Lost my feeds

Everything was perfect until I did a Windows (Vista) upgrade this afternoon, including SQL 2008. That broke Evernote, so I ended up doing a System Restore.

Evernote is still broken, but also Opera has lost my feeds. They're there, someplace, because when I click on "read feeds", the list pane populates with articles. But no folders or feeds are listed in the tree.

I have no idea why this happened, which means I really don't know the extent of the damage. These feed far predate my System Restore point.

Not a good computer day around here.

Opera 11.51.

Another change: I have those standard Opera bookmarks back in the bookmarks bar - the amazon, ebay, shopping, etc. I got rid of ####%% those things permanently, I thought, many months ago. Why on earth would they return now? Also, settings like display Status Bar were toggled.

Yes, it actually is 11.52, and it broke after the system restore. I'm not sure when Opera updated, but that might explain the reappearance of those noisome bookmarks and the loss of settings (mail accounts were shown out of order too), rather than the windows restore. I also sync Opera, but I had no other computers running during this period, and there were no changes on them anyway.

It seems to be finding my bookmarks folder, and all the mail data is there as well.

Also, another program, the CLCL clipboard utility, had its settings partially wiped out. I keep all this stuff under user/appdata/roaming, which presumably a System Restore shouldn't touch. But I'm not sure. It seems MS is at least partially at fault here. And Evernote is still broken.

I solved my immediate feed problem by exporting my google reader feeds and importing them into Opera. If I want I'll now cull through them as before.

Thanks much,
p.

I really can't say with any certainty when Opera updated. I usually see the balloon notification, but it's possible I missed it. It could have been a confusing coincidence between it and the Windows restore. Another thing was the resetting of the toolbars: the search box and the Wand icon reappeared too.

I guess I'm back in business. But MS did some damage here as well with settings to the other progs, so that's the next order of business.

Thanks a whole lot for your input.

Paul

Nice piece of work. I hadn't used this one from him before. I do use CCleaner, which is much better than appwiz.cpl, but this is the one for greater detail for sure.

It shows 11.52 as of 10/19, so that exonerates Opera as the cause here. Also, my Bible program, theWord, had its config.ini hosed by the Restore. This is on a restore dipping back only a few hours in time, on a system that had been stable and essentially unchanged for months, until the Office 07 and SQL 08 service pack 3 updates. Something went wrong with either the Restore or the SQL service pack, probably the Restore.

Thankfully I have full system backups and have been able to piece most things together, but Evernote still doesn't know what day it is. I tried to uninstall SQL entirely, as it was inherited with the machine from a business, but it probably was a network install or something, as it won't uninstall.

Yes, I'm a bit discomfited by that System Restore. That .ini was in the appdata/roaming hierarchy, where I would have thought it would be safe. So was the CLCL.ini, for that matter. I probably need to get a better handle on SR if I get the time.

Thanks for the Revo reco. I'm not even clear what SQL Server 08 is doing on Vista. I'm waiting to hear back from Evernote before I do anything else.

Be well,
p.

I'm not clear if Opera "broke" before or after the System Restore, but I'm not sure if it matters for what I have to suggest.

You said you're using Opera 11.51, but you didn't happen to overlook a recent automatic update to Opera 11.52 by any chance? (The reappearance of the deleted Amazon, eBay, etc. shortcuts suggests a new default bookmarks file... ...or a recent Opera automatic update that re-added those bookmarks. And all kinds of other quirky behaviors often seem to crop up with Opera updates, including mail problems... ...and feeds are managed and stored within Opera's mail component.)

Assuming you didn't overlook an update to 11.51, what follows is just an educated guess. When Opera can't find something it expects to find (e.g., bookmarks.adr, operaprefs.ini, etc.) it will create a new default version of the "missing" element, and if you had something other than a default setup, the new default file might be created in a default path different from where you had your profile set up. So if something in your various Vista upgrade and restore steps somehow "broke" Opera's path to your existing bookmarks, feeds, etc., Opera may have created new default files/locations and now be looking in the wrong place for your original files which still exist somewhere else. (The reappearance of the deleted Amazon, eBay, etc. shortcuts suggests a new default bookmarks file... ...or a recent Opera automatic update.)

I get the impression that you're reporting what Opera is seeing, not what you have found on your HDD. I'm still on WinXP, and the default Vista paths are different as I understand. But try searching for files named bookmarks.adr and omailbase.dat and compare any locations you find with what Opera reports (opera:about) for your preferences path and your mail path.

Please post back with your findings. Hopefully you'll find that your originals are still intact and that some simple path repair is all that is needed.

Originally posted by paul1149:

Yes, it actually is 11.52, and it broke after the system restore. I'm not sure when Opera updated, but that might explain the reappearance of those noisome bookmarks and the loss of settings (mail accounts were shown out of order too), rather than the windows restore.

Well, I'm glad I mentioned 11.52 then. The way I wrote it, you wouldn't realize that was the last thought I had, when I was almost ready to post the rest of my reply. But the 2 symptoms [lost feeds & reappearing Amazon, eBay, etc bookmarks (part of how Opera can offer the browser for free)] just kept whispering "psst...automatic Opera update..." in my ear while I was writing the rest of it. Finally, since 11.52 was released only a week ago, and maybe not updated on your system until even more recently, I thought there was a chance you hadn't realized it.

With 200 million + users, the vast majority of Opera updates must go just fine, but your symptoms are very typical of the quirky problems reported in the forums with every round of automatic Opera updates. So my guess is that the Opera update accounts for the Opera symptoms, completely independent of the other problems. (Although if Opera updated successfully to 11.52 before a System Restore to a date prior to the Opera update, it could be that a setting/path that Opera had correctly updated was reverted to the previous Opera version setting/path/installation by the the System Restore, effectively breaking a perfectly good Opera 11.52 update.)

Many experienced Opera users (myself included) prefer to manage our own updates to reduce the risk of these kind of problems. For example, I always manually install to a fresh Opera folder (e.g., Opera_11_52) and then migrate any settings, skins, bookmarks etc. to the new installation when I'm satisfied it is functioning satisfactorily.

Originally posted by paul1149:

I really can't say with any certainty when Opera updated

I don't know what info is available in Vista's Add/Remove Programs (or equivalent), but I constantly us NirSoft's MyUninstaller for several reasons, one of the most important being its ability to sort all the info it provides by column. I usually have it open on my desktop at all times, sorted by installation date, so I can quickly check when I installed what version of what program. Much quicker than XP's Add/Remove Programs and provides a ton more info, with a very light footprint (e.g., 452 KB Minimized and 1,588 KB Restored when I checked just now).

If you're curious enough about unraveling the timing of this puzzle, MyUninstaller should tell you when Opera 11.52 was installed, as well as your Vista upgrade and SQL 2008 (if that was separate). The one caveat is that I've never used it before and after a System Restore, and I'm pretty sure some of the installation dates are derived from registry keys, which I presume will be reverted to an earlier date with a System Restore. But many program store uninstall information in a file in the application folder, and I think those installation dates would remain the same after a System Restore.

If you do decide to try MyUninstaller, post back and let us know what you find! (especially if you're able to reconstruct the sequence in any way that helps better understand how the problem came about)

Originally posted by paul1149:

Thanks a whole lot for your input.

You bet!

Originally posted by paul1149:

Also, my Bible program, theWord, had its config.ini hosed by the Restore

Hmmm, I'm a little surprised by that. I was always under the impression that INI files would usually be unchanged by a restore (i.e., that they are usually simple text files, often in the program folder or maybe the AppData folder and not typically include in the System Restore backups). I wonder what proportion of those (and for what types of programs) System Restore actually includes.

Originally posted by paul1149:

I tried to uninstall SQL entirely, as it was inherited with the machine from a business, but it probably was a network install or something, as it won't uninstall.

I haven't had something that wouldn't uninstall, but Revo Uninstaller is touted as being able to remove installations that won't uninstall and do a good job of cleaning up leftovers that were left behind by other uninstallers. I've seen several favorable reports (and no unfavorable ones) here in the Opera forums in some difficult and perplexing Opera installation/uninstall situations.

They have a free version that has nearly all the features of the commercial version as I recall, but if it doesn't do the job, the commercial version is also available for a 30-day trial.

Originally posted by paul1149:

Also, my Bible program, theWord, had its config.ini hosed by the Restore

Hmmm, I'm a little surprised by that. I was always under the impression that INI files would usually be unchanged by a restore (i.e., that they are usually simple text files, often in the program folder or maybe the AppData folder and not typically include in the System Restore backups). I wonder what proportion of those (and for what types of programs) System Restore actually includes.

Originally posted by paul1149:

I tried to uninstall SQL entirely, as it was inherited with the machine from a business, but it probably was a network install or something, as it won't uninstall.

I haven't had something that wouldn't uninstall, but Revo Uninstaller is touted as being able to remove installations that won't uninstall and do a good job of cleaning up leftovers that were left behind by other uninstallers. I've seen several favorable reports (and no unfavorable ones) here in the Opera forums in some difficult and perplexing Opera installation/uninstall situations.

They have a free version that has nearly all the features of the commercial version as I recall, but if it doesn't do the job, the commercial version is also available for a 30-day trial.