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No safeguard to prevent personal directory deletion

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bel57
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Joined: 2024-08-26 20:00
No safeguard to prevent personal directory deletion

Hello,
I'd like to report a massive issue. Here is a quick explanation: PA Platform allows adding your own portable apps.
So I had a directory with a lot of exe. I noticed an app I was no longer using and instead of manually deleting the file, in a moment of inattention, I used the uninstall option from PA. Terrible mistake. Well, without any warning, it just deleted my entire personal collection of apps. I find it insane there is no warning nor backup before such action takes place.
Huge waste of time... now I've lost the config of all my apps and of course the executable.
In the future please add a feature to lock/prevent massive deletion of a directory, the app should have detected this wasn't a normal PA folder.

Edit: btw it didn't leave any cluster behind. Absolutely no chance of recovery. Gutted...

John T. Haller
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Confirmation Warning

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. There is a clear warning of what will occur, though. The confirmation message states that the entire contents of the selected directory will be deleted: https://i.imgur.com/v9s9Bnc.png

The default is No and it is focused so you can't accidentally click it.

The verbiage is based on the standard practice of having your apps in individual directories as recommended in the Support section: https://portableapps.com/support/platform#addingotherapps

In the 20 years I've been working on PortableApps.com, this is the only time I recall this ever coming up, so I'd say it's a rather unique situation. If this was something that had happened before, I might have considered removing the ability to uninstall non-PAF apps.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

bel57
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Last seen: 3 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: 2024-08-26 20:00
Welp

Mmh I was probably distracted so didn't notice it was not a PAF one. I think PA platform for non PA apps should only delete said exe, not the entire directory. Or at least follow default Windows behavior by moving deleted content in the bin instead of permanently removing it. So that would leave a chance of recovery. I do understand it's better to follow individual structure folder per each app but I preferred to have it all in one place for convenience.
It never crossed my mind that "uninstalling" a non PAF app would get rid of my entire custom folder. It's rare but it does happen to the unfortunate ones.
I've not logged out of the system since, does PA keep logs of its actions so maybe I can at least have a list of the apps I lost?
To sum it up, I believe if PA client can detect multiple exe from a single directory and add them to the program list, the other way around should be true as well: allow uninstalling non PAF but ask user if they want to remove 1 app or everything contained in that folder.

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