I accidentally deleted the text in a text file and can't get it back

I accidentally deleted all text in a text file and can’t get it back even with #Z. Is there another option? Thanks!

If you use Time Machine, you might get lucky there.

Thank you very much for the answer. Unfortunately, I don’t work with Time Machine permanently, but only occasionally, as I don’t need it because of my cloud-based work. I wouldn’t have thought that steps in Devonthink would be irreversible.

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That doesn’t look like sound reasoning to me. Sh*t happens all the time, and relying on the capabilities of a program alone is not a good idea if you value your work. Where do you find your data if your cloud provider goes out of business, get’s ransom-wared or burns down?
And “occasionally” working with a program that is meant to continually save your work is probably not the best decision either.

As you may have found out the hard way.

In any case, I just tried it with a Markdown file in DT: deleted everything and immediately typed Cmd-Z. DT restored the content correctly. So, you probably did other things between deleting and Cmd-Z?

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That’s probably true. I only stored certain text modules in one overall document so that I could import them into Scrivener more quickly. The restore function (#Z) has always worked in Devonthink. It is now grayed out. But they give me an idea. Time Machine must be working for me. Unfortunately, I only make weekly backups on an external hard drive…

Yes, you’re right, before I applied Cmd-Z I had briefly switched to another file. Because I had mixed up these two files. And it was exactly this intermediate step, as I just tried, that made the event irreversible.

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  1. If your data is important to you, you should be more diligent in your local backups. The cloud should not be your primary backup strategy. What do you do when the cloud service or your network is down? Or when you’re in an area with little to no internet access?

  2. If you use Time Machine, even intermittently, there is a temporary shadow backup being made for when your backup drive isn’t connected. See this blog post:

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hank you very much for your help. It’s worked out. I was able to restore the file or the contents of the file because Time Machine had created a temporary shadow backup. However, I took a different route than the one given here, since the file still existed (in the inbox), only the text was missing - namely by right-clicking from the Devonthink interface to the Finder.

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

Be cautious using Data > Show in Finder with imported files. Since this was an emergency procedure, your action was okay. However, you shouldn’t mess about in the database’s internals outside that.

Yes, thank you very much! This has already been mentioned elsewhere here. I wouldn’t have done it under other circumstances. Especially since I don’t understand the organizational structure. Since I’m not a surgeon, unlike my wife, I can’t presume to remove someone’s kidney. Although I already knew where I could find them… (-;
I wish you both helpers a nice weekend

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