Subject: Launching QOwnNotes Portable 20.9.7 sometimes erases user data
Background
Recently, I installed QOwnNotes Portable 20.9.4. Over the course of a few days, I created some notes and installed a few dictionaries. This (20.9.4) worked well. Then I installed the latest (20.9.7) over it.
After a couple of launches, the next launch displayed the Welcome to QOwnNotes intialisation dialogue box, asking me to select the Note Folder. I pressed Cancel, then re-launched, only to be greeted with OQwnNotes without my files. All my notes and dictionaries had vanished. Indeed, everything in the Data directory was removed, replaced by the default files.
I have replicated this bug repeatedly, though it's unclear what triggers it.
Steps to reproduce
- Back up your user data if it exists
- Upgrade to 20.9.7. You can also perform a fresh install and copy (not move!) your files in
Data - Launch and close
QOwnNotesPortable.exea few times until theWelcome to QOwnNotesdialogue box appears. At this point, it does not matter whether you go through the wizard or cancel it — your notes, dictionaries and settings will be deleted.
Operating systems used
- Windows 10 Pro x64
- Windows 8.1 Pro x64
If there is anything else I can provide (including screenshots), please let me know.
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There have been no changes on our end. Could you please check if .11 is still experiencing the issue?
Note that if you rapidly open, close, open, etc any portable app it could step on itself as it moves files back and forth and cause data loss, especially on slower drives like a flash drive.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi John,
today, I re-ran the portable installation numerous times on my 8.1 Pro machine, but could not trigger this issue.
Also worth noting is that yesterday, I updated QOwnNotes manually to 20.9.9, then 20.9.10 (finally reverting to 20.9.7), but the bug persisted.
Thankfully, I have backup copies, so no work was lost. Now, however, I am at a loss as to what's happening.
Tomorrow, I'll run 20.9.11 portable on the Win10 Pro machine and see if the data loss re-appears.
Thank you for all the great work you do, and take care during these uncertain times.
Regards,
Jason
PS: Yes, I ensured a wait of 10+ seconds between shutdown and re-launch to ensure there are no multiple instances or conflicting processes.
I have had this same problem, with versions 20.3.7 through 20.10.3.
Here are a couple of observations:
1. If you have the Notes folder open in a Windoze File Explorer window, your notes will ALWAYS be deleted. But I have also lost all my notes when the Notes folder was NOT open. So there are multiple causes for this problem.
2. You CAN save your notes, IF you act promptly. When you see the "Welcome to QOwnNotes" window, STOP. Do not proceed, and do not cancel. Immediately open the Notes folder and copy all your notes somewhere else. The
*.mdfiles are what you want to save, DO NOT save the "notes.sqlite" file.PA.c\PortableApps\QOwnNotesPortable\Data\QOwnNotesData\Notesis where the notes are kept.I have opened an issue with the QOwnNotes people (github issue #2021). At the moment, I think this problem is an interaction between QOwnNotes and PortableApps. BUT. I also found QOwnNotes issue #1140 where someone lost all their notes and they were NOT using PortableApps.
Some time back, I was griping about QOwnNotes Portable losing all my notes (and, it turns out, all my customized settings). I finally gave up on the Portable version and just installed the QOwnNotes application, to see what would happen. Never saw the problem again.
Just now I discovered WHY this happened. It has to do with how PortableApps works. I won't bore you with the discovery process, it would take a while to read. But what happened to QOwnNotes, I believe, can happen to ANY PortableApp that stores data in its
Datafolder when it is not running.When a PortableApp starts, it moves some folder
foofromDatatoApp. When the PortableApp quits, it moves it back.If you are looking at the
foofolder in File Explorer, then the PortableApp CANNOT move it, because it is open in another process (File Explorer). What happens then, depends on the PortableApp. QOwnNotes starts over from scratch. A newNotesfolder is created; when QOwnNotes quits, the existingNotesfolder inDatagets overwritten by the just-created one. Presto, all notes and settings gone forever.I don't know if anything can be done about this. Perhaps the PortableApps launcher could check to see if the
Data\foofolder is open in some other process, and warn you to close (or at least navigate away from) the folder before proceeding. This would solve the problem, for EVERY PortableApp, not just QOwnNotes.Sadly, I do not know if this is even possible in Windoze.