Suddenly lost notes as an entire notebook was removed as I was editing it

Support
1

A notebook whose notes I was working on was deleted after I hit Ctrl + [either S,D, or F] (Butterfingers).
The notes the proceeded to disappear along with the notebook. I can’t figure out how to recover them, there are a bunch of files in the “notes and settings” directory but they all look like diff files, and do not contain the entire contents of the notes.
I use a --profile for these CAD notes I keep that launches out of a local folder. I don’t have a sync target setup.
Is it possible to recover the notes?
And what should i do to avoid this situation in the future? Do i have Joplin setup in a bad way?

  • Joplin 1.0.170(prod, win32)

  • Windows8.1

log.txt

2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Profile directory: C:\Users\poopie-head\Documents\Docs\CAD_DesignNotes"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Trying to load 0 master keys..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Loaded master keys: 0"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "ResourceFetcher: Auto-add resources: Mode: always"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "ResourceFetcher: Auto-added resources: 0"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Trying to load 0 master keys..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Loaded master keys: 0"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Scheduling sync operation..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Trying to load 0 master keys..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Loaded master keys: 0"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Scheduling sync operation..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Trying to load 0 master keys..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Loaded master keys: 0"
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Scheduling sync operation..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "Scheduling sync operation..."
2019-11-21 14:01:54: "RevisionService::runInBackground: Starting background service with revision collection interval 600000"
2019-11-21 14:01:56: "DecryptionWorker: cannot start because no master key is currently loaded."
2019-11-21 14:01:59: "RevisionService::maintenance: Starting..."
2019-11-21 14:01:59: "RevisionService::maintenance: Service is enabled"
2019-11-21 14:01:59: "RevisionService::collectRevisions: Created revisions for 1 notes"
2019-11-21 14:01:59: "RevisionService::maintenance: Done in 205ms"
2019-11-21 14:02:04: "SearchEngine: Updating FTS table..."
2019-11-21 14:02:04: "SearchEngine: Updated FTS table in 6ms. Inserted: 0. Deleted: 0"
2019-11-21 14:02:04: "Preparing scheduled sync"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Starting scheduled sync"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Error: Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir ''. Path: 
Code: ENOENT
Error: Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir ''. Path: 
    at FileApiDriverLocal.fsErrorToJsError_ (C:\Users\poopie-head\AppData\Local\Programs\Joplin\resources\app.asar\lib\file-api-driver-local.js:20:16)
    at FileApiDriverLocal.delta (C:\Users\poopie-head\AppData\Local\Programs\Joplin\resources\app.asar\lib\file-api-driver-local.js:76:15)"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Operations completed: "
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "createRemote: 1"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Total folders: 4"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Total notes: 12"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Total resources: 15"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "There was some errors:"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Error: Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir ''. Path: 
Code: ENOENT
Error: Error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir ''. Path: 
    at FileApiDriverLocal.fsErrorToJsError_ (C:\Users\poopie-head\AppData\Local\Programs\Joplin\resources\app.asar\lib\file-api-driver-local.js:20:16)
    at FileApiDriverLocal.delta (C:\Users\poopie-head\AppData\Local\Programs\Joplin\resources\app.asar\lib\file-api-driver-local.js:76:15)"
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Updating all notifications..."
2019-11-21 14:02:05: "Garbage collecting alarms..."
2019-11-21 14:02:06: "DecryptionWorker: cannot start because no master key is currently loaded."
2019-11-21 14:02:13: "Scheduling sync operation..."
2019-11-21 14:02:23: "SearchEngine: Updating FTS table..."
2019-11-21 14:02:23: "SearchEngine: Updated FTS table in 1ms. Inserted: 0. Deleted: 0"
2019-11-21 14:02:24: "ResourceService::indexNoteResources: Start"
2019-11-21 14:02:25: "ResourceService::indexNoteResources: Completed"
2019-11-21 14:02:25: "ResourceService::deleteOrphanResources:", "[]"
2019-11-21 14:02:43: "Preparing scheduled sync"
2019-11-21 14:02:43: "Starting scheduled sync"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "TaskQueue.stop: syncDownload: waiting for tasks to complete: 0"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "TaskQueue.stop: syncDownload: Done, waited for 0"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "Operations completed: "
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "itemConflict: 1"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "deleteRemote: 10"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "Total folders: 3"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "Total notes: 3"
2019-11-21 14:02:48: "Total resources: 15"
2019-11-21 14:02:53: "SearchEngine: Updating FTS table..."
2019-11-21 14:02:54: "SearchEngine: Updated FTS table in 533ms. Inserted: 0. Deleted: 9"
2019-11-21 14:11:55: "RevisionService::maintenance: Starting..."
2019-11-21 14:11:55: "RevisionService::maintenance: Service is enabled"
2019-11-21 14:11:55: "RevisionService::collectRevisions: Created revisions for 9 notes"
2019-11-21 14:11:55: "RevisionService::maintenance: Done in 198ms"
2

You might have a note in the Conflict folder. Otherwise, do you have a backup? As that would be the best way to restore.

Otherwise it seems you were changing the sync settings and maybe pointed it to an empty folder, which, as the warning says, means your local data will be deleted.

3

Sadly I do not have a Conflict folder. It just looks like the note are gone for good. I don’t recall having touched the sync settings, but it’s set to File System and there’s no directory set. Is this a bad thing? Becuase the other --profile I run is set the same way.
Should I set a directory to avoid this problem in the future? Can I use the same directory as the “notes and settings” directory?

In addition, I will begin making backups of everything every once in a while. It was foolish not to.

4

Syncing with an empty dir should be an error, but somehow it seems in your case it’s syncing something anyway. I’ll look into it.

5

No. Very bad idea.

6

Let me know if i can provide any more information that could help you.
Thanks for your time.

7

And it’s a very bad idea because it’s the equivalent of putting both the original documents and the certified copies in the same fuel soaked fireplace, right?
Any suggestions? Ideally I’d like to avoid a sync target because I don’t plan on sharing these notes across devices or anything like that. But if it’s best to have a sync target to avoid what happened earlier then, that’s what i need to do.

8

If you don’t want to sync, for now the best is to set the sync target to Dropbox or OneDrive. Since you didn’t login with the service, synchronisation will not start at all.

I’ve also fixed the issue you had with filesystem sync but that won’t help you at the moment.

9

Aah, great job! Thanks for your time.