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Post Content Disappearing Glitch

  1. anjoucloth
    Member

    This has happened more times than I can count now.

    I am in a new post, typing away, auto-save is supposedly on, I hit "publish," the page goes to "Are you sure you want to do this?" (what does that even mean?), I hit "yes", and then suddenly I am re-routed to edit post, but it is blank. No title, no words, nothing remains of the four hours I spent crafting it. I go "back" and all of my words are gone. The photos I uploaded are in the media gallery, but nothing else remains, no revisions available (yes, I checked screen options), nothing. I'm confused as to why simple sites like Expedia can retain my flight preferences when I have cookies enabled and hit "back", but the WordPress editor can't seem to remember what I typed. That capability seems to be pretty basic across the www.

    What is going on, is there any way to recover my post, and if not, when is this going to be fixed?

    I am using Firefox, all updates, everything. This has been going on since I started my blog - there has got to be a simple solution for the editor to retain text.

    anjouclothing.com

    The blog I need help with is anjouclothing.com.

  2. justpi
    Member

    That's a long-standing glitch (and so far WP has found nothing to say or do about it).
    1) Edit the post and check the Revisions module for a previous saved version. If you're not seeing the Revisions module while on the post editor screen, click Screen Options (top right) to activate it.
    2) In the future avoid using drafts: when you start a new post, write a couple of lines, set the visibility to private, publish the post, continue editing and updating, turn to public when finished.

  3. timethief
    Member

    I very sorry to say that if were using the "Add New" on the main page for wordpress.com here http://wordpress.com/#!/post/ then the draft is lost and cannot be recovered. That link is only for creating "Asides". They have no titles, can't have categories assigned to them and when edited the draft content is gone because the auto-save does not work on them.

    Aside – These are brief snippets of text that aren’t quite whole blog posts. Useful for quick thoughts and anecdotes http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-formats/

    But if you created the post on your own dashboard there may be a happy ending. http://anjouclothing.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

    Go to Posts > All Posts, hover over the title of the post, click Edit and check the Post Revisions module for previous saved versions of the post.
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-revisions/

    If you're not seeing the Revisions module while on the editor screen, click Screen Options (top right corner of your Admin page) http://en.support.wordpress.com/screen-options/ to activate it. Then select the post and page modules to include them. http://en.support.wordpress.com/modules/#list-of-modules Then you ought to be able to go here > Dashboard > All Posts > Posts and locate the post and recover it from post revisions.

    If you cannot locate the post for locating and restoring a post revision, and it's not in your Trash folder http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/ then you will not be able to recover it. http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/#restoring-from-trash

    Advice:
    Create posts and pages on your own blog's dashboard.

  4. anjoucloth
    Member

    Thanks for the suggestions, justpi - unfortunately there are no revisions for the post...it seems autosave never saved in between the first draft saved the day before and my final post. I'll definitely never use drafts again, so thanks for the suggestion for publishing privately. It just seems that we shouldn't have to work around the disappearing content draft glitch.

    WP needs to get it together.

  5. timethief
    Member

    Did you create the post in your own dashboard? Or did you create it on the main page for wordpress.com here http://wordpress.com/#!/post/ ?

  6. anjoucloth
    Member

    Hiya timethief; thanks for responding. I created it in my own dashboard. I saved a draft yesterday (with just a few words in it) and then worked on it all today. Apparently autosave never saved a new version since that first draft (yesterday). There are no revisions (it only saved once, I suppose) and nothing in my trash, unfortunately.

    My question is, what is it about the WordPress editor that when I click "back" everything I typed in the form/field is gone. Other applications/editors seem to "remember" what I typed if I leave the page as a fail-safe.

    And what on earth is with the ambiguous "Are you sure you want to do this?"

    Thanks for your help! :)

  7. atcfnm
    Member

    I had the same thing happen to me today, anjoucloth. I was adding tags to the post I had just finished, and got the "Are you sure you want to do this?" message pop up like you described. Actually, everything you described happened to me also. I had 12 images in the post I was making, with captions and everything. They disappeared in the post, but yet still remained uploaded, it was only the coding that was done. That's when I discovered that the auto save had never worked during the entire process of my working on the post. I've never experienced this problem before and really don't understand what the "fix" is, as there's no area within the dashboard to look up auto save settings. At least that I know of, as it's an automatic function.

    Anyhow, the only way I could save the draft as I was working on it, was to do it manually. Luckily I only experienced the dreaded "Are you sure you want to do this?" pop up message twice, before having gone back and re-inserted all 12 images within the post I was making.

    I would really appreciate some help on this subject, as I'm basically experiencing the same exact problem.

    Thanks much!

  8. timethief
    Member

    This thread has been flagged for Staff assistance.

  9. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Auto-save won't kick in until you actually save a draft, so as soon as you start a post next time, make sure that you save the draft first.

  10. atcfnm
    Member

    I knew that already, but this doesn't seem to kick in the way it normally would. Because even after saving the draft, no new auto-saves were done, as far as I could tell. I'll keep a look out for that though.

    Any input on the mysterious "Are you sure you want to do this?" pop up error, though? I've never seen that in all the years I've used WordPress and I'm baffled by it.

    Thanks much, Mac!

  11. raincoaster
    Member

    It used to happen many years ago when I was using IE. To get around it I would select everything in the write post box and then copy it to my clipboard and then WHILE IT WAS STILL HIGHLIGHTED I would hit Update or Publish. That seemed to force it to work.

  12. designsimply
    Staff

    I think there's something fishy going on. I tested and drafts save for me within a few seconds in the regular blog dashboard if I enter a title and then enter some text. If I just enter text and wait, a draft saves after several seconds (probably 60, but I didn't count).

    I only see the "Are you sure?" warning if I try to navigate away without clicking save.

    I tested with Firefox 15.0.1 on a Mac.

  13. designsimply
    Staff

    Looking back at the original report in this thread:

    I am in a new post, typing away, auto-save is supposedly on, I hit "publish," the page goes to "Are you sure you want to do this?" (what does that even mean?), I hit "yes", and then suddenly I am re-routed to edit post, but it is blank.

    What should have happened when you clicked publish is that you should have been taken to a final/published view of your post with info about your followers and tags in the sidebar on the left. Also, even if you didn't publish, a draft should have saved so I think this is worth looking into further.

    The "Are you sure?" question should only pop up if you haven't saved and you try to navigate away from the unsaved post. It should not appear when you click publish.

    Seems to me there's something buggy but it's probably going to be pretty tricky to track down because I can't reproduce the bug on my own and it sounds very likely there are some browser issues at play (i.e. the bug maybe limited to some very specific conditions).

    The next step from a support standpoint is to try to narrow down the variables and (if possible) come up with reproducible steps someone else can use to trigger the problem.

    Here are some general questions that come to mind that may help round up:

    1. What form are you using? Posts → Add New in your blog's dashboard?
    2. What is the exact browser version you are using?
    3. Does the same problem happen every time you create a new post?
    4. Does this problem only happen to people with custom domains?

    Anyway, just some thoughts for now and I'll try to review some more of these reports to see if we can come up with a set of conditions for when this type of problem happens.

  14. anjoucloth
    Member

    @macmanx Sorry, but that is not true. Autosave will automatically kick in without manually saving a draft when composing a new post from your dashboard. Like designsimply said, usually if you simply enter a title or even just a few words in the post content, it automatically kicks in.

    For me, it usually happens if I am off for a few hours researching or sometimes if I leave it overnight and then continue on adding blog content later on. I don't know if there's some sort of automatic sign-off or something after a certain amount of time idle? Though instead of allowing me to upload photos and enter content like everything is normal, it should inform me that I need to reload the page again or something. This has happened to me both when I hit "publish" and "save draft."

    Selecting all and copying the content of every blog before you hit publish or save draft is the only failsafe that I know of at the present moment. WordPress should really address this and fix the issue properly, though, since it seems to be a common problem. The "Are you sure you want to do this" is just really the infuriating cake-topper on an annoying glitch.

    <3

  15. anjoucloth
    Member

    1) Yep. Within my dashboard (not the quick post or whatever that bare bones deal is)
    2) Firefox 15.0.1 on Macbook Pro (Mountain Lion 10.7.3)
    3) No, like I said, it's if I am idle for awhile (off researching, gathering photos, etc) and then when I come back to the post and enter text/upload/add links and then go to publish...it's almost like it's signed me off while I am away, but it hasn't. When I get the error message and it sends me to my blank content, I am still signed in.
    4) Hmm, maybe? I have had a custom domain since I started the blog, so I can't test that

    Thanks so much!

    ps: it has happened to me one more time since; this time I had manually saved a draft and luckily it just didn't save my changes since my last autosave 5 minutes prior.

  16. timethief
    Member

    @designsimply
    I want to say thanks for being willing to try and crack this "nut".

  17. designsimply
    Staff

    For me, it usually happens if I am off for a few hours researching or sometimes if I leave it overnight and then continue on adding blog content later on. I don't know if there's some sort of automatic sign-off or something after a certain amount of time idle?

    This is good info.

    Though instead of allowing me to upload photos and enter content like everything is normal, it should inform me that I need to reload the page again or something. This has happened to me both when I hit "publish" and "save draft."

    Agreed.

    The "Are you sure you want to do this" is just really the infuriating cake-topper on an annoying glitch.

    Totally, but I think the glitch and the extra "Are you sure?" notes might be the same in this particular case.

  18. designsimply
    Staff

    Thanks for the answers to the question list too! #4 was a little bit rhetorical. But you've got to start somewhere right?

    ps: it has happened to me one more time since; this time I had manually saved a draft and luckily it just didn't save my changes since my last autosave 5 minutes prior.

    Was it the same case where you'd left an open draft idle for a long time and then came back and started writing again? (That's totally something I can test.) If so, by any chance do you remember how long you left it?

    Sounds like the form is basically getting stuck, but I'm not sure why yet. Also, I don't think it's a super common issue (but also, I haven't read back through all the tagged threads about this yet). In the past when I have seen excessive "Are you sure?" prompts, it's usually happened for Internet Explorer browsers and was very intermittent. Even just writing down more details like the ones you're giving is super helpful. Thanks.

  19. designsimply
    Staff

    @timethief, and thanks for your help tagging them!!

  20. anjoucloth
    Member

    Thanks so much @designsimply for your help!! You give a girl hope ;)

    It definitely was after idling - I tend to do that a lot since some of my posts are labor intensive. For how long I left it..hmm...honestly I can't remember, so sorry. I think it ranges from a couple of hours to overnight. Also, just for control purposes, I often have more than one wordpress tab open at a time - for instance, the stats window and then 'add new post'. Just in case that could be factored in as well. Not sure if that's the case for others who are experiencing the same problem though.

    Haha, the 'Are you sure..' is just kind of maddeningly funny. It's like I just want to yell at the screen "Am I sure I want to do WHAT!!?? Lose everything?! Ahhhhhh...!" I have a complete Elaine (From Seinfeld) moment every time.

    Thank you so so much!

  21. designsimply
    Staff

    Haha, great Sienfeld reference!

    Would you mind trying to break that idling forever habit maybe in one of the following options as a test?

    (1) Remember to save a draft and close the post when you step away.

    (2) If you left the post open for a long time, try refreshing the page or browsing to the posts page and re-opening the draft post before you start editing again. If you're worried about losing work, do a quick copy/paste before you refresh or click on posts so you can paste it back in right then if anything goes wonky.

  22. anjoucloth
    Member

    For sure! I've been doing the second part of (2) since I lost that big post and sent hatred daggers at my computer all day, but I will definitely start doing (1) and see if I have the issue still. I'm thinking, though, that the stepping away may have been the culprit...because now that I think about it, it has definitely only happened when I've left an 'add new' tab idle for awhile. Just not sure why, if like you said, the form is getting stuck or whatever after idling, it lets me go along like normal until poof-time :)

    In fact, I think I can almost say definitively that it only happens when I idle. But I will test it this week for sure! And, on the plus side, this test will make me post more often :)

    Thanks again!

  23. atcfnm
    Member

    I'm glad that you got your issue worked out, anjoucloth, and great work designsimply in helping. I piggybacked my similar problem on anjoucloth's earlier in this thread, if you go back and check - and it now seems apparent that although our problems were similar, they are indeed different.

    My question is, do I start another thread looking for help on the similar issue of losing draft content, even after saving my drafts? I'm also getting randomly assigned categories showing up, even though I've selected different ones, and my assigned tags for the post I'm writing disappear. Even after saving my draft, the auto save looks to be functioning, but it doesn't actually save everything. It's all sorts of weird.

    Do I start another thread then? I don't want to clutter this one unnecessarily.

    Thanks!

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