How do I retrieve text that I had copied and then apparently lost by copying something else?

FairbanksBiz

Hello.

Please, help me if you can because I’m desperate.

I will try to describe my problem the best I can but it’s difficult to phrase it in a comprehensible way I fear.

Now, let’s say that I have a lot of tabs (is that even the right word?) open on Notepad++.

So, I decide to copy all the text that is written on one of those tabs, let’s call it Tab 1.

Tab 1 is now empty, and I close it down.

Then I go to another tab, let’s call it Tab 2, where something else is written, with the intention of pasting what I copied from Tab 1 over there. The reasoning behind this is that I want to keep what was written on Tab 1 and what is written on Tab 2 together instead of separately on two different tabs.

But instead of doing so, I mistakenly copy what is written on Tab 2!

So now all that I have is what is written on Tab 2.

Is there a way to retrieve what was written of Tab 1??

Maybe there’s a way to go back to having copied-and-ready-to-be-pasted the former text that was copied-and-ready-to-be-pasted before the last thing I copied, which is now the one that is ready to be pasted? Damn, I don’t know if I’m phrasing this is a way to make myself understood!

Or maybe there’s a way to resurrect Tab 1, and in the exact form it was before I closed it down? Remember, I have closed that after having copied what was written on it.

Please, help me if you can, it’s important!

Thank you,

Amalia

Terry R

@FairbanksBiz said in How do I retrieve text that I had copied and then apparently lost by copying something else?:

Or maybe there’s a way to resurrect Tab 1, and in the exact form it was before I closed it down? Remember, I have closed that after having copied what was written on it.

You can try this, it will be dependent on having the backup system operational. There may be other methods but this is 1 idea.

With File Explorer type %appdata% in the address line. This opens a folder which contains the Notepad++ folder (amongst others). Enter that folder and then the backup folder within. If backups have been implemented in Notepad++ there might be some remnants of the “temporary” tab xx you created in Notepad++.

Terry

Alan Kilborn

@FairbanksBiz said in How do I retrieve text that I had copied and then apparently lost by copying something else?:

So, I decide to copy all the text that is written on one of those tabs, let’s call it Tab 1.
Tab 1 is now empty, and I close it down.

That’s called “cutting” not “copying”.

But instead of doing so, I mistakenly copy what is written on Tab 2!

Is there a way to retrieve what was written of Tab 1??

Tab 1 is closed at this point – any backup of the data that Notepad++ had kept for you is also removed.
Your clipboard contents have been overwritten.
I’d say your data is gone.

Clearly you don’t use any clipboard management software, or you wouldn’t be asking this question.

In the future, suggest you use such a clipboard manager, or even enable Notepad++'s Clipboard History panel (see the Edit menu) as this will retain past clips.

PeterJones

@FairbanksBiz ,

As @Alan-Kilborn said, once you closed the unnamed tab, Notepad++ deleted the session periodic-backup file, and thus “your data is gone”.

But assuming you had the session-periodic-backup turned on (it is turned on by default), then at one point, Notepad++ was saving copies into the %AppData%\Notepad++\backup\ , as @Terry-R described. So the files were written there at one time, and then deleted. That means, if you are lucky, an application like Recuva might be able to find and undelete the recent periodic backup for you. But with the amount of time elapsed, it’s getting less and less likely. Sorry.

In the future, if you want to cut from FILE1 to paste into FILE2, a better sequence would be:

save FILE1
I understand you might not have a named file for FILE1… but if this is data that is critical enough to you that you are desperate to recover it, then it should be critical enough to use up some disk space while you are in the middle of manipulating it.
cut from FILE1
paste into FILE2
make sure FILE2 looks like you expect
save FILE2
go back and save the empty FILE1
close the empty FILE1
use Windows Explorer or other filesystem tool to delete the empty FILE1

…That way, any time before step 6, you can go into FILE1’s tab and UNDO to get back the original file.

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FAQ: Periodic Backup vs AutoSave Plugin => Describes the builtin “Session Snapshot and Periodic Backup” feature and compares it to the AutoSave Plugin
Recuva => completely unaffiliated with Notepad++ or the Notepad++ Community Forum; listed as an example of file recovery software for Windows with no guarantee or warranty, explicit or implied, by its listing in this post