IMPORTANT: Do this backup method to save yourself from any catastrophe

[g_bartsch]

This is shameful to say since I've been using Vivaldi for so long, and maybe others have said this before, but don't bother backing up this or that from the Vivaldi directory in Appdata; just backup the entire thing.

No matter what disaster befalls Vivaldi all that's needed is to restore the contents of the working directory from a good backup and any problem is solved.

Then you also always have everything needed when you want to build a new instance of Vivaldi anytime.

Of course this method is a snapshot of Vivaldi from the past but losing a few new bookmarks or open tabs is way less of a problem than spending time rebuilding Vivaldi other ways.

It's so easy.

[luetage]

@g_bartsch You should create backups of all your data. And unless you keep a history of snapshots of your Vivaldi profile, at some point your backup will contain corrupted data without you noticing it. Then you have nothing to fall back on, because you don’t know which parts of your profile are still in good shape. In my experience there is no way around resetting the profile of any Chromium browser every one or two years, depending on usage patterns and luck. Therefore it makes sense to have both a Sync account and backups of the more tedious parts of the setup (for instance command chains, themes, icons, modifications, et al.)

[g_bartsch]

@luetage I do full system images regularly (that's where I got my good Vivaldi instance from). If you backup the entire computer system or the Vivaldi directory daily you will always have everything.

When you say profile do you mean the default 'profile' as in say:

C:\Users\Garry\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default

Or an actual purpose made profile as in:

C:\Users\Garry\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Profile 1

In cases of the type of corrupted data you refer to accumulating over time in a Chromium browser, is that corrupted data contained to 'Profile 1' for example?

Or does the corrupted data reside elsewhere in Application AND User Data?

[luetage]

@g_bartsch The profile you use constantly can get issues, no matter what it is named. The application files itself are not an issue, the application is being replaced on every update.

[g_bartsch]

@luetage So files in User Data or any specific profile the user may have created are the files that get corrupted over time.

It would be very nice to know which ones get corrupted most often.

[Pathduck]

@g_bartsch There is no "corruption" - I have to disagree with @luetage here. I've been running the same Snapshot profile for years, basically the same profile since I started using Vivaldi in 2018 - hundreds of updates. Might've done a restore or two from backup, but that's when I've messed up myself and very aware what I did.

Then again, I don't use Sessions or Workspaces, and that certainly seems the kind of files that might get "corrupted" - people with hundreds, maybe thousands of tabs and expecting the software to take care of their laziness to not close tabs when they're not used.

Any "corruption" happens with people flip-flopping between versions. Especially people who think they can swap between snapshot and stable willy-nilly. "Oh this bug breaks my workflow, reverted to last version"... despite repeated warnings here that this will break your profile

Since I don't use Sessions the amount of real, important data I care about is limited to passwords, bookmarks, notes, search engines, hotkeys, custom menus and some settings. Most of these are handled by Sync already, the rest I have backup routines for - mostly manual once in a while stuff.

I also do full-disk backups as well as incremental backups of all my user files, but I can't remember last time I needed those to fix a Vivaldi issue.

[luetage]

@Pathduck Corruption is a broad term. Maybe it’s the wrong term. I have never downgraded a profile or used an old profile on a newer install. My aging profiles always suffered from bugs I could no longer reproduce on a standalone install and which disappeared when setting up a new profile and doing the whole setup to get back to where I was before. I believe I’m on my sixth or seventh profile overall. And yes, session files do indeed get corrupted, but that’s easy to fix without a reset.

My last wipe was on 21st February ^^
just checked

[Pathduck]

@luetage It could be called "loss of functionality due to changes in underlying data structures"

Vivaldi/Chromium's data is stored in lots of different files and formats - SQLite, JSON, LDB, SNSS etc. As much as developers try to avoid it, sometimes the underlying data structures need to be changed on version update. This is usually handled by upgrade functions triggered on browser update. There might also be some functions that trigger on browser launch if it detects attempting to load an older browser profile and so will run the upgrade functions. As long as the profile is not too old.

But what users don't seem to understand is - this does NOT go both ways - there are no downgrade functions. That's why you can't just plop an upgraded profile into an updated profile into an older version and expect it to work.

@g_bartsch 's method of using full User Data dirs as backups might work - for some time. But it can't be expected to work for months-old backups. It might work for those "Oops, I broke something and need to restore" situations but that's it.

If these backups are versioned by the exact browser version it was taken from, that would be better. A backup would need to be loaded into the excact same version (a standalone install for instance), then a browser upgrade triggered and only then could the profile be moved into another current install.

[luetage]

@Pathduck Maybe this info can even be found somewhere in the profile, but Vivaldi would have to do a check on startup to prevent people from using a mismatched profile and screwing themselves, thereby saving profiles by the thousands. It’s all too complicated. We need more complete sync and a full profile reset button in settings. If this brought users up to speed with all the important data, settings, setup, no one would have to work on a broken profile.

[g_bartsch]

@luetage said in IMPORTANT: Do this backup method to save yourself from any catastrophe:

And yes, session files do indeed get corrupted, but that’s easy to fix without a reset.

Could you share your method? I'm trying to nail that down. I don't want to use Sync however.

[luetage]

@g_bartsch Enable automatic sessions backup. When Vivaldi crashes on start, because your session is corrupted, delete the current session file from profile and start Vivaldi. Open sessions panel and use a working backup session.

[Pathduck]

@luetage said in IMPORTANT: Do this backup method to save yourself from any catastrophe:

And yes, session files do indeed get corrupted, but that’s easy to fix without a reset.

Easy fix for me - just delete the session files

[g_bartsch]

@luetage said in IMPORTANT: Do this backup method to save yourself from any catastrophe:

delete the current session file from profile

When you say 'file' do you mean these 6 files? [This is what I have believed so far.]

Or is there just a single file to delete?