All of my edits are gone! [FOUND]

So, I've spent a full day+ working on my project, saved the file (yes, I did File--> Save) ... and I reopened C2, and all my edits are gone!! Huge bummer and wtf?

There is an autosave.capx, but it is corrupt. I guess thankfully, most of my time was spent figuring stuff out, but still ... you can't trust the save feature?

This was using the latest beta r174 (which I upgraded because some help from the forums was using the beta, and I was unable to open their help capx with the standard release) ... but still ... gooodness -- how do you guys make sure your projects are safe??

I had a similar issue not long ago. I am 1000% sure I saved but the next day the last edits were undone. But it only happened once so far and I could not reproduce it.

(but no replies so far)

You and I are not the only ones. Here is another:

It's a pretty bad flaw.... all your SAVED work, gone. (btw, I am 100% sure I saved, it was a very deliberate action)

What location are you guys saving to? Is it a local disk or virtual?

Are the projects really big? What antivirus do you have?

There is usually some common factor involved - it's just sometimes very difficult to determine what that factor is though :/

Local Disk. It's not big... 30 events. Virus free (with multiple checks). I made lots of changes, such as new sprites, edit them and trying different sounds, modified behaviors, etc. ... so it would be really hard to pin down a specific factor... It's on a Windows 8.1 machine.

I also watched the auto-save dialog box appear multiple times while working. This feature is also broken.

... I was restarting my pc and before initiating the shutdown, I went to C2, saved my project, then restarted my pc, reopened C2 ... and poof -- all edits gone.

First, I don't know how to solve this particular issue.

That said... you are *NOT* supposed to just save onto the same file. You are supposed to check that file (or the project directory structure) into a versioning system.

So whenever a bust like that appears, you check out your last revision and lose only the difference between the current revision and the one you checked in last. I know that this does not help you right now, but you really need to consider starting to work that way.

Do you recommend a versioning system that works well with C2?

I suppose any one will do, since you don't use advanced features like automatic code merging etc. at all, you just check in new versions of files. We use Git, but that's only personal preference.

Thanks -- my new favorite tutorial is https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/537/ho ... svn/page-1

...me thinks this a common 'beginner' pitfall -- and would kindly suggest Ashley (and to the other powers that be) to make this information more inclusive in the Setup & Installation part of the Manual.

There was a bit of a discussion in the Bugs section about whether the Autosave/autobackup system may be the issue.

(https://www.scirra.com/forum/my-c2-has-been-crashing-every-10-minutes-help-please_p794094?#p794094)

I have never used either system - I like to have total control so I maintain my own system - and have never encountered any issue with saving or losing data.

If you encounter problems like this often, just try turning off the 'auto....' system for a while to see if it helps, but remember to save regularly,

Do you recommend a versioning system that works well with C2?

This is not meant to be sarcastic, but it's called the Windows File System.

Copy and paste to another folder, HDD, external drive, etc.

I don't trust versioning systems. Just another "DB" that can get corrupted.

What specifically was wrong with your autosave file and can you share it? The autosaves should (of course) never be broken but without specific information there is almost no hope of being able to fix any problems there may be. AFAIK for the vast majority of users it's working fine.

More backups are better so if possible also set up alternate backup folders. There should also be auto-backups in addition to auto-saves, so with the right settings you can have six backup levels of your project (the main file, the autosave, the autobackups, and three additional backup folders). With all of that you should never lose work even in a worst-case scenario.

There are lots of reasons files can become corrupt and they're not always Construct 2's fault - for example some "helpful" system tools "clean" your temporary files for you, and promptly nuke all the unsaved project data Construct 2 is holding in temporary files, which can corrupt your project. Failing storage media or buggy storage caches and drivers can also cause problems.

Ashley, thanks -- you had me checking in my folder for more... and good news -- I was able to recover the work!! I found a file named, MyProject.capx.capx.autosave which had all my edits!

Here is a snapshot of how my project files ended up:

I don't know why it autosaved to .capx.capx.autosave, but it was the right file.

I use bitbucket and sourcetree for my projects now. Super easy to setup and use. Plus...it is free (as long as it is for under 5 people, bitbucket is free).

I enabled autosave and backup (local and one on a onedrive folder) but it did not happen again, so far.