Strange (probably unrelated) things...

[pyrael]

This is really strange, and I've yet to figure out why it's happening...

I use a desktop and a laptop for everything writing related. Desktop has UbuntuStudio 22.04 and laptop is Mageia Linux on the laptop. I have a dedicated SSD on my desktop mounted as a network drive to share my writing projects and keep them backed up.

I use manuskript for wiriting, libre office for formatting, and PDF generation.

I used to use Google drive, but decided I wanted everything local.

So here's the strange thing, project files, odt and PDF files are all good, nothing gets lost or deleted and autosaves are pretty instant. But..

If I use an online grammar checker, and download the corrections (which are .md files) and then close the browser later, the files go missing.

Also, I had a zip file of a backup of really old books in PDF form on Google drive that has disappeared. I don't use the sync function so it's not that.

Lime I said, I doubt they are related, but this all happened in the last week.

Has Google made some change to their tos regarding filetypes or something? They were all freely available books, public domain even.

Does anyone else use Ubuntu or linux in general here?

 

[Fergus MacGuffin]

Have you tried copying the downloaded files to a different location before closing the browser?

Was the old PDF still on Google Drive, or did it disappear from one of your local drives?

 

[pyrael]

Have you tried copying the downloaded files to a different location before closing the browser?

Was the old PDF still on Google Drive, or did it disappear from one of your local drives?

yes. if I save the files, or open them before closing the browser, they seem to stay.

the pdf file was only on google drive, I was intending on donloading it back to the pc when i found it gone.

 

[Fergus MacGuffin]

yes. if I save the files, or open them before closing the browser, they seem to stay.

the pdf file was only on google drive, I was intending on donloading it back to the pc when i found it gone.

The only thing I can think is that somehow your default download location is not stable. It is on /tmp? Or a separate drive from your other directories? Maybe a RAM drive (are those still a thing? showing my age...)

 

[pyrael]

I discovered the issues. Some benign some nefarious (maybe?)

The Google issue seems to have happened to many people. I think they wiped out anything that *might* have a copyright issue. So there's the nefarious missing files. I don't use it any longer so, it's moot I suppose. I hope others see it as a warning that cloud isn't yours.

The downloaded files, it seems to be that md (markdown) files are by "default" somehow temporary regardless of download directory, coupled with a needed update to brave browser, I got a bunch deleted. The brave issue was a tmp issue, brave was saying the download was completed, and forgetting to change a bit? Something like that.

Other issues are apparently not widespread (missing apps) that have to do with updates. Apparently the config file for a software update had an error, so apt was deleting certain files without actually downloading the newer version. Simple typo I suppose. It was a music app, so I just reinstalled it.

I also managed to find the backups for all the stuff that was missing, so that was good.

I suppose the moral is never trust your PC, trust someone else's less, and backup to more than one place.

 

[benbenberi]

Multiple redundant backup in various locations is never a bad idea.