Lost all collections of snippets, lost more than a thousand snippets.

[Rene]

I work with many collections (30+) of snippets (1000+). As I wanted to make a new collection based on a previous collection I exported the old collection. Then I made the name for a new collection. Then I went to my folder of exports of collections in Finder (Mac). Double-clicked on the file, expecting it to import in my snippets collection. Instead all collections were gone, being replaced with only the one. 

 

'Undo' is disabled. 

 

I regularly make backups of my HD, if only I know which files to find.

 

HELP! These snippets contain many, many days of work.

 

René

[Stephen_C]

Welcome to the forum.

 

It may be worth checking the Trash to ensure the deleted old collection is no longer there. If it's not open one of your backups and look in ~/Library/Application Support/Alfred/Databases/ for snippets.alfdb.

 

If you have any problem please post again and confirm the versions of Alfred and macOS that you are using.

 

Stephen

[Vero]

@Rene The snippets.alfdb is only a transient database, so please look out for folders with the name of your collections in Trash. If you can see these, back them up somewhere safe and we'll help you reset your preferences. Each folder will contain .json files for each snippet, and is the key data you need to recover.

 

If you have Time Machine or any other kind of backup, we can also help you locate your collections there. 

 

As well as confirming which versions of Alfred and macOS you're using, it would be helpful to know whether you're syncing your preferences, and if so, what service you're using.

[Rene]

Dear all,

 

I am happy with the speed of your responses, but unfortunately this has not been solved. 

I have searched on my Mac for any file named snippets.alfdb.

It was hidden somewhere in the Library Folder / Application support / Alfred Databases

It was indeed just 37K

 

Closed the Alfred App. 

 

Then I went to Time Machine.

 

I found the version that was from this morning, size 1.6 MB. I restored it.

 

I opened Alfred. No effect.

 

I quit Alfred.

 

Restored the file  again. 

Rebooted my Mac.

I opened Alfred again. No effect.

 

I have attempted to enclose the file that Alfred generates for diagnostics. This I am not allowed to upload for this forum

 

Please send further help.

 

René

 

 

[Rene]

BTW it is Alfred version 5.1.4

Mac OS 13.6.3

Mac mini M1, 16GB

[Stephen_C]

I'm sorry my initial reply was misleading. You should be doing what Vero indicated in her response:

 

3 hours ago, Vero said:

As well as confirming which versions of Alfred and macOS you're using, it would be helpful to know whether you're syncing your preferences, and if so, what service you're using.

 

We're going to need to help you find a backup copy of your preferences in order for you to be able to restore your old Snippets collections so do please provide all that information.

 

Edit: You replied as I was typing this—but please reply to the part about your Alfred preferences: that's important.

 

Stephen

[Rene]

So after I have restored the proper file, after restarting Alfred the file is back to 37 KB and the date of change is 1 min ago. So somehow Alfred re-installs the old database.

[Rene]

4 hours ago, Vero said:

@Rene The snippets.alfdb is only a transient database, so please look out for folders with the name of your collections in Trash. If you can see these, back them up somewhere safe and we'll help you reset your preferences. Each folder will contain .json files for each snippet, and is the key data you need to recover.

 

If you have Time Machine or any other kind of backup, we can also help you locate your collections there. 

 

As well as confirming which versions of Alfred and macOS you're using, it would be helpful to know whether you're syncing your preferences, and if so, what service you're using.

The snippets all seem to be all in place.  They are not in the trash. I can find the proper collections all under /Library/Application Support/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/snippets

 

However Alfred only shows one collection out of the 200; the one I tried to import by opening it from Finder.

 

 

BTW it is Alfred version 5.1.4

Mac OS 13.6.3

Mac mini M1, 16GB

[Vero]

@Rene Could you please email our info@ email address with your Diagnostics? You can get this by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred, and can then attach it to your email. I'll then take a look at your information first thing tomorrow morning (as it's currently 10:30pm here in the UK).

 

Please also specify which sync service you have been using, if any, so that I can be more accurate in my response.

 

In any case, if you have a backup of your preferences, there's nothing to worry about. I'll be able to walk you through the steps needed to recover all of your snippets.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Rene]

Hi Vero,

 

I see now that also the workflow items have been deleted. It seems that all information, snippets an d workflow was all of a sudden gone. Have you received my mail from Thursday including the Alfred diagnostics?

 

Cheers,

 

Rene

[Vero]

@Rene I haven't received any diagnostics/files from you yet, so I've dropped you a DM confirming contact details. 

 

Please ensure that you specify whether you were using any sync service previously, so that I can give you the best guidance on locating your preferences.