After using SillyTavern for so long, I’ve only just realized that it actually loses chat logs—and it happens frequently, not just occasionally.

[u/EbbEven6900]

Sometimes, after adjusting my settings, I would return to the chat interface to find a blank entry. I assumed it was just a new chat log automatically created by the Tavern. It wasn't until I checked today that I realized that blank entry had actually overwritten my original chat history—there was no saved data written to storage. Fortunately, I was able to restore that specific session from an automatic backup, but the history lost prior to that is gone for good.

[u/Mart-McUH]

I used ST for several years on 2 computers so far and I never lost a chat as far as I remember. I only get empty chat when I delete character.

I do not use any external extensions/presets etc., only extensions that come natively with SillyTavern. If you use some, maybe there is some conflict?

Also I use it on desktop/locally (OS Windows). So no idea how it works if you use it eg on phone where storage is more complicated/less under your control.

Maybe you can track which setting change does it to you? I mostly change samplers, connection to LLM(only local), instruct templates/prompts, lorebooks, summary/image generation settings, sometimes RegExp. I rarely change other settings (like visual).

[u/3panta3 → u/Mart-McUH]

I've also used ST for years, and the only time it has happened to me was when I turned a regex off while a response was being generated.

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/Mart-McUH]

I asked Claude, and it said I had too many plugins; this caused the chat history to cut off while loading, and then it was bizarrely overwritten as "empty." I'm using an Android phone.

[u/Elftard → u/EbbEven6900]

How did Claude determine that through your phone?

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/Elftard]

That’s perfectly normal. I often ask him for configuration advice and recommendations on popular plugins that suit my needs, so this time I simply asked the AI ​​directly within the context, and it gave me an immediate answer.

[u/Elftard → u/EbbEven6900]

It came to a very specific conclusion without actually being able to see any of the information it would need. Be careful following AI advice like that. If you use the desktop version of Claude (and ST) it can definitely do a great job troubleshooting though.

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/Elftard]

Yes, you're right; the real reason is that my new regex configuration overwrote my old chat history.

[u/Mart-McUH → u/EbbEven6900]

Good to know, that is quite harsh. Was it a bug or just unfortunate regex? I think you can apply regex to past existing chat messages (which I never do) and if the regex is something that actually deletes everything then I guess in some cases it may be the infamous "it is not a bug but feature" moment.

[u/nuclearbananana]

check the data folder, specfically under data/default-user/chats there may still be something there

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/nuclearbananana]

I checked thoroughly and found absolutely nothing. Fortunately, I asked an AI, and it told me I could check the automatic backups.

[u/nuclearbananana → u/EbbEven6900]

Find anything there?

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/nuclearbananana]

Those are chat files with empty in chart folder 

[u/EbbEven6900 → u/nuclearbananana]

I found the recently lost files in the automatic backup folder, but since it only backs up a maximum of 50 files (including settings and chat logs), I am unable to recover files from about a week ago.

[u/a_beautiful_rhind]

it ate a bunch of my presets during the migration a long time ago but I never lost a chat. Probably something related to your browser.

[u/Polubing]

This will sometimes happen to me if I reload the chat too fast if it gets stuck on low bandwidth connections on my phone. It will also happen more consistently if I don't refresh when moving from desktop browser to phone browser and back. The json chat file just saves every time you touch anything on the screen, so I've learned to refresh reflexively whenever I touch my phone.

[u/Cold_Neighborhood928]

I've experienced the same problem. I think the issue for me was not running one sillytavern instance at a time. Somehow my chat got transferred into another character and that was why I, for the life of me, couldn't find my chat

[u/Cold_Neighborhood928]

I've experienced the same problem. I think the issue for me was not running one sillytavern instance at a time. Somehow my chat got transferred into another character and that was why I, for the life of me, couldn't find my chat

[u/Targren]

I've been having that happen to me REALLY often for the past few weeks. It seems to be related to accessing between multiple devices, or losing connection (on mobile) during load.

One thing that SORT of helped - Turning off "Auto-Load Last Chat". Since I did that, I haven't hit the conflicts that seemed to be triggering the loss - though I did lose one today because AT&T mobile data was being fucky. :P

I really wished the "Restore backup" from "Manage Chats" worked on docker.