Inventory Loss

Last Thursday, during the Inventory Database Maintenance work LL was doing, I logged in to discover half my inventory was missing----about 25K items. This has happened to me before (although not to this extent), so I immediately got proactive and logged into the beta grid to try and recover the lost items.

I also filed a ticket with Support, and was told it was my own fault for using that nasty, buggy unsupported Emerald viewer. Just FYI....

At any rate, by repeated trips to the beta grid to redownload my inventory I've managed to recover about 10K of the 25K I lost, but the other 15K seems gone forever. Among the missing is all my Beauty Avatar outfits, all my Modern Gypsy outfits, all my Last Call outfits---outfits that cost L$500 on average. Thousands of Lindens gone. I'm sick about it, and totally fed up.

Is there anything I can do to protect my Inventory short of becoming a copy bot? And if not, can anyone recommend some good copy bot software?

IBTL

There's a sticky over at the Emerald Bugs Report forum suggesting how to recover apparently missing inventory; works for me: http://modularsystems.sl/index.php?option=com_agora&task=topic&id=913&p=1&Itemid=2#p4117
ETA -- far simpler than all the beta grid malarkey.

Wait. "Repeated trips" to the beta grid? And even after that, some seemed "gone forever"? Something else is very wrong here.

I presume by now that you have dumped Emerald and gone back to the standard viewer, at least until this is straightened out, right? (and cleared cache, etc... all the usual suspects)

And... your client machine has lots and lots of spare disk space, and you're on a rock-solid wired internet connection, right?

I mean... this really sounds like there's something wrong with the viewer installation, not like the inventory is actually missing.

Yes, repeated trips. I don't give up easily. I'm a stubborn sonuvabitch. I kept going back until the numbers stopped changing in my inventory.



Uh, yah!



I did a clean uninstall of all my viewers (alternative and default), reinstalled the default viewer and nothing changed. I was still 15K short and that number has stayed the same for the last couple days. Yes to cleared cache, and all the usual fixes.



yes. More than half of my 500GB disk is free, and I have cable.

Bring it. I can't find a Linden to kill, so I'll kill one of you...

*big huge bump on Qie's suggestion to use wired internet and not wireless of any kind*

If the folders are there but empty then the viewer simply isn't fetching everything (folders are downloaded as part of log-in) properly.

Delete everything in your cache folder menually and relog into a nice and quiet sim.

Don't simply start a fetch and wait for it to finish since it's very likely to time out prematurely. Type a single letter into the search box and keep an eye on how fast it's fetching; every so often or when it slows down change to a different letter.

Ideally you want to get as many matching "Loading..." folders as you can (ie if you have 'Z' and 5 folders match that have already been fetched then that's not going to help at all).

As a general rule: never tp when you're fetching inventory, ever (or cross sims). The sim feeds you your inventory but it gets it from the inventory server (or some other subsystem) and I'd guess that during the handover from sim to sim the inventory server keeps on feeding your old sim your inventory (which you never get cause you were already handed over) and so the new sim picks up at the wrong place resulting in "apparant lost inventory".

Regularly clear cache and keep a mental note of your inventory count (it doesn't do much good to keep an eye on it if you don't regularly do a full refetch since you're just looking at a cached number). If nothing else do it before you start reorganizing things around; if the count is off from what it should be then don't ever delete empty folders since they may not really be empty.

(And I would guess that trips to the beta grid are mostly an urban myth. If anything it would confuse the cache even more)

Yup, hard wired cable, *not* wireless.



Yup, yup and yup. All tried.



/me blinks. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Inventory_Recovery_Steps#USING_THE_PREVIEW_GRID_TO_RECOVER_LOST_INVENTORY

That was added by a resident though.

I was just focusing on the copybot request assumed others would attack. Glad there is none of that. GL with your inventory.

I understood Rafe.

Pep (Hysterical "females" tend to lose their sense of proportion though - or was it their sense of humour?)

Volunteering, Pep? Come on, baby, let's go!

(I understood you too, Rafe. NP I was just letting anyone who wanted to start a firestorm know I was loaded for bear and ready to kill. Thanks for the good wishes)

You always seem to say you "get it" after it has been pointed out to you, Aeb.

ETA: with added ex post facto explanations, yet!

Pep (I am not surprised you are hysterical; all those lovely clothes deleted by LL; you probably haven't a stitch to wear.)

PS "Baby"? ROFLMAO!

I've never had to personally use this but apparently you can request support to do a Directory Repair or Inventory Restart that can sometimes recover lost things. It's often recommended for lost Huddles. http://imakehuddles.com/wordpress/2008/04/19/if-you-lose-inventory-make-sure-you-get-support-from-linden-lab/

Anyone have personal experience with this?

I lost several things from my inventory on the 19th...filed two tickets, same canned response from LL! I'll not be spending anymore greenbacks in Second Life if it can disappear into the ether world!