Frustrating, 1 hour bio lost

Question

Typed for an hour, added source and category. Saved and went to tracker. It would not respond or allow me to do anything. Went back to the profile.....POOOF....all gone. Time to take a break!

Answer 1

That is really frustrating. I have had it happen to me on WikiTree and also on gmail, where I've spent half the night crafting an email to a group and in one moment - gone.

That is why I save after every entry. I don't care if some consider it cheating, I consider it saving my sanity!

Comments

Here is something to also consider, especially if you have computer SNAFUs, an old computer, or a slow internet connection.  Sometimes I've saved my work to have the internet connection go down and the page has to be refreshed, and after doing so, I've lost my update.

Before I save, I ALWAYS click CTRL+A and then copy.  If the page doesn't save and refresh, I have the data on my clipboard and can paste and re-save.

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@Dave: Same here, Dave. I do most of my work on an eight year old laptop. Save after nearly every entry in the text box. Enter census data. Save. Enter source. Save. Enter draft card data. Save. Enter source. Save.

I not taking any chances.

@SJ: Didn’t know about that little trick, SJ. Gotta remember that one!

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I use the clipboard so often, that I usually forget that I've already "saved" something to the clipboard and then overwrite it with something else before I've retrieved it. D'oh

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The are plugin/extension/add-ons that keep your clipboard history.  Never lose them again:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/clipboard%20history?hl=en-US

Also very useful for editing on Wikitree.  Adding 5 kids to Ma and Pa?  Easy to copy each of the sources for the parents and as you write the children's bios, you just select one of the clipboard copies of the previously saved parent's sources.

& also very useful for Data Doctors - add each of your top used suggestions to your favorites and then when you need to put an explanation after an edit you don't have to look for your cheat sheet or go back to the suggestions page.

Answer 2

Many of us have had that ever so frustrating experience - so sorry this happened to you Robert - many use a word processing program open so they may have a copy in case connection is lost or whatever

I have seen this occur when you have two tabs open and you are adding a child, sibling or parent to the person in that other tab and you go to fix the biography in the first tab and one or the other is not going to work and then you have to start over - have made it a habit to stop and check my tabs and not work on the same person in two tabs at the same time for this reason

 hope that helps prevent future waste of time for you

Comments

Navarro,  I agree about writing everything in textedit or word and saving it. It's happened too many times that I've lost things for some reason or another and then I so wish that I had written it separately.  I have started doing this even with emails now as well.

Answer 3

Don't be afraid to save incrementally.  You'll hear some say that its "cheating" to save 4 or 5 times as it generates 5 contributions, but think about this - if someone makes a 1 sentence bio and you write for an hour, who contributed more?  When I'm working on a profile, and I get called away, I always save before I close the lid on my laptop.

Answer 4

All great suggestions, thank you all!