1 minute to do a full clean compile of npp, scintilla and python script plugin
            and ~15-20 seconds for code changes to test.

            Cheers
            Claudia

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Manikandan PalaniappanM
              Manikandan Palaniappan
              last edited by Manikandan Palaniappan

              Hi All,
              In my case, file size is showing 7kb and unable to find that file in back up folder. When I open it shows Null in Notepad++, empty in Notepad.
              I tried Recuva and restore the file, again context is not readable.
              Restore previous version is also not available. I’m using Windows 10 64 bit OS
              Please help me to recover file

              Thanks,
              Mani

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Iain CheyneI
                Iain Cheyne
                last edited by

                I fixed a corrupted file using the deep scan feature of Recuva.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Rahul AroraR
                  Rahul Arora
                  last edited by

                  for anyone still looking for this!
                  right click on the file -> properties -> previous versions, -> open, …
                  check contents before you hit restore.
                  saved 7 days of work!!!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Joe DoughertyJ
                    Joe Dougherty
                    last edited by

                    Anyone know if this has been fixed? I’m using an older version 7.3.3 64-bit version on Windows 10. Its always been solid. After my last two reboots the files I had been working on previously have turned into all null bytes. Not empty files - each character in the file is now null. Major PITA.

                    Scott SumnerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • Scott SumnerS
                      Scott Sumner @Joe Dougherty
                      last edited by

                      @Joe-Dougherty said:

                      Anyone know if this has been fixed?

                      I have seen no evidence that any changes have been made to date in regard to preventing this from occurring. It happened to me when using 7.2.2.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Mark CageM
                        Mark Cage
                        last edited by Mark Cage

                        Had the same catastrophe today. System Crashed (windows 7). Npp ver. 6.9.

                        Text file contents coming as null.

                        Used the recuva technique and got everything back!!

                        Learnt about verbose backup and updating to the latest Npp version.

                        Thank you all.

                        Scott SumnerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Scott SumnerS
                          Scott Sumner @Mark Cage
                          last edited by

                          @Mark-Cage said:

                          …updating to the latest Npp version

                          Most people in your situation say something different…Like “I’m switching to Sublime / Atom”…

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • Mark CageM
                            Mark Cage
                            last edited by

                            @Scott-Sumner said:

                            Sublime / Atom

                            I love npp! There might some issues in the other text editors as well

                            Just enable verbose backup and i think i should be fine :)

                            Scott SumnerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • Scott SumnerS
                              Scott Sumner @Mark Cage
                              last edited by

                              @Mark-Cage

                              Just enable verbose backup and i think i should be fine

                              There are some people with the theory that that actually contributes to the NUL problem (i.e. they postulate that if backup was off it wouldn’t/couldn’t occur). I can attest that the one time the NUL problem happened to me, I did indeed have verbose backup turned on. I had a bunch of files that the v.b. creates (so I thought "No problem!), but they too were all filled with NUL, back to the time at which I had started the current Notepad++ run. I lost about 2 hours of work when I should have only lost about 2 seconds worth (I am old-school and am “all over” the Save key…constantly). YMMV. :-)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                              • Mark CageM
                                Mark Cage
                                last edited by

                                That sucks! i hadn’t turned back up on before this happened . Also use the save key all the time. But the null error still occurred. Can only pray that it doesn’t happen again :)

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Lucky ErumeborL
                                  Lucky Erumebor
                                  last edited by

                                  same thing just happened to me… v7.5.8

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Claudia FrankC
                                    Claudia Frank
                                    last edited by

                                    Gotcha!!

                                    Hopefully I can reproduce it under debugger.

                                    Cheers
                                    Claudia

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                    • Jeremy JordanJ
                                      Jeremy Jordan
                                      last edited by

                                      yeah but this is more corrupted because my txt file named Oofood instead of saying words… it came up with this: ¶¬®°~Z…yàãñöpý²Ã”¦ Vš¸:lŸã"Œ7$2¥‰+s;¡*p“‘A\ìö© /2[ÐnUû“H–™øk´­b|Ë*Y÷T¾t=¥t˜»¤RÞ~YP6*•°ÉÜü´ÄZ¤ï°³Ê}=ƒ0såÁ¨,©°¯Îß”1XŽÁb€(Þ}Y4ýµB™yª
                                      @¶e§‹Ê ©öà[_dy ‘rü±wD˜ŒíÝP ÉïCŸ;Q¬|it³JÔÈX5[7Dë¹ã!ä•0ynöWª@»C²É;]C„rÏ<õª—$5ûUôdx3×2`ö¦3õÆš&ÛgpÖǝ$³:Þ"АµÙ&¹ŠQâ‚zg¾ðõ^5öŽ(^³Eð«N\§DFNi†“»©˜.Ù/ã« &æ-”&ÚÏŠû²š¢ÔÿÐØ0\m;B–@8ÍÛv¶ïË‘®xJU ´ ôP
                                      
                                      ’Ð 6ÝÁ¤ªÀ½4;X¶y•kÕñ”ø¡ÇéVËè×_ýÔÇ9|E’Xújƒ /6O´ûv øEî\ê±s5T)%,T,Âa†L c£"ÇÕz ˆ ¯îêjøRÖÓ:òo›7ÆÓGmyEU¶Xo‘Å«·øÈëJõ¾Äwå¦B<\©¶ÖÙâÎ,@´~_Nä&BkBc&AŽ…Zºc

                                      Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • Claudia FrankC
                                        Claudia Frank @Jeremy Jordan
                                        last edited by

                                        @Jeremy-Jordan

                                        but this looks like the file content has been replaced with binary data - hard to believe that npp is responsible for that.
                                        I assume that your issue must be caused by something else.

                                        Cheers
                                        Claudia

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • PeterJonesP
                                          PeterJones
                                          last edited by

                                          @Jeremy-Jordan,

                                          As @Claudia-Frank said, that’s binary data, not just NULLs. If that’s really happened to a file that was plain text, you’ve either edited it with some other editor which has encoded it, or the file has been encrypted. If you weren’t expecting the file to be encrypted, then there’s (unfortunately) a very high probability you’ve been infected with a virus, ransomware, or other malware. Please run a reputable scanner ASAP.

                                          Since many forms of viruses, ransomware, and other malware make your data unrecoverable, I am hoping you have a separate backup of any essential data. But don’t try to access that backup until you know the computer you are on is clean – I’d hate for your backup to become infected as well.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • Michael SimcichM
                                            Michael Simcich
                                            last edited by

                                            I have an interesting variation on a theme to report. Yesterday I worked most of the day on a set of text files; some xls files, and asp.net files loaded into visual studio. Most work was done by 9 pm; I had saved those files many times during the day’s work. At about 11:30 pm the pc became increasingly unresponsive and eventually I had to reset it. The pc booted normally. I left it on all night so that the daily Acronis backup, which seemed to have stalled in the evening (and may have been the source of the system failure) could do it’s thing.

                                            This AM I found that all of those files (.net, .xls, .txt in notepad++) were corrupted, with the text and .net files showing as NULL everywhere. I don’t have Backup on Save turned on. Session snapshot and periodic backup are on, probably default settings as I’ve never known about np++ backup features before today, but there are no recent files in that dir. I have various types of backups to fall back on.

                                            But the main reason I’m posting this is that the NULL blowout happened to other files that were not in use by notepad++. I personally don’t recall ever having file data losses like this before, ever; but it doesn’t seem to be true that it’s an issue with notepad++, or at least only notepad++.

                                            Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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