(Archived) PLEASE HELP! Accidentally deleted a ton of information but I haven't synced yet.

[joshcooper 1]

Hi,

I made a huge mistake this morning that, if not remedied, could be disastrous for me. Thinking that I was deleting a few notes, I deleted several stacks of nested tags. I paniced, I tried the undo option and that didn't work. I just unplugged my computer before evernote could sync because I have it set to sync at close and every 15 minutes and didn't know when the next sync might occur. I restarted the computer and booted into safe mode so evernote wouldnt start up automatically and sync. I wasn't sure what could be done at this point and the windows program uninstaller wasn't working so I went in to the two evernote directories I know of, the appdata folder and the program files folder, I made a backup of the appdata folder and I deleted all of the info from both.

Now I am out of safe mode, all my info remains intact on the website and on my iphone. Will i be able to reinstall the program without the information being deleted?

There were maybe a total of 125 tags deleted that are essential for me navigating my notes and it would take a tremendous amount of time I don't have to add them all again.

Thank in advance for your help!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi,

I made a huge mistake this morning that, if not remedied, could be disastrous for me. Thinking that I was deleting a few notes, I deleted several stacks of nested tags. I paniced, I tried the undo option and that didn't work. I just unplugged my computer before evernote could sync because I have it set to sync at close and every 15 minutes and didn't know when the next sync might occur. I restarted the computer and booted into safe mode so evernote wouldnt start up automatically and sync. I wasn't sure what could be done at this point and the windows program uninstaller wasn't working so I went in to the two evernote directories I know of, the appdata folder and the program files folder, I made a backup of the appdata folder and I deleted all of the info from both.

Now I am out of safe mode, all my info remains intact on the website and on my iphone. Will i be able to reinstall the program without the information being deleted?

There were maybe a total of 125 tags deleted that are essential for me navigating my notes and it would take a tremendous amount of time I don't have to add them all again.

Thank in advance for your help!

Hi. Welcome to the forums.

It sounds like you did a good job moving quickly to save your stuff. I have my computer on manual sync to protect my external brain from my meat brain

Just to be on the safe side, I'd use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of everything. When you download and re-install Evernote, it will sync with your account and all your tags, etc. ought to be there (assuming they are there now).

[Owyn 457]

You need to rebuild your database from the web. You don't need to re-install the application.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

You need to rebuild your database from the web. You don't need to re-install the application.

I agree that he needs to rebuild his database, but since he has been mucking around inside the directories, don't you think it would be best to go with a clean install (using something like Revo Uninstaller to make sure he got everything)?

[Owyn 457]

It would not hurt, but, as I read the OP all the mucking about was in appdata.

Disconnecting from the Internet immediately was the smartest thing he could do.

FYI: I would have renamed the Databases folder to e.g. Databases.old. That ensures that all the ancillary files are rebuilt as well.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Now I am out of safe mode, all my info remains intact on the website and on my iphone.

Just to clarify & for anyone in a similar situation who may be reading this thread in the future...This would mean you have no local (non-sync'd) notebooks on your desktop client and that all new notes/changes prior to the massive, accidental deletion had been sync'd up to the EN servers.

Disconnecting from the Internet immediately was the smartest thing he could do.

Absolutely!

This would also probably be a good time to re-re-re-repeat the oft' cited mantra about backing up. Depending upon the scenario, there are situations where there could have been massive data loss if the user did not have a current backup of their own desktop's EN database. (Since this has been discussed at great length on the board already, if you need info on how to do a backup, please search the board on the topic & on your OS (Mac/Windows).

[Colin 13]

Am I missing something here? What about restore deleted items from Trash?

Turning off internet sounds like a bad idea because you will interfere with the natural controls in EN and you will not be sure which items are gone, because EN is fast.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Am I missing something here? What about restore deleted items from Trash?

Turning off internet sounds like a bad idea because you will interfere with the natural controls in EN and you will not be sure which items are gone, because EN is fast.

Yep. I assumed that is what the OP meant with"undo". I don't know why that wouldn't have worked, but it is a moot point, because then he poked around the folders deleting things, so I think a fresh install is safest.

As for turning off the Internet (stoping a sync, turning off your wireless, or unplugging the router), I thik that is a good idea, because you can stop an unwanted change from going through. It is, of course, a last ditch measure, and not one I'd recommend making part of your daily workflow

Again, this is why I use manual sync whenever possible (the iPad doesn't have it yet, but Android does, so I use it there as well).

[Colin 13]

Yep. I assumed that is what the OP meant with"undo".

Thanks for the careful answer - I know its critical to not ***** up with this kind of thing. Re undo I took that to be Ctrl z which will only undo the last post change. Right click on trash, of course gives full restoration capability.

I am quite curious though about the perceived concern about leaving sync on. In my times with EN which I use for everything now, I have made some bad calls but have not lost anything yet. It seems there is always a way to recover.

Key recovery strategies that everyone must know and be intimately familiar with:

1. Note history: for when I accidentally delete a note, or create a note with the same file name
   
2. conflicted notes: check periodically - usually associated with same file names. I am trying to teach muself to include time stamp in all notes, and esp those which are on a current hot topic where I am more likely to use the same name
   
3. trash / restore deleted notes
   

[jbenson2 2,147]

and in my opinion, most importantly for recovery:

4. Regular backups

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Yep. I assumed that is what the OP meant with"undo".

Thanks for the careful answer - I know its critical to not ***** up with this kind of thing. Re undo I took that to be Ctrl z which will only undo the last post change. Right click on trash, of course gives full restoration capability.

I am quite curious though about the perceived concern about leaving sync on. In my times with EN which I use for everything now, I have made some bad calls but have not lost anything yet. It seems there is always a way to recover.

Key recovery strategies that everyone must know and be intimately familiar with:

1. Note history: for when I accidentally delete a note, or create a note with the same file name
   
2. conflicted notes: check periodically - usually associated with same file names. I am trying to teach muself to include time stamp in all notes, and esp those which are on a current hot topic where I am more likely to use the same name
   
3. trash / restore deleted notes
   

It's a control issue

I want to protect myself from boneheaded mistakes. I am also getting odd note conflicts (already reported) and I am trying to figure out exactly what is happening.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Am I missing something here? What about restore deleted items from Trash?

Turning off internet sounds like a bad idea because you will interfere with the natural controls in EN and you will not be sure which items are gone, because EN is fast.

The reason restoring trash was not the preferred answer is b/c op stated "I deleted several stacks of nested tags". Restoring notes from the trash will not fix the tag changes he/she had made.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with holding off on a sync, if you suspect you are having a problem. I don't know what "natural controls" you are talking about. But let's say I know I created a lengthy note an hour ago. Then I accidentally deleted all the info from the note (as opposed to actually deleting the note.) I may not be able to recover the original, lengthy note from note history since that's only taken every ~eight hours. Since I have my Windows desktop (my main method of using EN) set to auto sync every 15 minutes, I would absolutely stop it from syncing, so that I could go to another computer or device or the web client & retrieve the original, lengthy information from one of them or the EN servers. In fact, it would be pretty silly for me to not do that.

[korry 0]

Recently, I accidentally deleted all my notes (it's gone from trash bin as well). Isn't there a way to restore them from Evernotes server? Like a snapshot from last week, etc. if you're premium user. I've learned a lesson but it's too late obviously.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Recently, I accidentally deleted all my notes (it's gone from trash bin as well). Isn't there a way to restore them from Evernotes server? Like a snapshot from last week, etc. if you're premium user. I've learned a lesson but it's too late obviously.

No. If you had a recent backup (Windows or Mac desktop client) you could recover from that.

[korry 0]

WOW! Evernote should consider buying NetApp, EMC, or other storage vendors that provide these features for free.

[jbenson2 2,147]

A regular systematic backup procedure is the responsiblity of the user.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

WOW! Evernote should consider buying NetApp, EMC, or other storage vendors that provide these features for free.

 

To clarify...  Evernote probably could restore from some of their backups, should they want/need to.  However, that is not an option that they offer to their users at this time and likely not any time soon, if ever.  I do think it may be something they would offer years down the road, since they want to be a 100 year company.  But for now, the user is responsible for backing up their own Evernote data, just as you (should) backup all your other important data, whether it's Word/Excel/Publisher docs, photos, financial apps, etc.  If it's important to you, then back it up.

[jefito 5,589]

WOW! Evernote should consider buying NetApp, EMC, or other storage vendors that provide these features for free.

EMC? Really? EMC has roughly 60,000 employees and revenues of 21 billion dollars last year. That would be a bit like a planarian swallowing an elephant...

[korry 0]

 

WOW! Evernote should consider buying NetApp, EMC, or other storage vendors that provide these features for free.

EMC? Really? EMC has roughly 60,000 employees and revenues of 21 billion dollars last year. That would be a bit like a planarian swallowing an elephant...

 

Not buying the company. I meant buying their storage product that to store Evernote data. Their products has disaster/recovery features in case something like this ever happen. When the company's name is "EVERNOTE", I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Not buying the company. I meant buying their storage product that to store Evernote data. Their products has disaster/recovery features in case something like this ever happen. When the company's name is "EVERNOTE", I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

Like I said above, I'm pretty certain EN has mirrors & backups they could recover from should they need to do so. It would be incredibly stupid on their part not to be able to do this. It's just not something they offer to the user. However I doubt they would store everything forever. After all, if a user deleted a note 10 years ago, why should EN keep it forever....???

[jefito 5,589]

Not buying the company. I meant buying their storage product that to store Evernote data. Their products has disaster/recovery features in case something like this ever happen. When the company's name is "EVERNOTE", I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

You should check out the Evernote Tech Blog series; you might find it of interest: http://blog.evernote.com/tech/

[korry 0]

 

Not buying the company. I meant buying their storage product that to store Evernote data. Their products has disaster/recovery features in case something like this ever happen. When the company's name is "EVERNOTE", I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

Like I said above, I'm pretty certain EN has mirrors & backups they could recover from should they need to do so. It would be incredibly stupid on their part not to be able to do this. It's just not something they offer to the user. However I doubt they would store everything forever. After all, if a user deleted a note 10 years ago, why should EN keep it forever....???

 

That's rule #1. If EN server environment does not have redundancy and backup, no one would touch it. It's other storage features that satisfy user experience.

BTW, I had hourly, weekly, and month snapshots of my home directory that I never worried about losing any data and it doesn't require lot for storage as it's incremental. And BTW, i didn't say that EN should keep deleted notes 10 years later. it would be insane. It's the accidentally deleted data that happened couple hours or days back. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

And BTW, i didn't say that EN should keep deleted notes 10 years later. it would be insane.

I guess one of us doesn't fully understand the word 'forever', then.

I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

[korry 0]

 

And BTW, i didn't say that EN should keep deleted notes 10 years later. it would be insane.

I guess one of us doesn't fully understand the word 'forever', then.

I would think the notes would be stored forever even in case like this.

 

:-) ok! it's me that doesn't understand the meaning of 'forever'. Perhaps, i should clarify. Data stored on storage servers should live forever. In the case accidental deletion or overwritten notes/files, there should be way to restore via snapshots or similar features from hours or days ago. I don't expect deleted data to be retained for long period of time but it would be nice be able to retrieve it if it was deleted yesterday (an example is Time machine from Apple). I believe this is a critical feature for storage server. Unfortunately, EN doesn't support that service and have no way to recover from this type of disaster. I am not the only one that accidentally deleted the notes. Anyway, there is a lesson learned from my end. Will have to look for other alternative or constantly save a backup on my client. Thanks for your help anyway.

[anjoschu 67]

By the way, @korry, did you contact support to ask whether they could restore the notes? I suspect the answer will be negative, but it doesn't hurt to try.

 

By the way, I wonder how the notes got deleted AND removed from the trash. AFAIK, the trash isn't emptied automatically. If you can't remember emptying the trash, maybe there's a chance it's a glitch (which would probably increase the chance of them being able to restore the notes). In any case, try support.