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Why does the content of my .tex-file got deleted? This happened the second time. I opened it as usual and there is nothing. Just nothing. Is there a reason why it could have gotten deleted? Fortunately, I have the PDF of the .tex-file, so that I can restore the document, but why does this happen?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I try to provide as much information as I can. I use TeXmaker with XeLaTeX. I was writing a document about linguistics, the output was 71 pages long, but most space was taken up with chapters, subchapters and subsubchapters for structure. Everything was there, the last time I closed the file, a couple days ago. Also, only this file got deleted, all my other files are intact. Maybe it happened because of the amount of information? Please tell me, where I can help you help me.

EDIT2: I use Windows 10 and the file is stored on my computer, more specific in my Documents folder. And unfortunately, I didn't have a backup (I suppose one could consider the PDF output file somewhat of a backup), even though it already happened once.

naphaneal
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Arhama
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  • It must be frustrating not knowing what's going on... Now, how can we reproduce the problem? – Werner Sep 14 '16 at 16:05
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    This doesn't sound like a tex related problem. But what editor do you use? Does this happen to every file or just some specific files? Help us out, give us some more detail about your problem. – Seamus Sep 14 '16 at 16:05
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    Also: what operating system? Where is the file stored (your computer/a server/a USB stick/cloud storage)? Where did you put your backup? – Chris H Sep 14 '16 at 16:16
  • I will simply point other readers to the question/answers mentioned below and Ulrike's Answer but before you jump there IT is always good practice with a file you have been working on for hours to simply save it as a name such as WorkInProgress2019-02-07-12am (or similar) that way if the machine crashes during lunch you can at least get back your mornings work. –  Feb 07 '19 at 04:31

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I recently had this problem. Not only did texmaker not save my file, but it actively overwrote my document with an empty one. This is very frustrating, but I'm pretty sure I know why it happened. My OS was low on disk space, so I'm pretty sure that when TEXmaker asked to save a new file, it was unable to do so, and wrote an empty file instead. This doesn't make too much sense, Latex files are Kb, not Mb, and I had about 25 Mb left, but I'm fairly sure that's what happened. If that's any consolation.

Andriy
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  • Welcome to TeX.SE! Sorry to hear about your data loss. Thanks for sharing your explanation -- you're probably right. I remember seeing elsewhere on the site a mention of this same (horrible) bug in the TeXMaker editor. Let me see if I can find it. (Actually, there's another answer to this very question mentioning the same explanation; not sure why that was deleted as it does answer the question of "why".) – ShreevatsaR Feb 07 '19 at 00:01
  • (The other mention is here -- but this site is not the best place to report bugs in Texmaker so hopefully someone reports it to them. I can't as I'm not a user of that program.) – ShreevatsaR Feb 07 '19 at 00:03
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I figured out that my problem is because I saved it under a folder which had special characters like "xin chào". Just change the name of the folder and it works like a charm.

Thành Nguyễn Chi
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