My Collections Have Gone Missing

I went to use one of my custom Bible Study guides and noticed that all the collections that I had spent so much time putting together were gone.

I looked in collections and all of them have disappeared. Has anyone else had this happen? Any way of getting them back?

I hadn't used my custom Bible Study guide in a few months, so this could have happened at any time over the past couple of months.

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steve clark

I looked in collections and all of them have disappeared. Has anyone else had this happen? Any way of getting them back?

Yes this happened to me in April. i don't know if it happened after an update or what. i tried powering up L4 and leaving it online in hopes of syncing with the cloud to recover them, i waited several hours with no luck. If you have a 2nd computer with L4 on it then you might open it in the Offline mode and check to see if your collections are there. If they are i would strongly suggest that you make a full backup per this method Method 2 (Saves resource downloading and indexing). Then i would make sure that the PC which has lost the collections is NOT running L4. Then restart the PC which does have the collections in the Online mode (in hopes that your collections will be synced to the cloud), this may take some hours. Then i would turn off L4 on that PC and then start the other PC in the Online mode and leave it overnight to see if it recovers the collections from the cloud.

Another possibility is if you had made a backup, then if you could send me a copy of a specific database, then i could extract the collection info and email it back to you. This would require that you manually enter your data for each of your collections.

Philip Gurgel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269626#Comment_269626

I don't have it running on a second computer and I didn't make a backup. So it sounds like I am pretty much up a creek.

Hours of work lost... [:(]

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269626#Comment_269626

Philip, if you have L4 on another computer and the collections are on that computer, keep it offline, then rename the collections say "Academic Commentaries" to "Academic Commentaries New".

Then allow Logos to sync with the clouds. Now allow the computer that has lost its collections, to sync, and the problem should be solved.

Hope this helps.

Mark Smith

Has anyone else had this happen? Any way of getting them back?

It has happened to me twice. The only way I know to get them back is through a backup like Steve mentioned or if you have Logos 4 on another machine, If you do have Logos on a second computer let me know and I'll explain what to do.

Philip Gurgel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269630#Comment_269630

I do not have it running on a second computer. This has happened to you three times?!?!? If that is the case it is a fairly major flaw in Logos.

I'll have to save a copy of my collection file in Dropbox in the future, because it seems like the Logos server is just not dependable. This sure doesn't leave me feeling too confident of taking my notes in Logos either...if they can just one day vanish without a trace.

steve clark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269632#Comment_269632

There is not a reliable backup mechanism for L4 (at least for me running on 1 computer). So i strongly urge you to make a full backup regularly on an external hard-drive.

EDIT: as for using Dropbox, i doubt that this would work since L4 keeps its data in a database file. One of the methods that i tried to restore was to copy the saved database file into L4's appropriate folder, but L4 cleared it each time when it started. So just saving a copy of certain databases will not work with L4, you will need a full backup of L4 so that you can re-install L4 per the method shown in the above wiki page.

Wayne

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269630#Comment_269630

What is the name of the file for collections? We are in transition and also lost my collections. I do have a backup of many of the files and am not sure if I have a backup of my collection information.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269632#Comment_269632

I had another problem last week and as above, I renamed to directory that has all my stuff, re-started Logos4 and indeed, all my stuff was downloaded from Logos. So sometimes it does work.

But having read some of these disaster stories, I really wonder about the Logos 'cloud-planning' and exactly what they thought the cloud was supposed to do. I'm guessing they looked at it mainly as a cross-platform issue; not a backup issue. Some of these problems are too obvious to have been missed in their planning.

steve clark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269635#Comment_269635

What is the name of the file for collections? We are in transition and also lost my collections. I do have a backup of many of the files and am not sure if I have a backup of my collection information.

The file which contains info on your collections is ResourceCollectionManager.db. Make sure that you do not disturb any of the files which are installed for Logos4 (L4). But if you have a backup file for this, if you zip it and attach it to a post here, i will extract your collection info and attach the results here in this post.

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269632#Comment_269632

This sure doesn't leave me feeling too confident of taking my notes in Logos either...if they can just one day vanish without a trace.

Well that is probably wise, unfortunately. You can see http://community.logos.com/forums/t/35571.aspx for more discussion on the backup issue. There is a UserVoice suggestion that could use some more votes: http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/1852009-create-an-offline-backup-and-restore-capability-f?ref=title

MJ. Smith

I looked in collections and all of them have disappeared. Has anyone else had this happen?

Yes, so I rebuilt them and my Guides using all the experience I'd gained since the first time. They are much improved. [:D]Unfortunately, I had reinstalled Logos after a system problem and made a wrong move while running the beta ... so I had to point the finger at myself for the problem.[:'(]

Wayne

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269643#Comment_269643

3302.ResourceCollectionManager[1].db

Enclosed is my resourcecollectionmanager,db file.

steve clark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269754#Comment_269754

Enclosed is my resourcecollectionmanager,db file.

Wayne, below is a PDF file which shows all your old collection info (click on the link to download the PDF). There should be enough info to manually re-create your collections (one at a time).

7485.Wayne's L4 Collections.pdf

Info on what you will see in the PDF

If the pictures are too small, click on a picture to see it zoomed.

1. The title is the name of a Collection

2. Rule is what you enter in the rule box of L4's collection
a. This is what you want to copy & paste into L4's rule box

3. Included or Excluded Collections
a. You will need to build these collections before you can Include or Exclude these collections

4. For Included or Excluded Resources
a. You will need to locate these books in your library and drag them onto your collection in the respective places (Plus these resources or Minus these resources)

5. For Included or Excluded resources which are blank, this is due to them not being in my library. So you will need to work a little here to restore these areas

5a. In the PDF use your mouse to select the Resource ID's text, then right click on it and select Copy to add it to your clipboard.

   5b. Now click in Logos4's command box and paste your Resource ID's text.
     c. Logos4 will show you the name of your resource.
     d. Now remember the resource's name and open your Library and locate that resource. Then drag it to the appropriate area of your collection.

EDIT3: the last field in the PDF for each collection is Parallel Res. which has a Yes/No after it. When you see a Yes, then the checkbox in your collection (Show in parallel resources) was checked.

EDIT: i am fixing to leave to go to a Bible Study and will be back in about 3 hours. So if you have questions then i can answer them.

EDIT2: i'm back.
If you can find another database i can probably save you the troubles in step #5. i need the database: data/<unique foldername>/LibraryCatalog/catalog.db
Again you should get this from your backup and not disturb your Logos4 files.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269632#Comment_269632

.. it seems like the Logos server is just not dependable.

I have to agree as this sync problem with Collections has existed for too long.

Wayne

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269766#Comment_269766

Thanks for sending the pdf file. Iwas able to begin recreating my collections. The file that I sent was the last backup that I found and it was from December. I hadn't updated many collections since the end the year.