28 September 2011

Data loss problem in Clippings after upgrading to Firefox 7.0 or Thunderbird 7.0

I've received a few reports from users having lost their Clippings data after upgrading to Firefox 7.0 or Thunderbird 7.0, both of which were released yesterday.

If this has happened to you, you can try to rescue your Clippings data by doing the following:
  1. Locate the folder where your Clippings datasource file is found. To determine this, please refer to the Clippings FAQ. The datasource file is named clipdat2.rdf.
  2. Copy the backup files under the .clipbak subfolder to another location on your computer. Doing this ensures that your most recent, and hopefully pristine, backups are preserved.
  3. From Firefox or Thunderbird, open Clippings Manager, then Options → Import. Locate the most recent backup file you saved from step 2.

Hopefully you will be able to recover your clippings.

If this fails, exit Firefox or Thunderbird and delete the clipdat2.rdf datasource file. Then restart the application and open Clippings Manager. This will generate a new, empty datasource file. Then repeat step 3 above.


If You Have Not Yet Upgraded

Your clippings are automatically backed up whenever creating a new clipping, editing them in Clippings Manager, and when closing the Clippings Manager window. But to be extra safe, you should export your clippings before upgrading Firefox or Thunderbird. Open Clippings Manager, click Options → Export, then choose the desired location to export your clippings data. Having this backup will be incredibly handy in case you ever lose your clippings after upgrading Firefox or Thunderbird.

3 comments:

Elusis said...

I have NOT upgraded (running 3.6.23 due to requirements of online teaching) but I have suddenly lost all my clippings! This is a total disaster for me as I rely heavily on Clippings for grading assignments and courseroom communication - it has saved my wrists and increased my productivity tremendously. I found clipdat2.rdf in the very top level of my user profile folder (a terrible place to store it, in my opinion - everything else in there is folders to organize files) but cannot find anything with .clipbak in its name. Please help - classes start in just a few days and it will take me hours longer to do my preparation work if I can't restore this file!

AE Creations said...

@Elusis: I've responded to your cross-posted comment in the AE Creations forums.

Peter Spitz said...

Are you going to upgrade Clippings to make it compatible with Seamonkey 2.1. and later. TIA Peter