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Writer's Haven => Writer 101 [Public] => Topic started by: The Bass Bagwhan on August 22, 2022, 09:41:48 PM

Title: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: The Bass Bagwhan on August 22, 2022, 09:41:48 PM
Had a nasty few minutes today when I maybe lost two hours of serious writing due, I think, to an errant hotkey press when I was trying for a simple format. But I had Word's Auto save and Auto recover turned on, and found a complete file.

Worth making sure you have features like these enabled. Dozens of backup files don't use much space at all for text/Word docs, and it avoids (temporary for me) moments like I had today.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: cecilia_writer on August 22, 2022, 11:18:47 PM
I second this, following a recent cat on the keyboard incident.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: R. C. on August 23, 2022, 12:31:56 AM
... Word's Auto save and Auto recover turned on, and found a complete file...

If you use Onedrive, the files are also backup and retained for several days.  I have, twice, used the Onedrive recovery option to pull back corrupted files.

Onedrive Recovery (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restore-a-previous-version-of-a-file-stored-in-onedrive-159cad6d-d76e-4981-88ef-de6e96c93893)

RC
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: Vijaya on August 23, 2022, 01:32:53 AM
I second this, following a recent cat on the keyboard incident.

Yup. Same here
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: Post-Crisis D on August 23, 2022, 01:54:37 AM
I prefer it off.

I keep multiple versions of files that I keep sorted by modification date.  Opened one and didn't do anything except scroll and auto-save saved it anyway, giving the file a newer date than it should have which messes up my sorting system.

So, it's either turn it off or make a copy of older files before opening them.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: LilyBLily on August 23, 2022, 03:32:03 AM
Some computers do that and some don’t. One of mine does, and I agree it’s a drag.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: CaptnAndy on August 23, 2022, 03:53:09 AM
Back in the early days of word processing (KayPro2 & Perfect Writer), I discovered that I could NEVER recreate lost writing to a level as good as the original.
Backups of various types became my life ring, and today, Carbonite is my regular backup every time a changed file is saved. I use Libre Open Office for writing, and it has features to help recover keystroke errors.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: Jeff Tanyard on August 23, 2022, 06:23:08 AM
Also, don't forget to save a copy on another hard drive that's not in your home.  This is as easy as emailing the file to yourself at the end of the day's writing session, so there's no reason not to do it.

Remember when Joe Nobody had a nearly finished novel on his laptop, but then his laptop was stolen?  Pepperidge Farm remembers.  There was no other copy, so Joe spent the next month or so completely re-writing the novel from scratch.  He learned his lesson the hard way, and then he shared his story so that other authors could learn it the easy way.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: cecilia_writer on August 23, 2022, 06:55:24 AM
I email my work in progress to myself every day - the cat on keyboard thing happened when the cat managed to jump on the on-off switch in the middle of a writing session. I save quite ften so I only lost a couple of paragraphs, but it was very annoying.
Previous major cat incidents have included all my files going into the recycle bin and the internet being unexpectedly disconnected.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: Cabbages and kings on August 23, 2022, 01:42:11 PM
I email my work in progress to myself every day


How do you email something to yourself?
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: cecilia_writer on August 23, 2022, 04:53:13 PM
I email my work in progress to myself every day


How do you email something to yourself?

I just attach the file to an email and send it - you can use the same mailbox but I usually use a different one. Either way it ends up somewhere online that isn't just on my hard drive.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: Matthew on August 23, 2022, 06:02:43 PM
How do you email something to yourself?
You login into your email, create a new message, and put the same email address into the "to" box. GMail will let you do this, anyway. And as cecilia mentions you can add attachments. Or you can create another email account whose sole purpose is to receive your writerly backups -- though keep in mind the limits of the storage your email account will provide. It may stop taking in new messages or start deleting the oldest messages.

I don't personally do this or recommend it, but hey it's an option, and it's definitely something I've heard of others doing.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: LilyBLily on August 23, 2022, 09:50:47 PM
Once a backup isn't needed anymore, you can always delete the attachment or the entire email to avoid overloading your inbox.

Usually, I create a flash drive backup, but any sort will work for the few days when that particular moment in the ms. is important. By a week later, it typically isn't. I end up with 30 backup files at a minimum while doing NaNoWriMo for 30 days. Have I ever gone back to any of them? Extremely rarely. That's because I've gotten beyond wasting my time writing scenes that won't be in the final version of the story. In the early days, though, every day's work might have included bits that eventually got axed. My first books were true learning experiences.
Title: Re: All hail auto save and auto recover
Post by: writeway on August 26, 2022, 03:04:51 PM
I have autosave set to 1 minute. Plus I have my documents set to save to OneDrive and Google Drive as I write. At the end of each day of writing I then email the writing I did that day to myself. You can never have enough protection.