It automatically creates backups of my files, don't know how to deactivate the option

Dennis Mz

I have been using Notepad++ for 13+ years now. On a new laptop, I downloaded the latest version and found that EVERY file I saved after editing, it created the backup.

This is a very bad decision to make this feature a default for a lot of reasons. What other application makes a backup file in the user’s directory? Office creates temp ones and cleans them up. That is intrusive and very assumptive that that behavior will be accepted and welcomed. It is not and I hope this will be undone in the near future. If a user wants this feature, they are the ones to search for this, not EVERY other user that isn’t expecting this. The users will now be wasting their time trying to understand HOW the file got there, what the differences in the files are, and if it is safe to delete. If I want a backup, I will create one.

Notepad++ should be a simple tool out of the box, and an advanced tool for those that want to enable other features and utilize the incredible library of plugins to manage advance features. Not the other way around.

Alan Kilborn

@dennis-mz said in It automatically creates backups of my files, don't know how to deactivate the option:

This is a very bad decision

It’s been rethought by the Notepad++ devs and has been returned (in 8.3.1) to how you are used to having it.

PeterJones

@dennis-mz ,

Congratulations. You have now seen what many other users have complained about, and which has been changed back in the newly-announced v8.3.1.

Unfortunately (from your perspective), since you have installed the program on a fresh laptop with the automatic .bak, , that setting has now been saved in your preferences file. Which means you have the task of going to Settings > Preferences > Backup and clicking the radiobutton next to None to change that laptop to not do backup-on-save. And with that step, you are now back to the state you were used to on previous installations.

However, given that you’re thinking about it, I would use now to audit your entire data integrity plan – backups, automatic saves, revision control, and the like – to make sure that you will never find yourself in the situation where you will lose data. A good place to start is the Periodic Backup vs AutoSave Plugin FAQ… a well-configured AutoSave Plugin will help you prevent data loss. (edit: sorry, didn’t see your portion about saving plugins for advanced users. if you don’t want to use the plugin, you don’t have to.) But, most importantly, however you do it: “Save early, save often.”

Dennis Mz

@alan-kilborn Thanks. Great to hear. I love the product and appreciate the quick feedback.

Dennis Mz

@peterjones This is great feedback about the plugins. I feel most users “don’t know what they don’t know” about the capabilities of Notepad++. I encourage users of all skillsets to get it and discover its features. Most want an editor better than notepad.exe but not too complicated. Others like me have vetted plugins and use their features daily. I will look into this one.

Lycan Thrope

@dennis-mz ,

I wasn’t going to respond, but let’s start with at least one language that I know of, since the original inception of the Big 3 desktop applications, dBASE does it. Most software does it, to some extent and gives you the option to turn it off. NOT the other way around.

I am amazed at the power users who don’t RTFM, but then quip other users should RTFM, and try to evicerate anyone that dares look at life differently than themselves.

So be it. Notepad.exe does not come with anything but word wrap, cut, copy, paste, a generic find and replace capability, and a time/date insertion macro.

You folks want a programmer’s editor, without paying for it, like we did with Multi-Edit, and several others from days gone by, in what is essentially supposed to be a Notepad.exe replacement. The fact that it is quite good at it, freeware, is a nice thing. To expect it to cater to your’s and only your point of world view to the exclusion of others that you can’t understand, is arrogance. But. cie la vie. You guys seem no better than the cranky old dudes you wanted to replace because they couldn’t learn to do things more modern…and here you are, still crying because someone changed your brain dead default. You installed a new installation, what did you think was going to happen? RTFM and RTRN.

Rant over.

Lee