[ilomambo]

I am crying my eyes out.
I've working on new presets for Vortex for some time and had all my work in the Presets folder of Vortex
I finally decided to do a last update from 13.1 to 13.2 before Kodi first release.
I did backup my userdata, visualization presets are not in that tree though/

The update went straight on and overwrote the Presets folder with a new fresh one, sending to oblivion countless hours of work!!
Please someone tell me there is a way to get back all my files!
Is the 13.1 version left hidden somewhere?

I have some questions to the team:

Isn't an update meant to build upon the last version?
Why the visualizations addons don't get a place under userdata too for custom presets? It is not consistent at all! Overwrite folders that are ummutable, not those who are being used dynamically. You know that custom presets must be put there, why are they not preserved across installations?

[Martijn]

Well that sucks, big time.
But you should never ever work from the installation folder. It has always been wiped clean on update since version ...... This is because to insure the update is successful without any leftovers.

System addons are placed for are good reason in the install folder. Should you want to edit / tweak them you must manually copy them to your userdata folder.



How to get the work back? No clue

[ilomambo]

Thank you for the fast response.
Though it is bad news for me.

I'll say again that in the case of visualizations there should be a user folder for cutsom ones in the userdata area, I mean custom NEW ones, not modifications to the existing ones. If there is a good reason to keep all presets in the install folders, then the upgrades should not touch unkown files like NEW presets. I am so happy I don't use vanilla Confluence otherwise my mods would have been trashed too.
I think at least the old version should have been set aside, or have an option on the install dialogs to keep it too. Something clever for th einstall program could have been to delete to the recycle bin, that way files can be restored if needed.

I will count to ten and tomorrow I will see if I continue this effort, redoing all the work will be tedious and frustating. I made most of it during my vacation time, now it will take ten times the time it took me.
The old work, fortunately, I put in Google drive (see my signature link) but I lost all the improvements I made since, several presets I did not release and a big upgrade to my library. Wow!, it really takes out the wind from my sails. :-(

[Ned Scott]

Is this maybe something that is different for each visualization add-on? I noticed that ProjectM has an option for "user defined presets folder", but maybe that is for some other kind of setting?

[ilomambo]

Is this maybe something that is different for each visualization add-on? I noticed that ProjectM has an option for "user defined presets folder", but maybe that is for some other kind of setting?

Maybe, I don't know if there are rules or guidelines for visualization engines addons. There should be a common minimum settings that each visualization can expand according to its needs. Definitely a "Users defined presets folder" is a must, and it should be located under userdata.

What I strongly think (now evermore) should be an iron rule for system addons is not to be allowed to keep settings or user data in the install folders!

Making the installer smarter wouldn't hurt either.

[Hitcher]

Just looked in my userdata folder and it's there -

Code:

\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\addon_data\visualization.vortex\settings.xml

[wsnipex]

try one of the counteless "undelete" progs out there. There is a fair chance to get the files back.

[fritsch]

Doing not one(!) backup within months is just insane...

[bobones]

I always backup my entire xbmc folder (not just userdata) before making any major changes.

[zzattack]

ZFS + hourly snapshots retained for a day, daily snapshots retained for a week, and weekly snapshots retained for a month - that'll make sure it takes significant effort to really lose a file

[fritsch]

If the op edits files in program files directory ... One cannot help...

Edit: so next time also backup those.

[Ned Scott]

Just looked in my userdata folder and it's there -

Code:

\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\addon_data\visualization.vortex\settings.xml

That's just the settings file. The pre-sets are in a different location. Vortex doesn't seem to have any option to store them in any special place, and they only seem to exist in the internal add-on folder (which gets reset with updates).

[Ned Scott]

I always backup my entire xbmc folder (not just userdata) before making any major changes.

That wouldn't have helped in this case, as these are in the actual XBMC data files for the application itself, rather than the end-user files.

[jjd-uk]

Just looked in my userdata folder and it's there -

Code:

\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\addon_data\visualization.vortex\settings.xml

That's just the settings file. The pre-sets are in a different location. Vortex doesn't seem to have any option to store them in any special place, and they only seem to exist in the internal add-on folder (which gets reset with updates).

But isn't that solved as mentioned by Martijn by copying the contents of the Vortex system folder into the the Vortex userdata folder in a similar fashion to what you would do with keymaps (as you never should edit keymaps in the system folder either), so what's in the userdata folder overrides what's in the system folder.

[bobones]

I always backup my entire xbmc folder (not just userdata) before making any major changes.

That wouldn't have helped in this case, as these are in the actual XBMC data files for the application itself, rather than the end-user files.

I wouldn't have been able to make the same mistake because the system folders are in usr.sqsh and mounted read-only in my platform (MX Linux).