Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @xb70 last edited by leocg

@xb70 Nope, it means that the profile directory location change introduced in Opera 102 is not happening and that should avoid some data lost that some users have experienced.

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by

Thank you leocg for clarifying that. I will now attempt to install 102.0.4880.70....

[xb70]

xb70 @xb70 last edited by

@xb70 102.0.4880.70 installed without issue one one computer, my extensions were not lost. I will report about the other computer, once I attempt there. To me, it appears to be a properly working version, so far.

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by

I attempted to install 102.0.4880.70 on the other Windows computer. It failed to transfer my extensions from the previously working version 102.0.4880.56, so I attempted upgrading to 102.0.4880.78, as I saw that that was now the latest. That didn't help. I uninstalled and went back to the last working version, 102.0.4880.56--nope, no extensions. BTW, throughout this, synchronization seemed irrelevant. I guess that this is all about "migration" or lack thereof, about which I understand nothing, except the files may reside on a couple of places and can become corrupted, if things don't go right? Weird that 102.0.4880.70 migrated fine on one Windows computer but not on another. So on the 2nd failed Opera instance, I now have 101.0.488.58 installed and thank God, it is good, my extensions are there! But the question now becomes, can I go forward, let's say all the way to 102.0.4880.78? Should I try it or just stay at 101.0.4880.58? Why is this such a pain? Is there a way to resolve the migration problem in Opera, or even to understand it? Is it a version to version thing or something else? Why would going from 102.0.4880.56 to 102.0.4880.70 on one computer be fine, but not on another?

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by xb70

No one? Okay, I did install 102.0.4480.78 from the download page, jumping the cookie setting (or avoidance in my case) hurdles, and it installed properly, directly from 101.0.4880.58, all my extensions are there! End of story? Not really.
Why would I lose my extensions upgrading on one computer but not the other? I don't get it. The one thing which I am thankful for is that 101.0.4880.58 can be relied on to get me home, no matter what whichever 102 version fails.
Migration or not, corruption of files--any answers for the ignant?
Finally, what is up with Update & Recovery? It doesn't generally work in my Opera applications, but sometimes it does--I am so shocked when it happens. At one point, while in 101.0.4880.58 I got a notice to close Opera to install the latest version (or whatever it said), and I gave it a shot. Nada. I am curious to know if there is a setting toggling between auto updating or not? Anyone? I do not see any such setting in Update & Recovery. Some have complained here about auto updating, particularly when the next version fails them in some way, and they could have avoided it, if auto updating were not in effect. Because Update & Recovery doesn't work for me usually, maybe it means that my auto updating is effectively turned off. But that is ignorant spec.

[robinyutah]

robinyutah Banned last edited by

That's the question i was looking for and the solution as well. Because i have a lot of precious data and worried about whether this will prevent the website data or not.

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by

It has been explained here that if one's profile doesn't get migrated properly, one loses data--whether in my case extensions, but for others bookmarks, open tabs, etc.--sadly it appears that despite efforts to remedy this, there are still issues.
It would be nice, if someone carefully explained the whole thing, how to avoid it, and how to fix it, and perhaps that has already been done, in earlier threads about this. I should go back and see if I can cobble together the best of what has been attempted in the way of explanation.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @xb70 last edited by

@xb70 said in Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?:

Weird that 102.0.4880.70 migrated fine on one Windows computer but not on another.

Someone would probably have to have your whole user data folder to look at to find out.

Migration is disabled in that build so it shouldn't try to migrate anything and should just use your user data as-is without trying to copy or move anything.

Do you have a "Default" and or "Default.old" folder in "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable" on that computer? Ideally you shouldn't have either.

There is a fix for:

DNA-111706 Prevent profile migration from removing pre installed extensions

in the changelog for Opera Developer that might eventually help in 104 builds. It's hard telling if the bug can be triggered in some rare cases in builds that have migration disabled though.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @xb70 last edited by burnout426

@xb70 said in Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?:

I guess that this is all about "migration" or lack thereof, about which I understand nothing

Install Chrome, run it, click the profile icon on the right side of the address field, click "Add", click "continue without an account" and name the profile "Test" for example. Then, click the profile icon on the address bar again, switch back to the default "Person 1" profile and close all Chrome windows.

Then, take a look in "C:\yourusername\yourusername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data".

In the "User Data" folder, you'll see a bunch of files and folders that are used for all profiles. However, you'll then see a "Default" folder used for the specific files and folders that pertain to the default "Person 1" profile that Chrome uses when you first start using Chrome. You'll then see a "Profile 2" folder that contains files and folders that are specific to that extra profile you created (that you named "test"). Also, if you click the profile icon on the address bar, you'll see there's a guest profile option too. There's a "Guest profile" folder in the "User Data" folder too for files and folders specific to that guest profile. Also, in each of those profile-specific folders, you'll see a "cache" folder that contains the cache files for the profile.

That's basically how most Chromium-based browsers are set up.

Now look at Opera's user data folder at "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable". What you will notice (in builds before 102 or build 102.0.4880.29 and newer 102.0.4880.xx builds than that with a fresh "Opera Stable" folder for example) is that Opera doesn't use any folders for specific profiles as Opera only supports one profile. So, Opera just puts the default profile-specific files and folders with everything else in the user data folder and not in a folder named "Default" like other Chromium-based browsers.

You will also notice in the "Opera Stable" user data folder that there's no "cache" folder along with all the other profile files and folders in there. That's because Opera has the cache folder separate at "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable". As for why the "cache" folder isn't in the roaming folder with everything else, see https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+roaming+profiles. Your cache can be huge and could be a pain if it was a part of your data that roams.

---

Okay. Now that you know that, what Opera is trying to do (and tried with initial 102 builds) is to switch to having your profile-specific files in a folder named "Default" like other Chromium-based browsers do. This not only makes copying/transferring data between other Chromium-based browsers easier (for those that do it manually), but it paves the way for multiple profile support (not to be confused with the manual way of having multiple profiles in Opera as mentioned here) like other Chromium-based browsers already have.

The new location for the profile-specific files and folders in the "Default" folder works fine in Opera if you're starting fresh. If you're not starting fresh, a folder named "Default" needs to be created and the profile-specific files and folder need to be moved to that newly-created "Default" folder so that your old data can be found in the new spot. This moving is the migration that's being talked about. This applies for the cache folder too. It needs to be move to a "Default" folder.

Now, notice that I used the word "move" because that's actually what you want to happen. However, Opera decided to be safe. In builds that have that migration turned on, Opera creates the "Default" folder and copies the profile-specific files and folders to it. That way, if something goes wrong with the migration and or you want to role back to a previous version of Opera that doesn't have migration enabled, your original files are in the old spot. That's why you're able to roll back to 101 for example and not have an issue.

For builds that have migration disabled, if an unsuccessful migration is detected ("Default" folder empty for example), the "Default" folder might be deleted or renamed (not sure of all the exact rules, but you get the idea) to basically clean up the mess of the unsuccessful migration. However, if Opera's user data folder is already migrated properly, Opera can use the new location in the "Default" folder. Only migration is disabled, not support for the new "Default" folder location.

Now, when 102 came out and migration messed things up, one of the causes was due to certain folders in Opera's user data folder being too large and taking forever to copy to the "Default" folder. These operations would either cause migration to fail or cause users to think something was wrong and close/kill Opera during the migration process which caused things to mess up. Opera has improved migration a bit to help avoid that particular issue by skipping certain storage folders that aren't absolutely necessary to copy to the new location.

[xb70]

xb70 @burnout426 last edited by xb70

@burnout426 In fact, there is a Default.old, and within that a Default folder. This is the case on both computers, which at this point, seem to be working okay, that is, both instances of Opera 102....78 have my extensions, etc. As to whether the file structure is optimal, no idea, but unlikely, given bournout426's description. There is no "cache" folder, but only a Code Cache and a DawnCache folder, in fact, numerous instances of those in various folders and sub-folders. The whole thing is quite confusing. Perhaps I am lucky that it is working at all. Maybe I will have to install Chrome to see how it is supposed to be, and try to edit the whole file structure, as indicated by burnout426. Ugh. Luckily I have 101.0.4880.58 to go back to, as need be. Okay, I have the instructions, thank you burnout426.

[xb70]

xb70 @burnout426 last edited by xb70

@burnout426 Where is the cache folder likely to be found, if not in the roaming folder? I do see a Cache folder in the Local folder under Opera Software, as opposed to the Roaming one.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @xb70 last edited by

@xb70 said in Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?:

I do see a Cache folder in the Local folder under Opera Software, as opposed to the Roaming one.

Yes. That's where it's supposed to be at.

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by

103.0.4928.16 just got automatically installed, and I have nothing--all my personalization is lost. Ugh. Back to 101.0.4880.58 Is there a way to turn off auto updating?

[xb70]

xb70 last edited by

I do see that there is a Default folder now in the C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable\ folder, vs. before only in the Default.old sub-folder. There are various Cache folders in the Local fork of that path.
Is there a way to edit the file structure that will fix this, or do I simply have to uninstall this and go back to 101.0.4880.58 and then manually download and install the new one?

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @xb70 last edited by

@xb70 said in Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?:

I do see that there is a Default folder now in the C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable\ folder, vs. before only in the Default.old sub-folder. There are various Cache folders in the Local fork of that path.

Yeah, your profile is all messed up. Since you're back at 101 again, do this while Opera is closed:

Make a copy of your "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable" folder for a backup.

In "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable", delete the "Default" folder AND the "Default.old" folder.

Then, delete everything in "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable". It's just your cache, so it's safe to delete all of it.

Then, start Opera 101 and make sure everything is still there. In the Opera Stable folders, you shouldn't see "Default" or "Default.old" folders anywhere.

Then you can try upgrading to 103. If that messes things up again though, downgrade to 101 again, close Opera, repeat the deleting of the "Default" and "Default.old" folders and clear the local "Opera Stable" folder again, and do the following before upgrading to 103:

Open the "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable\Local State" file with JSONedit in tree mode. In the open dialog, you'll need to change the file filter to "All files" since "Local State" doesn't have the .json file extension.

In the Local State file, under root, you should see a "legacy" node. Right-click "legacy" and choose "delete selected node". Don't worry if it comes back after restarting Opera.

Then, look under root/profile.

Look under "profile_orders". Make sure you only see [0]: Opera Stable. If you also see [1]: Default, right click on [1] and choose "Delete selected node".

Under profile/info_cache, do the same thing. Make sure there's just [0]: Opera Stable. Same with profile/last_active_profile.

Then, for profile/last_used, make sure it says Opera Stable and not Default.

Then right-click on profile/profile_counts_reported and choose "delete selected node". Opera will regenerate this.

Then, goto the File menu and save to save your changes.

Then, start Opera 101 again and make sure everything is good.

Then, upgrade to 103 and test how things go then.

The idea is to get read of any "Default" profile-related stuff so newer versions of Opera don't get confused.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @xb70 last edited by

@xb70 said in Is 102.0.4880.70 safe to install in terms of losing user data?:

Is there a way to turn off auto updating?

Yes. See https://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/wiki/opera/disable_updates_windows/.