|
professor_pat
|
 |
« on: February 01, 2012, 06:04:28 PM » |
|
I use Word 2011 and Dropbox on a Mac.
Having spent many hours last night and this morning editing and polishing my students' midterm exam questions, saving every 1-2 minutes per my usual habit, I was then ready to save the exam as a pdf file for posting to our CMS. Just before I clicked "Save to PDF," I noticed that the very top of the file no longer read "Midterm exam questions.docx" but now "Midterm exam questions (deleted bunchalphanumericgibberish)." I've seen the "(deleted blahblah)" extension occasionally on outdated Dropbox documents but never really understood the mechanics of what that meant or how a current working file would get that designation.
So I thought I'd better just close the file, knowing and having verified via the clear little red dot at the upper left of the file window that the file was saved.
When I reopened it, I was astonished to see an old version of the file from at least a full day ago. I searched my computer for phrases that I knew had been in the most recent version - nada. I discovered that Dropbox saves an archived version of your file every time you save it (for some limited length of time, perhaps??), but none of those seem to be the one I lost.
I searched my computer for "Autosave" and "Autorecovery," but the only things that came up were some ancillary files I'd created while working on the midterm. Then I thought, well, since I'm using Dropbox, maybe nothing is actually saved on my computer anymore.
Any ideas of what to try next? I can painfully try to reconstruct all the great ideas I had earlier, but I would love to get that file back. And also to know what I did wrong, since I saved the file so frequently.
A delicious plate of virtual homemade brownies with your icing of choice if you can help me get this file!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
To me, forums are more of a relaxing period in which the poster can allow himself or himself to be lost in a sea of wonder.
|
|
|
|
crowie
|
|
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2012, 06:28:47 PM » |
|
I guess if you had an external hard drive with Time Machine backups you would have look at it there by now, right? As for dropbox, this might work: 1. Log into your dropbox account on the web ( www.dropbox.com) 2. Once you are logged in make sure you are in the "Files" tab and click on the directory (folder) in which you usually save the file. 3. Hover over the name of the file and it will be highlighted inside a pale blue box and you will see a down arrow appear towards the right. Click on the file when it is highlighted and a menu will appear below the arrow. One of the menu items will be "Previous Versions". Clicking that will take you to a list of previously saved versions of the file. Hopefully one of the previous versions there will be a close to complete version of your file. Good luck! |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
professor_pat
|
|
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2012, 06:33:05 PM » |
|
Thanks for the suggestion, Crowie. I guess my OP wasn't clear - I did go through that process, but none of the many saved versions was the last one.
I do have TimeMachine, but I've been doing it manually every couple of weeks. Guess THAT habit is going to change!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
To me, forums are more of a relaxing period in which the poster can allow himself or himself to be lost in a sea of wonder.
|
|
|
|
bookishone
|
|
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2012, 07:10:10 PM » |
|
I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, professor pat (I would have suggested searching Spotlight for recent unique phrases, but you did that) -- just wanted to say I understand your pain! Annoying, too, because you were backing up more than many of us do. Hope you find the file soon. You probably don't feel that you have a lot of extra time on your hands to spend pursuing this issue.
[On edit: Have you tried searching for .doc files on your hard drive that were modified in the last 24 hours? Ask it to sort by "last modified" and a version of the file may pop up toward the top of the list. Also try "recently opened" in the Word menu.]
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 07:12:01 PM by bookishone »
|
Logged
|
My tag line is false.
|
|
|
|
professor_pat
|
|
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2012, 07:11:55 PM » |
|
Thanks, Bookishone, I really appreciate your sympathy. Just trying at this point not to spend more time trying to find the file and figure out what happened that it takes to just rewrite the durn thing.
(I really did like the now-vanished ways I had written the questions, though. Oh well.)
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 07:12:34 PM by professor_pat »
|
Logged
|
To me, forums are more of a relaxing period in which the poster can allow himself or himself to be lost in a sea of wonder.
|
|
|
melba_frilkins
Doing laundry.
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 8,136
Doing laundry (still)
|
|
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2012, 07:21:21 PM » |
|
Then I thought, well, since I'm using Dropbox, maybe nothing is actually saved on my computer anymore. The default is for everything to be saved doubly: both on your computer (in your "My Dropbox" folder, unless you changed the name) AND in your Dropbox account online. The only way that the files aren't saved on your computer is if you have disconnected your computer from your Dropbox account or if you are working from a different computer not associated with your Dropbox account. And also to know what I did wrong, since I saved the file so frequently.
This may answer your question: When you "save" a document while working on it, that version gets saved to your computer hard drive only and NOT to Dropbox. Updated files only get sent to the online Dropbox when you close the saved document. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
professor_pat
|
|
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2012, 07:54:03 PM » |
|
Melba_frilkins, I didn't know that about Dropbox - thank you. That helps clarify what Dropbox does.
I thought Word autosaved everything pretty frequently, but apparently not in this case. Thanks to Bookishone, I went back and looked on my hard drive for files saved in the past 24 hours, and it's like I wasn't even on the computer: nothing at all apparently saved between yesterday afternoon and this afternoon. Was I in the Twilight Zone somehow, dreaming that I was writing a midterm? Spooky.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
To me, forums are more of a relaxing period in which the poster can allow himself or himself to be lost in a sea of wonder.
|
|
|
|
janewales
|
|
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2012, 11:15:34 AM » |
|
This may answer your question: When you "save" a document while working on it, that version gets saved to your computer hard drive only and NOT to Dropbox. Updated files only get sent to the online Dropbox when you close the saved document.
Melba, I use Dropbox, and whenever I save something while working on it, it updates immediately, even if the document is still open; I know this because the dropbox icon changes to indicate that the new version is uploading. Perhaps there's something in the settings? I don't recall doing anything at setup to make this happen, though, but I just tested again, and that's how it works for me. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
marigolds
looks far too young to be a
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,356
i had fun once and it was awful
|
|
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2012, 01:41:40 PM » |
|
This may answer your question: When you "save" a document while working on it, that version gets saved to your computer hard drive only and NOT to Dropbox. Updated files only get sent to the online Dropbox when you close the saved document.
Melba, I use Dropbox, and whenever I save something while working on it, it updates immediately, even if the document is still open; I know this because the dropbox icon changes to indicate that the new version is uploading. Perhaps there's something in the settings? I don't recall doing anything at setup to make this happen, though, but I just tested again, and that's how it works for me. Agreed. And this is the problem with using Dropbox for backups--if a file corrupts, or you accidentally delete it, it goes from Dropbox too. I suspect it corrupted. I've had a LOT of problems with Word on Lion--slow, buggy, always saying something about inability to save the work file and I have to quit out and start over. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
|
|
|
|
professor_pat
|
|
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2012, 01:55:39 PM » |
|
Until reading everyone's replies, it didn't occur to me that this might be a Lion problem. Does anyone know what might have caused the file to become corrupted? Or, more to the point, what to do to minimize the chances of this in the future?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
To me, forums are more of a relaxing period in which the poster can allow himself or himself to be lost in a sea of wonder.
|
|
|
marigolds
looks far too young to be a
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,356
i had fun once and it was awful
|
|
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2012, 02:05:54 PM » |
|
Until reading everyone's replies, it didn't occur to me that this might be a Lion problem. Does anyone know what might have caused the file to become corrupted? Or, more to the point, what to do to minimize the chances of this in the future?
I think of it as a Word problem. :) I think the versioning on Lion actually helps with this problem--every time I've had the "can't save work file" issue, I've force-quit and had a version waiting for me when I reopened. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
|
|
|
|
eigen
|
|
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2012, 11:58:40 PM » |
|
This may answer your question: When you "save" a document while working on it, that version gets saved to your computer hard drive only and NOT to Dropbox. Updated files only get sent to the online Dropbox when you close the saved document.
Melba, I use Dropbox, and whenever I save something while working on it, it updates immediately, even if the document is still open; I know this because the dropbox icon changes to indicate that the new version is uploading. Perhaps there's something in the settings? I don't recall doing anything at setup to make this happen, though, but I just tested again, and that's how it works for me. Agreed. And this is the problem with using Dropbox for backups--if a file corrupts, or you accidentally delete it, it goes from Dropbox too. Yes and no. Dropbox saves multiple versions, so you can go back to prior, uncorrupted versions. I also found out that in a dropbox synced folder, you can use the ctrl+z "undo" command to undelete files (on Windows). |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
egilson
|
|
« Reply #12 on: February 03, 2012, 12:05:44 AM » |
|
I just did a search on "Lion" "auto save," and ye gods. I need to either make sure that my next machine will run Snow Leopard (which I am continuing to use) or make plans to run Linux instead.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
To anyone who is not a blockhead, all the sciences are interesting. - Marc Bloch
|
|
|
|
eigen
|
|
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2012, 01:38:42 AM » |
|
Its why I bought a last gen Air for my new laptop instead of one of the 2011 models. The 2010 does everything I need, and it runs Snow Leopard to boot.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
infopri
I guess I'm now a VERY
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,463
When all else fails, let us agree to disagree.
|
|
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2012, 02:54:37 AM » |
|
I'm not entirely positive of this, but I think Word's autosaved documents may have an extension different from ".doc" or ".docx." But if you had autosaved versions, I'd have expected the Recovery Pane to have opened when you re-opened Word. :(
Lion problems? Wishing you were on a prior Mac OS? Man, I thought the stable and reliable OS that "just works" was the biggest advantage Macs had over PCs!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Your experience is not universal. Words to live by.
MYOB. Y enseņen bien a sus hijos. |
|
|
|
