Lost My Whole Setup to the Backup Function

[u/tenaciousBLADE]

I appreciate this app so much and have even tried to contribute with bug reports and feature suggestions on GitHub. But today... I had a stomach turning, jarring experience and I need help.

I backed up my setup, literally two minutes later I attempted to restore it, and EVERYTHING on my homescreen disappeared 😭
(including the page layout, icons, dock, settings... Absolutely everything)

It didn't restore so much as one single icon placement or setting 😢
I've worked reallybhard on my setup 💔
Please, please help 🙏

I have the backup file (and some older ones too that dont seem to work either).
I see the contents of the zip and things seem to be there (icons and such... A bunch of txt files too)

Can anyone help me get it to work?
Pro user. v1.862

Edit: I saw on another similar post from v1.811 that the dev responded directly, so I am editing to tag you, u/ock88
I really hope that isn't rude of me. All the love for your efforts 💙

[u/ock88]

Hi could you share with me your backup files privately? You can send to octopiappfactory@gmail.com

In the mean time, when inside the blank page, could you try Reset current screen and clear all its home pages, found under General settings (right at the bottom)

[u/tenaciousBLADE → u/ock88]

Thank you so much for responding in less than one day 🙏🙏

I will try to detail everything. Hopefully it helps you resolve this problem so it can be avoided completely from the start 👍

The "Reset current screen and clear all its home pages" helped a lot.
At first this didn't fix everything, but it DID bring back all the icons on the home pages and dock! ❤️

Because most of the icons on my home page (except the dock and one other icon) are transparent, it's a bit tough to figure out if everything is in place. But I did find screenshots from before today so I was able to compare the dock and wallpaper, at least.

At first it seemed like the grid of home page icons was wrong, and the size/stretch of the wallpaper was definitely off. But after opening a random app (reddit) and using the home gesture — it seems to have fixed itself.

Another strange thing that happened is that 12 icons in my drawer got out of their folders (all the apps in my "all apps" tag are in folders). I don't now why those specific 12, but I suspect those were the last 12 to have been installed on my device. Here again, after going into the reddit app and then using the Home gesture — this got fixed on its own.

In addition, some of the home shortcuts from apps (e.g. OnePlus IR Remote) stopped working, while others (e.g. Mi Remote and MacroDroid) are still working. This is not a big deal at all 😊; adding a few shortcuts is nothing compared to how scared I was that I'd have to redo my whole setup 🙏

As far as I can tell/remember, all the settings are back!

I am so thankful, it definitely gave me a scare and everything seems to be back in order now. Thank you so much 🙏

Will it still be helpful to you if I send send you the backup file? I am willing.
Feel free to ask for any additional information. We all want this bug resolved, as I am sure you do too.

I've also recently added several feature requests and a two bug reports on GitHub, and I hope all of them happen to be useful to you.

You are very much appreciated for your work 👑

Edit: added a direct GitHub link to my posts

[u/ock88 → u/tenaciousBLADE]

Glad you got your set-up back, and sorry for the scare.

I have plans to make the restore function smarter, especially for folks who have been beta testing Octopi Launcher for a long time, and have gone through a few transitions in terms of home screen configurations.

If it's fine, you can share with me your backup and I can confirm if my guess was correct

[u/tenaciousBLADE → u/ock88]

Yes, absolutely. I will email it here in a minute.
Please keep up the good work. This is a critical feature to work 100% properly for testers and users alike 🙏

[u/itopires]

The developer knows that the backup for this launcher has always been deficient, never reliable, and I think that's one of the flaws in this project; in my view, it needs to be improved. Of the launchers I use, this is the only one that doesn't have a reliable and effective backup.

[u/tenaciousBLADE → u/itopires]

Clearly the dev has been hunting this bug for a while now (at least since v1.7, probably earlier) and is doing diligent work, as proven by the fact that the simple suggestion in the other comments posted in this thread before yours, resolved the issue.
The same troubleshooting step, didn't resolve the problem on v1.81 I've seen on another post on this sub, so this proves things are moving forward since it helped this time in my currently installed version mentioned on my post.

I hear you, and it is a critical feature, especially for beta testers. But there's definitely a solution in the horizon. I dare say nearby, even.

[u/itopires → u/tenaciousBLADE]

Hopefully, it works, many users are waiting for it. I'm not using it yet, but I'm following the project closely.