Searching a word in a large directory caused N++ crash and loss of auto-saved open documents

Grigore I · Jan 4, 2021, 1:03 PM

My Notepad++ is set to continue each time the last working session.
I had some 150+ open tabs in Notepad++. Many of them open for years.
Searching recursively a in a large Wordpress installation caused Notepad++ to hang, crash and lose (destroy) most of auto-saved open documents. It managed to keep them for months and years, and now after this N++ crash, all these open auto-saved documents are gone!!

The Session.xml it’s ok. Just the unsaved files of from %APPDATA%\Notepad++\backup are lost, almost all of them. A lot of work and saved notices are lost…

Using immediately softwares like Recuva and Disk Drill to restore the lost files, was unsuccessful, only a few files there recovered from almost 200!!

Is there any chance to recover the lost auto-saved documents? Or they are gone forever?

Alan Kilborn · Jan 4, 2021, 1:09 PM

@Grigore-I

Suggest you have a look here:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/6133
and if you feel your problem is related/relevant to that (I do), contribute your thoughts there while they are fresh in your mind.
For Notepad++ developers to fix this, they need accurate “what happened exactly” details.

Grigore I · Jan 4, 2021, 1:24 PM

@Alan-Kilborn Nope, it’s unrelated. It’s a new bug.
Some ~100 files disapppeared completely from backup folder. Before this, while crashing, N++ suggested that it will try to save the open documents, it generated some dump, I saw on screen all files open in N++ being quickly renamed with .dmp extension.
There was probably a problem with my low RAM amount, since searching in a 5 GB directory of 3900 sub-folders and 23k files with 4 GB RAM it’s not enough.

Alan Kilborn · Jan 4, 2021, 1:29 PM

@Grigore-I said in Searching a word in a large directory caused N++ crash and loss of auto-saved open documents:

it’s unrelated. It’s a new bug.

Okay, you are the expert on what happened to you; your original description plus your additional info makes me feel good that it is not the same thing as what has been happening to some other users.

Regardless, if you want YOURS to be seen, you’ll need to open a new issue on it on github; developers don’t read bug reports here.

Grigore I · Jan 4, 2021, 1:54 PM

@Alan-Kilborn said in Searching a word in a large directory caused N++ crash and loss of auto-saved open documents:

Regardless, if you want YOURS to be seen, you’ll need to open a new issue on it on github; developers don’t read bug reports here.

Ok, thanks.