Joplin stores notes in C:\Users\YourUserName\.config\joplin-desktop\database.sqlite as an SQLite database. It should be possible to recover the relevant notes from that file.
I suggest:
- Making a copy of
C:\Users\YourUserName\.config\joplin-desktop\database.sqliteand storing it in a safe place. - Checking whether disconnecting from the internet/similar approaches fix the issue:
- To verify that this isn't an ongoing sync issue with Joplin Cloud, try disconnecting from the internet and starting Joplin.
- To make sure that this isn't a low-memory issue, try restarting the computer, making sure that no other applications are running, then starting Joplin.
- If the above doesn't work, you might try:
- Making another copy of
C:\Users\YourUserName\.config\joplin-desktop\database.sqliteand opening it in Notepad. Search for text that should appear near/in the same note as the information that was lost with ctrl-f. (This might not work: Joplin databases are very large and not the type of data Notepad is optimized for reading). If this fails, this post may be related.
- Making another copy of
To help us prevent this from happening in the future, the following information might be helpful:
- When Joplin crashes, it should create files with names similar to
joplin_crash_dump_20240319T171500.jsoninC:\Users\YourUserName\(or a similar folder — I'm currently on a different OS and can't easily double-check). C:\Users\YourUserName\.config\joplin-desktop\should contain alog.txtfile that may contain information about the crash (perhaps near the end of the file).