All my notes gone

[aor5]

What happened?

Opened the app today to find all my notes gone. All reminders, labels gone. My settings are there but otherwise looks like a reset. There is nothing recent in the logs. Latest v7.9.1 updated about a week ago.

App Version

7.9.1

Android Version (API Level)

No response

(Optional) Relevant log output

[aor5]

The only thing I did was change the setting "auto remove deleted notes permanently after" to 10 days. Before it was off. Today all my nites are gone. Even labels.

[aor5]

Last log event is from a week ago

Version code : 7910
Version name : 7.9.1
Model : moto edge 60
Device : scout
Brand : motorola
Manufacturer : motorola
Android : 36
Time : 6 Mar 2026 14:30:53
[End]
[Start]
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Tmp detached view should be removed from RecyclerView before it can be recycled: BaseNoteVH{d29ffa3 position=17 id=-1, oldPos=-1, pLpos:-1 tmpDetached no parent} androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView{30412de VFED..... .F....ID 0,0-1080,2006 #7f0a0078 app:id/MainListView aid=1073741839}, adapter:com.philkes.notallyx.presentation.view.main.BaseNoteAdapter@809cf00, layout:androidx.recyclerview.widget.StaggeredGridLayoutManager@a1bcb60, context:com.philkes.notallyx.presentation.activity.main.MainActivity@3cec6d4
at androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView$Recycler.recycleViewHolderInternal(SourceFile:291)
at androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView$ItemAnimator.dispatchAnimationFinished(SourceFile:88)
at androidx.recyclerview.widget.DefaultItemAnimator$6.onAnimationEnd(SourceFile:11)
at android.view.ViewPropertyAnimator$AnimatorEventListener.onAnimationEnd(ViewPropertyAnimator.java:1111)
at android.animation.Animator$AnimatorListener.onAnimationEnd(Animator.java:554)
at android.animation.ValueAnimator.endAnimation(ValueAnimator.java:1250)
at android.animation.ValueAnimator.doAnimationFrame(ValueAnimator.java:1492)
at android.animation.AnimationHandler.doAnimationFrame(AnimationHandler.java:146)
at android.animation.AnimationHandler.access$100(AnimationHandler.java:37)
at android.animation.AnimationHandler$1.doFrame(AnimationHandler.java:54)
at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:970)
at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:796)
at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:727)
at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:957)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:938)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:250)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7886)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:592)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:970)

[Crustack]

Hi, sorry to hear that
Did you maybe dis-/enable biometric lock?
The exception in the log is just something that can occur in the list view, but it should be unrelated to notes itself.
Do you have "Store data in public folder" enabled? If yes, please check the Android/media/com.philkes.notallyx folder, to see if there are NotallyDatabase files, and if yes what their last modification date is.

I just now re-tested the auto removal of deleted notes after x days and it seems to work fine, only notes from the deleted folder get removed. The only issue I encountered that the "Deleted" Folder did not immediately refresh after the notes were deleted.

Did you at any point made a backup or enable auto backup on save?

[aor5]

No I hadn't enabled any of those. It's my fault for not backing up. I am trialling this app for the last 2 weeks.

Under Android/media/com.philkes.notallyx there are 4 folders: logs, Images, Files, Audios. All are empty except logs which has 1 log file.

Android app storage details shows:
App size 17.75 MB
User data 17.94 MB
Cache 348 kB
Total 36.04 MB

Can the notes be recoved or is it hopeless?

[Crustack]

Android app storage details shows: App size 17.75 MB User data 17.94 MB Cache 348 kB Total 36.04 MB

Can the notes be recoved or is it hopeless?

User data 17.94 MB actually sounds like quite a lot for an empty database/ no notes/attached files etc.
I am wondering, if you export a backup now, can you try to open the .zip and try to see what size the NotallyDatabase files are?
If the database was corrupted usually you should have seen a crash screen or see some related exception in the logs file...

[aor5]

The backup zip contains a single file NotallyDatabase with some SQL script and is only 36 kB. 0 notes are imported using it.

What is the 18 MB user data then?

[aor5]

I am testing backing up to avoid this again and even that doesn't work.

I create 2 notes make a manual backup and then delete the 2 notes. I restore from the backup and this happens.

It "imports" but doesn't import anything. Notes still empty. What is wrong with this thing?

[Crustack]

When importing it checks if a note exactly matching the imported one is found (since #759), which is indicated at the bottom ("Import 0 Notes (2 duplicates)")
Did you only delete the notes (which only moves it into the "Deleted" Folder), or did you remove them completely?
If you only deleted them then you will probably find the 2 notes in the "Deleted" Folder

[Crustack]

What is the 18 MB user data then?

I am not sure about that, I havent encountered this sort of behaviour yet. For a fresh install with a couple of notes and some preferences set, User Data on my emulator is e.g. 1.01MB.
The User Data should refer to Android/data/com.philkes.notallyx which is the app's internal data and which can usually only be accessed externally if your device is rooted.

[aor5]

I think it is a hopeless situation but I discovered a few things.

Yes I had deleted completely. Deleted was empty.

When I add a new note there are frequent glitches like appearing on the right when the left is empty.

I enabled the public folder. My images, audio appeared in the file manager. This explains the 18 MB user data. The notes are still empty. The database file has been overwritten.

There are 2 more. NotallyDatabase-wal and NotallyDatabase-shm. Wal has a previous version from today not my original lost. Shm looks corrupted.

I think I will start clean. I think something corrupted.

I will enable auto backups with maximum versions of 10. Auto backup period in days means what? If I say 1 it is daily which is most frequent? Backup on exit is not keeping versions so it is not helpful to protect against corruption. I understand it is to share. Safest would be autobackup on exit but with versions. I know this is too much for typical user but I want maximum protection.

Is there something else to try or should I nuke and begin clean?

[Crustack]

That is very strange, I just now tested:

• Creating 2 notes
• Exporting a backup
• Deleting and permanently removing the 2 notes
• Importing the backup
• The 2 notes were succesfully imported as it should

If I do the same but only deleted the 2 notes I get the same message with 2 duplicates imported, and they are present in the Deleted folder

Really not sure what is broken on your specific device/app-install 🤔

When I add a new note there are frequent glitches like appearing on the right when the left is empty.

Can you elaborate on that, what is appearing in which exact view on the right/left?

There are 2 more. NotallyDatabase-wal and NotallyDatabase-shm. Wal has a previous version from today not my original lost. Shm looks corrupted.

The -wal file is the so called "Write-Ahead Logging" file, which sort of buffers writes to the database, which comes with some performance improvments. Its enabled by default, so I never really investigated if it adds some more threats for corruption or similar, it seems to be best practice for android databases.
The -shm is necessary for the WAL to work, its some index file, and not a valid sqlite database file.

I will enable auto backups with maximum versions of 10. Auto backup period in days means what? If I say 1 it is daily which is most frequent? Backup on exit is not keeping versions so it is not helpful to protect against corruption. I understand it is to share. Safest would be autobackup on exit but with versions. I know this is too much for typical user but I want maximum protection.

Yes, if you set the backup period to 1 day and max versions to 10, you will basically always have backups for each of the last 10 days. Not sure what you mean by "Backup on exit [...] is not helpful to protect against corruption", its a valid backup like any other, if anything goes wrong while creating the backup (e.g. the current database is corrupted/inaccessible), it will abort creating the backup and not overwrite the previous version. It also has some (basic) CRC verification to make sure the created .ZIP is valid.
Unfortunately the whole backup process is a very delicate matter, especially concerning some options like biometric lock/encryption, but I tried to improve it a lot in the last few versions to make them less error-prone.
Of course we could add an option to also keep multiple auto-save backup .ZIPs, although I technically see nothing wrong with the current implementation of just having 1.
I can also fully understand the frustration after such a data loss and feeling the need to have further redundance in backups