Recover Accidentally Deleted Flow

[wwstudios]

Well, I went and did it. Deleted a flow while my brain was on autopilot.

From my understanding there should be an XML of the flow somewhere for me to recover?

This earlier thread was all I could really find:

viewtopic.php?t=1565

I cannot find the file, though. A lot of the info is dated, but I have Switch 2024 Fall on Windows 11 Pro, and it doesn't seem to correspond.

Anyway thanks much for any help

[freddyp]

The flows are indeed stored as XML files in the "flows" folder that is in the application data root and deleting the flow also deletes that file. There is an XML to be recovered if you have a backup of your data root. If not, I am afraid you will have to create the flow again.

[wwstudios]

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I was just told as much by someone else. Curses. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I'm off to recreate this flow...

[tdeschampsBluewest]

If you're worried about losing it again — or if you're a bit paranoid like me — you can create a flow that automatically saves itself and other important resources. That way, you’ll always have a backup!

Personally, I run backups every 2 hours or on a trigger (submitpoint), keeping 1 day’s worth of archives at that pace. After that, I retain only the last backup of each day for the week and the last backup of each month for long-term storage.

It gives me peace of mind knowing my flows are always safe!

[JimmyHartington]

My flows does normally not change everyday.
But I have a habit of once a week (or when major changes has happened to some flows) to export all flows to a folder on my system, which is included in our normal backup strategy.
This way I can go back to very old flows if I need to or recover a flow where a change has messed it up.

[magnussandstrom]

I do it the same way as Jimmy, typically once a week.

[Terkelsen]

@Magnus and Jimmy. Have you considered this automatic solution to backup your flows?
https://blog.pixeltech.fr/one-flow-to-save-them-all/

[JimmyHartington]

Thanks, Erik. I will look into it.