Sticky Notes 7 lost content in database file

Hello there.

I'm not so happy to day. I'ts Sunday, i know - but I've lost the content in the database file of my notes in Sticky Notes 7. !

Is there a possible way to recover this? I have 8 database files, which all containing almost the same content.

I think the problem is because i have stored the database file in Google Drive, and i did not activate the synchronizing option in Sticky Notes 7. So when i was editing on my workstation computer, and came home to my laptop. The content was still the same. To day, when i was going to my workstation computer, it is the same content as my laptop. The content which I've been written last week is totally gone!

What do i do? I've tried in the recycle bin function in Sticky Notes 7, but there was nothing.

I know I've done some stupid things. Cause i didn't active the sync.

Also, when i want new content in my note, i just delete the existing content, and add some new.

I'm not saving the database files in weeks, or months or so on (to keep control over the files)
I will do that in the future!

I hope there is some kind of solution.

Best Regards
Michael Bay
Denmark

Hello Michael,

As I have replied to you on the 7 Sticky Notes facebook page, I will reply here too, in case this can help other users.

I have just added the comment below added as a new troubleshooting topic at the 7 Sticky Notes online help, that can be accessed here: 7 Sticky Notes - Troubleshooting - Fun, interactive, powerful and cool Sticky Notes for your Desktop!

In this case, it is very likely that your synchronization software (GoogleDrive) overwrote, or deleted the notes.mdb database. All your data (notes) is stored inside the notes.mdb database file, but also all files synchronized by these synchronization software are susceptible to be deleted and overwritten by them if they conclude they are old, and by sharing your live main database file notes.mdb you will risk to have all your notes overwritten and lost if you allow it to be changed by external synchronization software.

Some of these software keep backup of the files they overwrite, so you can try to look for it or read their documentation, but, unfortunately if this was done it is likely that the notes won't be able to be restored.

If you share the notes database (notes.mdb), or any other file, with GoogleDrive, DropBox, SkyDrive, etc, you are allowing them to do anything with it, which means freely overwriting it if they decide to. This means that if you keep several computers synchronized with GoogleDrive, DropBox, SkyDrive, etc, they might think that one is more recent then another, and overwrite a file that it shouldn't.

So the recommendation is to NOT synchronize over the notes.mdb database file. You should never sync the main notes.mdb file. It is your personal data file, and the one 7 Sticky Notes uses, so it is too risky to let other sync softwares to have full control over it.

Instead, use the Online Synchronization feature. It was specifically designed to allow synchronizing your notes with other computers using DropBox, SkyDrive, GoogleDrive, etc, and it does not use the notes.mdb file, and thus provide a safe operation.

7 Sticky Notes is built to be robust and protect your data as I know how terrible it is to lost your personal notes (i have done it in the past), but if other program overwrites the database (pretty much as if you delete the database manually), there isn't much it can do. 7 Sticky Notes does lock the database while using it, but when it closed, it can't track it anymore.

As an additional suggestion to protect from accidental removal that might cause your data to be lost, since the 7 Sticky Notes database is pretty light it won't cost you much hard drive space to setup an automatic database backup to keep track of it in a second location. You can enable the 7 Sticky Notes auto-backup option, and let it keep track of your database for a customized number of days, as explained in the Database Options section of the 7 Sticky Notes Online help.

So, see if GoogleDrive somehow kept a backup for it... afterall I truly hope you didn't loose your notes, and hope this helps you and others as well.

Best Regards,
Fabio - 7 Sticky Notes