written txt file in english, saved it. It changed to gibberish

[Sudir red]

I have written text in english, saved file and when I reopened it shows some gibberish. I am running 7.8.9 version. Does anyone know what is the reason for this ?

ÿÐrO<µ§ÜÊ’~άAý¤HöUG"^û°r’4±² Ÿé__ŒÂ]ØBÕïàyt‹&8Ó†æEY¿ðõ3V?šPÁq®üà\DÐàÿKMÖ2¸’Ìb©Ÿ,Q]¸Ú¦S„HmQ

[PeterJones]

@Sudir-red ,

Notepad++ shouldn’t do that.

Weird things can happen with encoding settings, but I’ve never seen anything that horrendous when dealing with text written in English using standard ASCII characters.

Since you re-opened the file, it may be that some other program modified the text file in the interim: I would check for viruses/ransomware.

Alternately, do you have any plugins that might try to do something like encrypt or zip a file after saving it? Supplying us with the results of the ?-menu’s Debug Info can help us see exactly what version you’re using, and what plugins are installed.

Does it happen for every file you create or edit, or just for that one? If it happens with multiple files, does it happen in any directory, or just in one directory (or one hierarchy)?

If there’s anything else you can tell us, it might help us help you debug the problem.

[Sebastjan]

quick thought about this: file from encrypted folder (like bitlocker)…

[Sudir red]

@PeterJones
Thanks for helping

1. Scanned for Virus. This is office machine, they release updates frequently.
2. I didn’t install any plugins to encrypt or zip a file.
3. Debug info

Notepad++ v7.8.9 (64-bit)
Build time : Jul 15 2020 - 20:31:49
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS Name : Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit)
OS Build : 7601.24530
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins : DSpellCheck.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll

4. It happened to around first 20 files when I sorted by date of 30 files in downloads folder.
5. In Documents folder I am able to open files, its in English but I see “NUL” replaced with “-”
6. I am able to create files now they don’t have issue. But those that are created before last week have this issue

[PeterJones]

@Sudir-red ,

Thanks for the answers.

I still don’t see any reason why Notepad++ would have made the gibberish text.

You mentioned something about NUL in #5: there is a known issue that during some Windows crashes, if Notepad++ was in the middle of saving when Windows crashed, Windows can leave the file in a state with all NUL characters. But that hasn’t been known to cause the gibberish you quoted in your original post – and your phrasing indicates that it didn’t become a file of all NUL characters.

I am able to create files now they don’t have issue.

That’s good news. Since we don’t know what caused it, I’d keep a close watch out, if I were you. And my personal recommendation: use backup software and/or version control software, to make sure that you don’t lose more than a small amount of work, whether it’s from Windows crashes, malicious software, or undiscovered bugs.

Good luck.

[Sudir red]

@PeterJones
Thank you Peter Jones
Do you think of any way to recover text files to english. I have important data saved in files.

[Ekopalypse]

@Sudir-red

as you are using windows enterprise version and you stated that this
is the office machine, how about
right-clicking on the file -> properties -> previous versions?

[Ekopalypse]

@Ekopalypse

In addition you can check if your %appdata%\notepad++\backup directory contains something usable.