Lost all characters, custom items etc

[obiter]

Win 10, installation in default directories

On loading the characters are gone. All the Hotkeys are intact. All the custom items are gone.
I backed up the campaign folder then renamed db.xml and changed the last save to db.xml and reloading but no joy.

Any thoughts?

[6/12/2020 3:03:24 PM] FGU: v4.0.0 ULTIMATE (2020-06-10)
[6/12/2020 3:03:24 PM] OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
[6/12/2020 3:03:24 PM] GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 : 1977
[6/12/2020 3:03:24 PM] Launcher scene starting.
[6/12/2020 3:03:57 PM] Daily session backup created.
[6/12/2020 3:03:57 PM] Starting private server mode. [(192.168.0.2:1802) (...)]
[6/12/2020 3:03:57 PM] Game server started. [ ...]
[6/12/2020 3:03:57 PM] Launcher scene exiting.
[6/12/2020 3:03:57 PM] Tabletop scene starting.
[6/12/2020 3:04:10 PM] [<color="red">ERROR</color>] Process Data File (): '
then [ERROR] Error while loading campaign database.

[Zacchaeus]

Did you rename the backup or the last session file? Try the last session file if you used the backup. If there is more than one session file you may need to go back to an earlier one.

[obiter]

No I didn't rename the backup file rather the last session file.

OK thanks will try to rename and test the recent back up files, then work through the session files.

[obiter]

Great, thanks!

Four saves back and we are back up and running.
Items and character sheets back. Strangely the portraits were missing but that can be easily fixed.

Any idea why this happened and how to avoid it?

[Zacchaeus]

It sounds like FG didn't close properly. That is generally the reason for corrupted files.

Also make sure you don't have any kind of cloud synced backup running when FG is also running. This is also known to cause issues.

[damned]

Please dont rename your backup files. Copy them, and rename the copy. If something is loaded in your campaign, an extension etc, that is causing the corruption, you will just start corrupting your backups.