Cleaned computer, now lost all speed dials and bookmarks
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A Former User last edited by
I did a full cleanup of my computer through tech support and I lost all of my speed dial icons and bookmarks. what a nightmare. how do I recover speed dial icons and bookmarks?
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A Former User last edited by
I did not do a backup. I thought Opera kept speed dials b/c I was logged in. I believe sync was enabled. not sure. why does cleanup obliterate Opera browser, but not Chrome or Edge?
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A Former User last edited by
I can probably recreate the speed dials, but I lost hundreds of bookmarks. aren't they stored somewhere?
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
@sing9942 Check in https://www.sync.opera.com if you have any synced data. If so, then log in to sync (Menu > Synchronization) to sync your data to Opera.
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A Former User last edited by
If I cannot recapture lost bookmarks, I guess I won't be using this browser anymore. Way too risky and reckless!
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A Former User last edited by
Since I am unable to find 300+ bookmarks I saved and lost about 40 speed dials, I think it's time to abandon Opera and use Chrome or Edge. Not going to recreate speed dials and lost precious bookmarks I created over the past 2-1/2 years.
I did a "monthly cleanup" on tech support several months ago and did not lose Opera bookmarks that time, even though I did not back them up. This time was different and after spending 5 hours in cue for help and then not being able to find them, it is time to throw in the towel and go in another direction.
Also, why didn't Opera have alerts or notices to be sure to back up all of this stuff? Read all the other stuff they sent me or that I saw to set up Opera, but not one single word about backing up bookmarks and/or speed dials. My bad, but Opera's too.
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
@sing9942 said in Cleaned computer, now lost all speed dials and bookmarks:
Also, why didn't Opera have alerts or notices to be sure to back up all of this stuff?
Because about 8, maybe 9 out of 10 softwares will not do it, since it's something very basic?
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A Former User last edited by leocg
@leocg I thought I was doing a "monthly cleanup" like I had done many times before through OfficeMax online tech support. In the past, I opened their link, submitted my request for "monthly cleanup," and I did not lose bookmarks. This time though, my choices were "disc cleaning," "browser cleaning" (would that have removed all browsers? I don't know), another type of cleaning, and "full cleanup." I thought it was going to remove all superfluous stuff that I did not need and create more space. Instead, I ended up one step up from totally wiping it. I ended up with my 2-1/2 yr old computer not recognizing me anywhere.
As I noted, this "cleaning" did not get rid of bookmarks in Google Chrome or Bing Edge; only Opera, which is where the majority of my bookmarks were since I use Opera as my default. Impossible to recreate over 300 bookmarks. Guess I will just build my bookmarks in Chrome from now on as that is where some of them are. Still missing some, but will not import to Opera b/c I could lose them again.
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
@sing9942 First, forget about that monthly cleanup thing, you don't need it. if you really want to do those cleanups, make sure to know what they are removing because such tools are known for causing data loss.
Windows has tools to remove unnecessary stuff without deleting important files.Most probably the fact that Opera was the default browser plus the change of cleanup settings ended up causing the issue.
If you still ave your bookmarks in Chrome, you should be able to export them and import them in Opera. At least you will have two backups.
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A Former User last edited by
@leocg Every time there is a Windows update, it screws up my computer in some way (printer inoperable or unrecognized, Google wouldn't open & had to reinstall, and other issues). I am 72 years old and not computer savvy. I thought that by paying for tech support service that it would be helpful at my age so that I didn't have to bring it in for repairs all the time. I also thought that maintaining my computer by cleaning it every month that it might extend the life of my computer.
Unfortunately, the bookmarks I saved on Chrome are very old ones, not the current ones I saved on Opera. I still don't understand if Opera was my default browser (translation: the most important browser I have) that this is the one that was sweeped clean. Doesn't make sense.
I also don't understand the difference between cache and cookies and removing those w/o ruining your bookmarks or favorites.
Thank you for your assistance.
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nunya last edited by@leocg said in Cleaned computer, now lost all speed dials and bookmarks:
same for any software in your computer if you don't make backups. Specially b
But most, if not all, software allow you to create a "hard copy" of important stuff.
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blackbird71 last edited by@sing9942 said in Cleaned computer, now lost all speed dials and bookmarks:
It's a little too late to suggest that, ya think?
Though it's too late now to fix your lost data, there are some points of information you should understand going forward. Everything software-related on your computer each lives in different files on your hardrive. When you 'run' a program, Windows copies some of that program's files into quick-access RAM memory and saves copies of those memory-based files back to the hardrive periodically as you make changes during the running of the program. For the computer to be able to run a program, it has to be able to find those program-related files on the drive, so it creates an index of where the files are on the drive. When you or someone else "cleans up" a computer, they're actually removing files of various kinds from the drive and/or removing index entries to where those files are located. Every file on the drive lives at a different address, so if a cleanup is done improperly or inaccurately, either the wrong files may be deleted or the index values may be incorrectly altered.
Things like bookmarks and settings are data elements that live in files on a drive. If the cleanup operator fails to understand which files are critical for a given program, they may wipe out something important that wrecks at least part of the program. Not all programs put their files into the same kinds of structures or sequences. Opera doesn't store its files in the same places as Chrome, nor does it necessarily name them the same way. So a cleaner has to accurately know what he's doing. In your case, the cleaner most probably didn't.
A cookie is simply a tiny file created by a visited website on your computer to store site-related details (logins, what page you visit, etc) and can often be deleted safely - assuming one knows where that particular browser has filed its cookies. A cache is simply a file or collection of similar files that contain various kinds of information that is often reused or referenced in some way. Bookmarks (aka 'favorites') are files that simply list contact instructions to websites you may want to revisit. But again, unless one knows exactly what they're doing, "cleaning" a computer risks removing the wrong kinds of files from the wrong places.
Various companies make money from "cleaning" a client's computer by remotely deleting what the cleaner deems to be 'unimportant' files, but even one error made in deciding what is important or where it's located risks breaking a program or its settings. Unfortunately, such cleaner companies are often staffed by folks of uneven competency who may simply not know what they're doing where some programs are concerned. You would be far better off in the future by dumping the use of such "cleaning" services. The best approach is to take the time to learn how to create genuine backups of file or drive data so that you can restore things when bad things happen (for whatever reason) to good data.
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eltiro last edited by
Lost all my speed dials not through cleanup but an update. I was organising my speed dials when I had a computer crash. When I restarted Opera it asked to restart due to an update. This I did and then all my Speed Dials are gone.
I can see them in the Bookmarkfile under Other Bookmarks but do not know how to get them to appear in Opera again. Pse help.
