Vivaldi deleted my download folder (not exclusive to Vivaldi)
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I have been a Vivaldi user for years. To be exact, I started using Opera over ten years ago. It wasn't until Opera changed ownership that I switched to Firefox. I started using Vivaldi a few years ago.
This week I ran into a "vivaldi crashes immediately on startup" issue, so I removed Vivaldi today, but Vivaldi also deleted the download folder I put on the external SSD (not exclusive to Vivaldi), and there were over 100 GB of files that I didn't back up. I can't believe this program has permission to delete folders that are not part of it!!
Can I still recover the files?
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@lostmyfiles Vivaldi doesn't itself delete anything. The installer however can delete Vivaldi when uninstalling it, and also asks whether to delete your profile - neither of which should delete a folder outside that hierarchy.
As far as recovering the files, try any Windows file recovery app.
One of two things must have happened. Either you created your Downlods folder within a folder Vivaldi had originally created, or the installer log got corrupted to somehow think your Dowloads folder was one Vivaldi created. Okay, three things - your SSD got corrupted and you lost your Downloads folder separately. The first option - human error - sounds most likely, but I can't actually exclude the other two based on the information provided.
Run a drive repair utility and see if it finds yout missing folder and files, the try file recovery though recovering individual files is likely to be slow.
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@sgunhouse Thanks for your reply.
Before today, I thought that Vivaldi would not remove the download folder. In fact, I just uninstalled Vivaldi once the day before to try to fix "vivaldi crashes immediately on startup" issue, I kept the profile but the issues was not fixed and the download folder was not deleted.
But today, when I uninstalled Vivaldi, I checked "Delete browsing data (or Profile?, my PC is not an English version of Windows 11)" to let the uninstaller delete profile as well, and then my download folders completely disappeared.
My download folder existed for many years before I started using Vivaldi, and instead of designating it as the default download folder, I had the browser ask me before each download.
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@lostmyfiles Well. no obvious cause for the disappearance then. As I said, have Windows scan and repair your SSD, and if that doesn't find your folder try a file recovery app.
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Thanks for all the replies.
Well, the lost files are not coming back and I have to move on. -
@lostmyfiles said in Vivaldi deleted my download folder (not exclusive to Vivaldi):
this program has permission to delete
do you know programs under windows that DON'T have permission to delete something anywhere on your HDDs unless they're in c:\windows and you're on a very restricted account?
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I tested with 6.7 Stable, 6.8 Snapshot, installed for user and standalones, and never was the download folder cleared when i told the uninstaller to remove the profiles.
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@DoctorG The only logical way this occurred was during the crash, nothing else should have caused the file loss. Unfortunately we have no way to duplicate that.
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Thank you all for your replies.
I reinstalled Vivaldi and downloaded files, then deleted Vivaldi again. This time there was no problem of missing folders.
This situation should be an independent case. To be honest, I have never seen irrelevant files automatically removed by an application.
I considered the possibility that the folder was accidentally deleted by myself, but the Windows system will pop up two confirmations when deleting large file / folder. I don't think I overlooked second confirmation.
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- Do you have a security tool which could have cleared the folder?
- Had you check drive's file system? Select drive in Explorer → Context menu → Property → Tools → Check
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@lostmyfiles Maybe an undelete tool can help to get a few files back, depends on how much you wrote to the disk in the meantime.
@all Is recuva still a good tool?
https://www.ccleaner.com/de-de/recuva -
@bariton, AlternativeTo said that it isn't, apart flagged ass Bundleware. See comments in the link I gave above.
Maybe better
https://recoverytoolbox.com/undelete.html
https://www.r-datarecovery.com
https://amazing-share.com/free-data-recovery-software.html
https://www.salvagedata.com/windows-recovery-software/
https://best-buy-app.com/pc-data-recovery/free-windows-data-recovery.html
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@Catweazle Thanks for the hints.
Another cool tool for recovery is TestDisk, but I did not use it since ages.
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_DEWell I hope @lostmyfiles can do something with these tools.
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A Freeware File Recovery Tool I've used with good results is Puran File Recovery.
There's a Portable version available.
https://www.puransoftware.com/File-Recovery.html -
Thank you for your replies, I will try the rescue tools you suggested.
@DoctorG said in Vivaldi deleted my download folder (not exclusive to Vivaldi):
- Do you have a security tool which could have cleared the folder?
- Had you check drive's file system? Select drive in Explorer → Context menu → Property → Tools → Check
I'm using Norton 360 for many years.
It occurred to me that I can't close Vivaldi after updating it this week and Norton 360 had unusually high CPU usage at that time. Then the "vivaldi crashes immediately on startup" issue, occurred after I forcibly closed Vivaldi.Drives are okay.
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@lostmyfiles Download installer from vivaldi.com and try a reinstall to repair installation.
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@DoctorG said in Vivaldi deleted my download folder (not exclusive to Vivaldi):
@lostmyfiles Download installer from vivaldi.com and try a reinstall to repair installation.
I did, then I lost my download folder.
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@lostmyfiles said in Vivaldi deleted my download folder (not exclusive to Vivaldi):
hen I lost my download folder
And where is this folder?
On Windows its is usually
C:\Users\<Your Account>\Downloads
Vivaldi does not remove or clean system'created folders. -
@DoctorG I already explained in my previous post that the download folder is on an external SSD.
I believe that the Vivaldi uninstaller do not delete any download folders, my download folder just completely disappeared after uninstalling Vivaldi.
This situation is an independent case.
