# HELP! all my notes have disappeared!

**URL:** <https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [17 September 2025 09:41 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320 "2025-09-17T09:41:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 09:41 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/1 "2025-09-17T09:41:59Z")

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### Operating system

Windows

### Joplin version

3.4.7

### Desktop version info

Joplin 3.4.7 (prod, win32)

Device: win32, 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700K  
Client ID: ec26ba5a720745edadd557f7ebe0874a  
Sync Version: 3  
Profile Version: 48  
Keychain Supported: Yes  
Alternative instance ID: -

Revision: 66d52c9

Backup: 1.4.3  
Freehand Drawing: 3.1.0

### Sync target

OneDrive

### What issue do you have?

I have years of patient notes on Joplin. I backed up to OneDrive. On the latest sync I was getting an error message telling me to disable fail safe in order to resolve some sync error. I disabled fail safe, but now all my notes are gone! I thought syncing would provide a backup but instead I can't find my notes! Even OneDrive folder does not have a lot of files.

How do I get my notes back??

 ![Screenshot 2025-09-17 125210](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/1/5/15d429485658ef54c1d4720b6e54ad0fa9e57fee.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomasz86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@tomasz86](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tomasz86)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 11:34 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/2 "2025-09-17T11:34:09Z")

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You’ve got the backup plugin installed, so you should be able to restore the notes using it (see [https://joplinapp.org/plugins/plugin/io.github.jackgruber.backup/#restore](https://joplinapp.org/plugins/plugin/io.github.jackgruber.backup/#restore)).

You’ve learnt this already, but synchronisation can only be treated as a redundant copy. It is not a backup. Please also don’t fiddle with the fail safe, as it is there for a reason (precisely to avoid what has happened to you ☹).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_vg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/_vg/32/27067_2.png) [@\_vg](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/_vg)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 12:06 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/3 "2025-09-17T12:06:49Z")

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> [@tsabar](#):
>
> I backed up to OneDrive. […] I thought syncing would provide a backup

Sorry to insist: SYNC IS NOT BACKUP. This is valid in general, nothing to do with Joplin. Any content deletion is propagated to all synced devices. If some or all of your content is deleted on one device, it is deleted everywhere.

> I disabled fail safe, but now all my notes are gone!

You have learned this the hard way, please take a minute to learn what “fail safe“ means. Again, nothing specific to Joplin. It is usually a protection designed to protect yourself from your own mistakes. You should almost never disable a fail safe. If you ever do, make sure you know what you are doing and double backup everything _before_ pushing the button.

Grok says: A fail-safe is a design feature or mechanism in a system that ensures it remains safe or operational even if a component fails or an error occurs. It’s a backup or precautionary measure to prevent catastrophic consequences, damage, or harm by automatically switching to a safe state or mode.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 12:26 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/5 "2025-09-17T12:26:54Z")

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Joplin literally told me to disable fail safe to resolve the sync problem - are you telling me that years of notes are now gone and not retrievable?!?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![personalizedrefriger](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/personalizedrefriger/32/13210_2.png) [@personalizedrefriger](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/personalizedrefriger)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 12:34 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/6 "2025-09-17T12:34:56Z")

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I'm linking to a forum thread that should include further information:

> [@Subject: Critical Data Loss After Joplin Update – All Notes Deleted](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/subject-critical-data-loss-after-joplin-update-all-notes-deleted/45236/3):
>
> Related information: Restoring from an automatic backup: The Windows version of Joplin includes [the backup plugin](https://joplinapp.org/plugins/plugin/io.github.jackgruber.backup/). By default, backups are stored in C:\Users\YourUserName\JoplinBackup. See [the plugin's "restore" guide for details](https://github.com/JackGruber/joplin-plugin-backup/blob/master/FULLRESTORE.md). Manually recovering data from OneDrive: With the OneDrive sync target, notes deleted by a Joplin sync should be moved to the OneDrive recycle bin. If restoring from an automatic backup fails, it should be possible to restore using the data on OneDrive (though more di…

To summarize:

- The notes should still be present in the OneDrive recycle bin.
- The automatic backup in C:\Users\YourUserName\JoplinBackup (if present) should also include a recent backup, but without revision history.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 12:58 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/7 "2025-09-17T12:58:26Z")

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OneDrive recycle bin was empty, so that didn’t work.

I see that backup was enabled in addition to sync. Luckily I found the backup before today’s backup overwrote the previous backup. (I just changed it from 1 backup to 7 days of backups). I was able to restore and now I can breathe again.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_vg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/_vg/32/27067_2.png) [@\_vg](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/_vg)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 14:34 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/8 "2025-09-17T14:34:07Z")

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> [@tsabar](#):
>
> Joplin literally told me to disable fail safe to resolve the sync problem

That's a good point. Maybe that message should be improved. For example “before you disable fail safe, make sure to manually backup by exporting all your notes as a JEX file“

> I just changed it from 1 backup to 7 days of backups

I believe 7 is the default, may I ask why you changed to 1 in the past? Having only yesterday's backup is very fragile. Unless of course you continuously backup your computer data somehow (for example on MacOS I use Time Machine). Do you?

> I was able to restore and now I can breathe again.

Happy to hear this. 😊

As your data is critical, may I suggest your learn about “3 2 1 backup strategy“ and set one up. Otherwise next time you might unfortunately not be so lucky.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [17 September 2025 15:55 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/9 "2025-09-17T15:55:26Z")

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@_vg

I don’t remember changing the backup days nor why I would do that…

Thanks for the 3-2-1 backup tip, just added the JoplinBackup folder to Google Drive sync.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [18 September 2025 07:52 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/10 "2025-09-18T07:52:21Z")

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While I was able to restore the backup, I am now constantly getting an error message about the backup.

Any ideas on how to resolve this?

 ![joplin error](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/b/4/b4d33d18f5d42d60010ec79c62e44a405478de3f.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_vg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/_vg/32/27067_2.png) [@\_vg](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/_vg)\
**Post date:** [18 September 2025 14:30 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/11 "2025-09-18T14:30:18Z")

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There seems to be a permission error somewhere in C:\Users\ohad\JoplinBackup

Try renaming C:\Users\ohad\JoplinBackup to C:\Users\ohad\JoplinBackupOLD (safer than deleting it) then see if it still happens

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsabar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/tsabar/32/20720_2.png) [@tsabar](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/tsabar)\
**Post date:** [18 September 2025 18:17 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/12 "2025-09-18T18:17:12Z")

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that seems to have done it, thanx again 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![horvat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/97f17d/32.png) [@horvat](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/horvat)\
**Post date:** [18 September 2025 19:06 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/13 "2025-09-18T19:06:52Z")

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I’ve had number of backup configured to 1 only as well and don’t think I’ve changed it from default. Probably it used to be default setting for some older versions of Joplin.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_vg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/_vg/32/27067_2.png) [@\_vg](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/_vg)\
**Post date:** [18 September 2025 20:39 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/14 "2025-09-18T20:39:06Z")

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Seems like I was wrong on this one. The screenshot on [Joplin Plugins - Backup](https://joplinapp.org/plugins/plugin/io.github.jackgruber.backup/) shows 1 day not 7, thus 1 might have been the default value all along. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

UPDATE Or not! According to grok the default was updated to 7 in a recent update.

UPDATE 7 default confirmed. See 3.3.5 section in [Joplin Desktop Changelog | Joplin](https://joplinapp.org/help/about/changelog/desktop/) and this issue [Increase the number of backups being kept by default · Issue #12095 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/12095)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/1/c/1c948e33314e232a0927789508474d8624f4270b.png) [@system](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [18 October 2025 20:39 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/help-all-my-notes-have-disappeared/47320/15 "2025-10-18T20:39:57Z")

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