Opera 11.61 All settings are gone

Opera 11.61 All settings are gone

Hi,

since the silent install of Opera 11.61 all my Email settings are gone. Especially the labels I created are gone (that took quite some time configuring). Is there a way to get back the old settings?
Also I found out that the mouse gestures don´t work as they used to. Right-left-right doesn´t close the tab anymore. Moreover I haven´t figured out how to change it back, because I don´t know the instruction for "Close Tab". As with this problem I´d also like the old behaviour of opera back. Is that possible or do I need to configure everything new?

I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance, R.

Close tab is listed as Close page (most tab commands still use the old "page" language).

Are you sure Opera installed into the same directory? For example, is your mail itself still there? It seems to happen too often that an upgrade (especially if you upgraded from an older version, say before 11.50) ends up in a different folder. If that happened to you, your old messages and mail folders are probably still there (and all your other settings), but Opera can't see them because it is looking in the wrong place.

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

since the silent install of Opera 11.61 all my Email settings are gone. Especially the labels I created are gone (that took quite some time configuring). Is there a way to get back the old settings?

Were you using a customize "Mail Root Directory" setting?

Need to know what OS you're using, where Opera's program files are installed and whether you were using a standalone/usb installation or if you used the default "install for all users" option or the "current user" option when you installed Opera before. Also, what version did you upgrade from?

Did you install Opera as an administrator? Are you running Opera as an administrator?

Hello!

Thank you very much for responding to my questions. I´m sorry that I couldn´t be present before. Now I will be for a while. I will now try to answer your questions as well as possible:

Im using Win XP Professional SP3. I use a standalone (full??) installation and usually I "install for all users". Not too long ago I think I configured Opera to install updates automatically. I guess that´s what happened, altought I don´t quite understand how, because I´m running my PC as a user (without admistrative rights) - so there´s a no to running Opera as an administrator. Which version was installed before, I don´t know, but I try to keep it fresh, so I would guess the previous one.
@burnout426: I didn´t customize any directories.
@sgunhouse: I don´t think Opera installed itself into another directory. In the directory "Programme" there is the folder Opera from which opera is running. There is no other folder called Opera, not even in the parallel existing "program files" (some programs won´t accept the german language) - but the far greater part installs into "Programme". Thanks for the tip concerning the mouse gestures. I will try that.

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

I use a standalone (full??) installation and usually I "install for all users"

You can't install for all users using the "standalone installation" option. So, I'll assume you accepted the default "install for all users" option in the isntaller.

(Using English locale)

Opera should be installed in "C:\Program Files\Opera".

The roaming profile folder for that Opera should be located at "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Opera\Opera".

The local profile folder for that Opera should be located at "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera"

Your mail folder should be located at "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail".

Click opera:about and confirm that "Mail Directory" shows "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail" and "Preferences Directory" shows "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Opera\Opera".

In the mail folder is "accounts.ini". Open it with a text editor. You should see a section for each account like "[Account 1]", "[Account 2]" etc.

So, checked to make sure all of that is correct.

Since you're running as a limited user, when Opera tried to upgrade, did it ask you to run it (the installer) as admin? If so, did you? If not, if I remember correctly, the upgrade will file (same for Firefox too). In other words, you have to log on as an admin, start Opera, goto "help" and choose "check for updates" and let Opera update itself. If you didn't do all that, maybe Opera ran as just the current user and tried to install somewhere else.

Hi burnout426,

thanks again for your answer. I will try to do as you suggested. This will take more time than I have today, but I will post my results (probably tomorrow).

FYI: I wasn´t asked by opera, so the install probably went wrong. I will turn the automatic off and first of all try a new installation as admin. Hopefully then it will find my previous installation paths and use them.
One info that I forgot before: All my mail is still there, only the sorting isn´t as I configured it (no labels, etc.).

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

One info that I forgot before: All my mail is still there, only the sorting isn´t as I configured it (no labels, etc.).

Oh, you mean the "Labels" access point disappeared or it's still there and just the labels under it are gone? That's all?

Either way, click the wrench icon and the mail panel toolbar and reset the mail panel to defaults to see if it helps.

Hi Burnout426,

what do you mean, "That´s all?" It took a lot of time customizing the labels / filters. I manually created a lot of rules for sorting my mail. All that is now gone - besides other things that don´t bother me nearly as much.
Basically all settings are default. Nothing is customized anymore. As I said before. Today I´m not going to be able to solve this, but I will post again, when I do.

Thanks again so far.

Rolf.

He thought you had hidden the Labels category (which is possible in recent versions of Opera), but that it was probably still there.

11.61 has been out for some time now, if this only just happened then I wouldn't expect it to be due to an Opera automatic update. (If you have automatic updates enabled, it should have updated within a week of when 11.61 was released.)

Where Burnout426 has "user" in the file paths, that would be your Windows login name. Just go to Help > About Opera to see what paths are listed there ... for example, mine says:

Paths
Preferences
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data\Opera\Opera\operaprefs.ini 
Saved session
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data\Opera\Opera\sessions\autopera.win 
Bookmarks
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data\Opera\Opera\bookmarks.adr 
Opera directory
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data\Opera\Opera 
Cache
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\cache 
Help documents
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\opcache 
Mail directory
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail

(Sorry, that didn't paste well ... it's in two columns with the labels like "Preferences" in the left column and the actual paths in the right column - except for Plug-in Path which I didn't copy.)

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

what do you mean, "That´s all?" It took a lot of time customizing the labels / filters. I manually created a lot of rules for sorting my mail. All that is now gone - besides other things that don´t bother me nearly as much. Basically all settings are default. Nothing is customized anymore

All setting in mail or all settings in all of Opera? But all settings, do you mean that even your toolbars (mail toolbars for example) were reset and your mail layout out (how the list and message panes are displayed)?

The reason I ask this is that if just your labels and rules are gone and the sorting went back to default, all of those things are in index.ini in the mail folder (mail layout is stored in operaprefs.ini). If that's the case, I'd reset the mail panel to defaults. Then, close Opera. Then, I'd open up index.ini and see what it looks like and see what the "indexer" version is for example. I'd also search the file for your label names to see if they're at least still there (with they're rules).

So, it can't really be all settings that were reset if you still have your mail but you're just missing your labels and your customized sorting etc.

Are you using a customized skin or the "Opera Standard" skin. Remember that you weren't 100% sure you were using the previous version before the upgrade. You just assumed because you always keep Opera up to date (but maybe something went wrong in the checking). Opera recently made a lot of changes that may be incompatible with some skins. Also, note that if you never changed some mail settings (like the mail layout), on upgrade from an older version without those changes, Opera will switch to "list and message on right" and change some other settings.

Also, note that your mail folder could have been damaged/corrupted before the upgrade and the upgrade just exposed the corruption. So, it indeed may not have been the upgrade that caused the root of the problem.

Hi again burnout426 and sgunhouse,

I´m sorry for being so difficult to help, but right now I have little time at hand. Thank you for your efforts.

Some answers: I think all settings concerning the look and feel of opera are gone as are the labels and rules.
My mail is still there, also the adressbook, etc. .
Apart from the mailsorting I hardly use any customization, I use the Opera Standard Skin, no Widgets, etc.
And yes I assumed all of it happend because of an automatic update. It could very well be another reason, although I wouldn`t know.

@burnout426: I opened the index.ini and indeed found some of my old rules in it. So there is still hope. Only I don´t know how to tell opera to use this ini file. I reset the mail panel to defaults and closed and reopened Opera. Nothing changed.
Now, how do I get Opera to use this old index.ini.

Thanks again for your help, I hope the problem will be resolved soon.

Click this and look at the "mail directory" path. Is the index.ini file you're looking at in that path? Just want to make sure Opera's pointing to the right mail folder (there should be only one of course, but I'll spare you the details as to why there might be two).

Hi burnout426,

yes the index.ini is in the right directory and it is the only index.ini (also the only file named *index*.*) in that folder. I´m afraid I got it wrong. I think the old index.ini isn´t there anymore. Thinking that I wouldn´t get back my old settings I had already started to make new rules, even more than I remembered. So the initial finding of the "old" rules were infact new ones that I didn´t recognize as such.
I think I will have to give up, although I would really like to know what caused all of it, so I can protect myself from it happening again.
Is it enough to backup the index.ini from time to time as index.ini.bak for example? What else would you backup and how?

Thanks again for your help.

R.

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

Is it enough to backup the index.ini from time to time as index.ini.bak for example? What else would you backup and how?

You need to backup the whole mail folder. All the files in it work together and are dependent on each other. Same thing goes for Opera's other profile files. You just back up everything.

See <http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1132442>.

For mail specifically, see <http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1132992>.

You can of course back up just index.ini to cover index.ini problems for that mail folder. But, you can't use it as a universal backup of your labels and rules.

Originally posted by backsidewalkaround:

although I would really like to know what caused all of it,

Have no clue.

If you think it was an upgrade issue, goto "ctrl + F12 -> advanced -> security" and turn off automatic updates. Then, when you want to upgrade, backup Opera profiles folders first. Then, download the instaler from opera.com, launch it, click options, set the "install location" to the path to your existing install and upgrade. Then, go back into the security settings and make sure automatic updates is still turned off.

Then, if something goes wrong with the upgrade, you can take a copy of your backups and the upgrade again. If that still doesn't work, you can downgrade and restore the profile folders from the backups.

Most users don't have to do any of that but some users constantly experience problems for some reason. In those cases, backup before upgrading.

The thing is, if your index.ini got messed up, who knows what else in the mail folder is messed up. Even though a pain, I suggest starting with a new mail folder *if* you want to be sure things are correct. If not and you have things working good enough, if you encounter problems later on, just remember that you didn't start with a new mail folder to rule out corruption.

Hi burnout 426!

All right,
automatic updates are turned off (I just recently turned it on, because I always wanted to be up to date without worrying).
I will backup the mail and profile folders before updating.
I will risk having a corrupt mail folder, because I don´t want to start fresh (too much work) - I will do a backup now, so at least not all of my mail gets lost (I´m one of those who still think pop3 is more comfortable than IMAP).

Thanks again for all your help.

Ro.

If it is OK to piggy-back on this thread, I have a somewhat similar problem though I have a sick feeling in my stomach that I have lost my entire mail database (going back to the last century ....) and if that is the case, then at least my tale of woe might be educational to some others.

Background

My Win XP PC developed a problem and was hanging while XP booted up (even in safe mode).

My WinXP installation is on the C drive and that is pretty much all there is on the C drive (or so I thought). All of my applications are on the D drive and all the data is on the E drive, and all the back-ups are on the home server. So, Opera, for instance, has been installed in D:\Opera

I have an old installation of Windows on a second hard drive (drive G) so I booted from that and copied over the contents of D:\Opera to a back-up folder on drive 2. I also copied over all the Documents and Settings folders for all the other users on my PC to a back-up folder. Because I am an idiot, and because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I did NOT copy over all the Documents and Settings for my account, because I thought I had transferred all that info to my Data drive.

Having backed up what I thought was all the information I needed to back-up, I formatted the C partition on drive 1, reinstalled Windows, recreated new Windows user accounts with the same names as on the previous installations, copied over all the Documents and Settings stuff (except mine, of course, because Mr. Clever Clogs here thought he did not keep any data on the C partition), and it was round about this point I realised I might be in trouble ...

All of my installed programs are still sitting there on the D drive - Office, Opera, anti-virus, anti-spyware, music players and so on - but every time I ran one of these applications, Windows threw a hissy fit and insisted I reinstalled (which proved quite tricky with the 1997 version of Office because I have no idea where the installation disks are).

All of that I could live with but Opera is a particular problem. It does not seem to mind that I have not reinstalled - perhaps the bloody thing silently reinstalled itself on one of the few occasions I have run it since reformatting - but it makes no attempt to log on to my e-mail account and in fact does not even seem to know that I have one.

So, finally getting to the point, is the default location for the Opera Mail database C:\Documents and Settings\John\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail - because that's what the About Opera splash screen is telling me. Is there any way of changing that which I might have done in a smarter previous existence?

Have I, in other words, destroyed about 15 years of e-mails or thereabouts as a result of reformatting the C drive?

I've done a search for folders called Mail on every drive under the sun that I have on my PC and came across a directory with that name in a folder I backed up at the same time as the Documents and Settings folder. The path is I:\WinXP2012\Program Files\OPERA\mail

I also have I:\WinXP2012\Program Files\OPERA\profile . Clearly I copied over the Program Files folder from the C drive of my old WinXP installation.

The mail folder only has 8 files amounting to 128k in it. I don't think that is going to cover 15 years of e-mails some how.

Oh well, it is not the first time I have lost my my e-mail database, and somewhere I have some ancient drive images of my C drive which means I might be able to party like its 2005.

Sorry for rambling on. I thought if I gave enough random information someone might be able to wave a wand and tell me how to extricate myself from this mess.

In the meantime, if I reinstall Opera to D:\Opera - i.e. the directory where it is already installed - will I at least get most of my settings back? Or will it overwrite my old settings to a default configuration?

Am off now to kick myself repeatedly. Thank you for reading this far. Any help and advice gratefully received.


Regards,



John

unless you enjoy beating yourself up, try cutting yourself some slack.

i'm only an end user but have learned a few lessons in 15 yrs navigating the vagaries of cyberspace. guiding lights? rule #1: if it aint broke, dont fix it.
#2: the simpler, the better.
#3: murphy's law
#4: bill gates needs to be tortured. a lot. i update nothing that is working the way i want it. i've used MS Word 97 and still do; i have a paintshop pro version 3.11, installs via an .exe stand alone, which Win7 will not let me use, no matter what DEP settings i've attempted.

the only thing i can offer you is that reinstalling Opera will probably do the latter of what you guessed - reset default.

at one time, i thought i would do something similar with my PC as what you did: have separate drives to handle the different functions/programs/whatevers. i decided against it, buying a 250G external hard drive and dumping all my music and videos and a load of pics into it... thereby emptying out my Dell's 80G hd and speeding up my PC's offline performance. then i bought a shitload of RAM and essentially went to PC heaven, where i've been ever since.

not much help but thought i'd just stick in my 4¢

Originally posted by fiendishgames:

So, finally getting to the point, is the default location for the Opera Mail database C:\Documents and Settings\John\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail

Yes, for a normal installation. For a standalone installation, it'd be in "profile/mail" in the Opera program files folder.

Originally posted by fiendishgames:

Is there any way of changing that which I might have done in a smarter previous existence?

You can goto opera:config#mail root directory and set it to the path you want and save the setting. Then, you can close down Opera, move the mail folder to that new spot and start Opera back up. You should really just stick to the default location and if you want to back things up, see <http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1132442>.

Originally posted by fiendishgames:

In the meantime, if I reinstall Opera to D:\Opera - i.e. the directory where it is already installed - will I at least get most of my settings back? Or will it overwrite my old settings to a default configuration?

If you install to "D:\Opera" using the default settings in the installer, that Opera should use the settings that are current in "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Opera\Opera" and "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera", if any. If won't overwrite them if there are existing settings there.

In the "Application Data\Opera" folder, the folder is named "Opera" because the program files folder name is "Opera". If you install to "D:\Opera Test", it'd be "Application Data\Opera\Opera Test".

For the record - "piggybacking" on another thread is not recommended.

Opera has changed the location of the mail several times, if you started with Opera 7 (previous versions wouldn't be compatible) then your mail could very well be somewhere else since Opera wouldn't have wanted to move that much data.

The folder with "Program Files\Opera\Mail\" could be, if you had made a standalone install previously and this time chose not to. Or in older versions, if you installed in "Single User Mode". (XP was the last version of Windows for which single user mode was viable and then only if you were an admin account. In Vista and later there are no admin accounts.)

windows 7 has no admin accts?? that cant be right. then again, i dont put anything past the gates/microsoft empire. i know i had a terrible time accessing folders that i had just created... had to "claim ownership" of them, or something. i have yet to figure out what the homegroup snafu is all about and how to dis-configure the "convenience" of libraries. opera is child's play compared to win7.

You are not supposed to use an admin account for day-to-day stuff. You can run a particular program as admin from the context menu (provided you're not on a limited account), and programs that require admin rights will ask if you want to allow them (installers and whatnot), but during normal usage your programs are restricted and for example can't make changes in Program Files or System folders.

Thanks for all the help and apologies for piggy-backing. I was not sure whether that was a worse sin than starting a new thread on a similar subject to one that was already active. I know I should have spent more time searching FAQs and threads and all that but having already spent many hours trying to get my PC roughly back the way it was, I was running out of energy and enthusiasm.

I have a back-up of my C drive which should have an Opera mail database on it. It is not exactly current but it will have some of those e-mails (e.g. contract agreements) I have kept for a decade or more for good reason. I've also got a back-up of Opera when it used the previous mail system (M6 or something?) which I might try restoring on a spare ancient computer.

In the meantime, I have updated to the latest version of Paragon Back-up & Restore free edition and have resolved to use it more frequently. We'll see how long that good intention lasts.

Currently using Chrome until I work out exactly what I want to do with my Opera installation and it is just not the same. I hope to get back to normal this week-end.

Thanks once again for all your help.

thanks for the clarification, SGUNHOUSE. i just dont see the necessity of all that. i'd love to disable all that crap, install windows 98 over windows 7 and have my pc do whatever i want it to do, without the bullshit. i'm a typical, uncomplicated end-user, surf the web for misc. info, email, facebook, download some music, watch vids on youtube... no one else uses my computer. but no, when i bought a laptop last year, i ran into a shitstorm, unable to find folders i had just created and couldnt open when i did find them, because some "administrator" had immediately confiscated them. i deleted some damn thing labeled "create homegroup" and wow! wasnt that fun, trying to do anything after that.

from the grapevine, i heard computers will not be manufactured soon. you'll buy separate gizmos for your email, web browsing, online gaming, video-conferencing, etc. So to discourage consumers from even wanting computers, they devise a version of windows that 1984 doublespeak advertises as simpler but really is ridiculously more complicated. without sites like tech republic, the geek squad, etc, i woulda taken that laptop out to the sidewalk, poured gasoline on it and burned the damn thing, singing and dancing around the flames.