All character data lost!! Having trouble with backup files.

[eltonjock]

Recently I went to load a campaign I have been running and all of the character data was gone and I got an error saying Fantasy Grounds has crashed and told me to move a backup file.

I have a file called "db.backup.1330309228.xml" but I'm not sure what to do with it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[phantomwhale]

Firstly, take a copy of your campaign directory, incase any of the below doesn't work and makes things worse.

Then, in your campaign directory, you would expect to see "db.xml" probably containing your corrupt data, and "db.backup.0123456789.xml" - the higher the number, the later (more recent) the backup is. If you see "db.backup.xml" then that's probably a very old file from before backups had unique numbers added.

Firstly you might be able to open db.xml in an editor and see what's wrong - occasionally this file has been made "invalid" when the app crashes, or through some ruleset bug. If it's an editor (like Notepad++) that can verify XML, even better, as this will let you know for sure if the file is invalid.

However, if this is a step of technical-ness too far, or this file SEEMS fine and is just missing the data, then you can delete it (as you made a copy of the directory already, right ?) and rename the latest "db.backup.########.xml" file to "db.xml" then start your campaign up in FGII and see what data is there. With any luck, you've only lost up to 5 mins of data changes (as campaigns autosave every 5 mins, I think).

Lastly, this sort of thing should be pretty rare, so hopefully this is a fluke occurance for you. But in any case - Good luck !

-PW-

[Moon Wizard]

Yes, Fantasy Grounds auto-saves every 5 minutes.

Also, if you have any information on what you were doing when it crashed, I would appreciate anything you have. If it crashed on load, then please list any changes you made outside of the core application, such as using the character importer or other utilities.

Thanks,
JPG

[zackspacks]

Hi there, I have just encountered this exact same problem with my Savage Worlds campaign. I was running v2.9.1 FG2 with the Savage Worlds ruleset, no extensions. At first I got a message stating a database may be corrupt and that db.backup.xxxxxxx.xml could be used instead. I followed the instructions above and FG2 crashes. ( Incidentally there were several of these numbered back-up files, which along with the campaign folders I have saved elsewhere, as suggested.

FG2 will load up other Savage Worlds / D&D campaigns I have created no problem.

The only thing I did do, was to copy and paste three images into the campaign images file during whilst the latest update was happening. Is this connected ? Being computer unsavvy obviously doesn't help, and I could get around this as I have the players charactersheets in Excel, and could manually re-enter them. More of a pain is that the players have made their own campaign notes, and I don't know how where to look for them, and wonder if it is possible to salvage either the character sheets, or the players campaign notes ?
Thanks
Paul

[phantomwhale]

Be good to know what the crashing message is, if any (although that's more MW's department)

Did you try using one of the numbered backup files (the latest one, ideally) as suggested above ? Did that fix anything ?

Feel free to post campaign db.xml files (via PM or here). All (or at the very least, MOST) of the data SHOULD still be there :)

[zackspacks]

Hi mate
Attached is a picture of the error message. Upon retrying this to make sure I had followed the instructions, I decided to not just try the last db file, but systematically go through them all one by one, deleting each one after use. It seems that FG2 then creates another db file on the fly, and says to use that one. Error messages are the same every time, although the number is different of course. After this message, I get a windows message to say that Fantasy grounds has stopped working.

Files attached, many thanks
Paul

[zackspacks]

There are also the following files in the campaign folder, which I presume are older versions >

[phantomwhale]

Sorry mate - been busy. Also looks like your attachments are yet to be approved ! Might be worth just zipping up the folder and sharing it via a dropbox link or something similar (feel free to PM me that)

[Doswelk]

I think you should be able to access them now...

(My first task as forum mod!) :)

[phantomwhale]

Ok - that db.xml file seems to load fine for me.

After getting the "your session crashed" message, did you hit OK ? If FGII crashes, you WILL see that message (saying it bailed out and wrote the DB file to another numbered file) but sometimes all you've lost is the last 1-2 mins of updates and everything else is still fine in db.xml, so you can just carry on.

Certainly the db.xml file alone loaded fine for me, and I can see lots of PCs and story elements and all sort of interesting things :)

Let me know if it's NOT working for you, and any other errors your seeing if so.

[zackspacks]

Hi mate, upon hitting 'ok' I get a windows message saying 'Fantasy grounds.exe has stopped working', it thinks a while, then shuts it all down. I have even tried taking out all of the backup files, and then it just crashes out.

Like I said, other Savage campaigns seem to load up fine. Maybe if I copy this .xml file into a new campaign name it may work ? Going to try..

Okay, now that has worked, and the char files, personalities the lot all seem to be there. That's rather bizarre ?

[phantomwhale]

Indeed it is ! That was all I was going to suggest - once you've got a working XML file, I've kind of hit the "limit" of my application understanding, and you're entering JPG territory.

If you have the opportunity to zip up both working and broken campaigns, I'm sure they would like a copy at [email protected] (and a copy to ben DOT turner @ pobox.com would be cool too) to try and diagnose what the difference is.

Glad things are working again anyway

[Moon Wizard]

Yeah, I would need a full copy of both campaign folders to figure out what is going on. It's rather strange. Maybe it's some sort of corrupted/locked file issue.

JPG