Failed to backup and now I seem to have lost everything

šŸžBug Reports
#1

Firefox 77.0.1 mainly, Windows 10-64 v1909.

Iā€™d previously seen confirmations of my (manual) backup to Google Drive as being successful. Prompted to backup again, the app stalled.

Following the de-bug guidance, I found a message in the console that, somehow, I had an experimental database and should update the app.

On starting the re-installed app, I seem to have lost everything and checking my Google Drive I have no backups - none - despite getting success messages within the app over the preceding months.

Unless I can recover my history - and make a successful backup - Iā€™m out of here and steaming angry. Please note I have not turned off my computer yet as Iā€™m hoping thereā€™s a way to recover my history.

Your urgent assistance will be appreciated

#2

Hello @inspector71

So sorry to hear that. Letā€™s figure this out together.

Which version of Memex are you running and when did that problem appear?
Do you have screenshots of the console in question?

Following the de-bug guidance, I found a message in the console that, somehow, I had an experimental database and should update the app.

Which guide are you talking about here?

On starting the re-installed app, I seem to have lost everything and checking my Google Drive I have no backups - none - despite getting success messages within the app over the preceding months.

That on re-install the data is gone is expected, afterall its a local-first app.
Memex backs up your data into a secret Google Drive folder so that other apps canā€™t read your browsing history. So it should be all there if your backups were indeed successful. You can check that by going to: Google Drive > Settings > manage apps > Memex Cloud. There is a field ā€œhidden dataā€ and it should show how much is backed up. What does it show?

To restore from that hidden folder you go to Memex settings > backup & restore > restore guide, login to google drive, it should properly restore all your data into the new Memex.

Hope that solves the issue.

1 Like
#3

@inspector71

How is it going? could you retrieve the data?

#4

Hi BlackForestBoi

Iā€™m sorry your responses got lost in my emails. Thank you for correcting my ignorance. I humbly retract my post about the backup failing, it was there but I didnā€™t know where it was.

Since re-installing, Iā€™ve now got quite a bit more history. Should I back this up to my Google Drive and then restore? Just want to ensure Iā€™m not going to overwrite or lose the backup history that was there all along, as you say, rightly hidden for security.

Cheers, Graham

#5

@inspector71

We definitely need to update the backup process to make it more clear that its a hidden folder, and explain this in the tutorials more. I updated the tutorials already now and will add more info in the actual backup process.