PC Updated - Everything is Gone

I’ve been working with photos of archived documents for my dissertation for over a year. Tropy has been such a help. However, it looks like my pc updated last night and now everything is gone.
No photos have been moved or renamed on my computer. I did absolutely nothing but go to sleep. (When will I learn?)

Please tell me this is a quick fix.

Don’t worry, a good night’s sleep can’t be bad and I’m sure we’ll figure this out. Can you talk a little bit more about what happened exactly: I’m assuming this is a Windows PC? Do you know what kind of update was installed?

More importantly though, to resume working on your project there need to be three things in place: Tropy must be installed on the computer and you need your project file as well as the photos. When you say that everything is gone, what exactly do you mean by that?

First, I’d make sure that your photos and your project file are still there. A Windows update should never remove your files, so I’m certain the files are still there.

As with your project files, a Windows update should not remove Tropy, but I could imagine that your Windows registry was cleared and the application is not registered properly anymore (i.e., Tropy is gone from the start menu or project files are not properly associated with the app and so on). If that’s the case, one quick solution might be just to reinstall the latest version of Tropy. This should overwrite the existing version and refresh the relevant system registration.

Thank you for helping me out, here.
I’m thinking that there should be an easy answer here. I just can’t figure it out and I’m afraid to touch anything.

Yes, a Windows PC.
The update history states that a “Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 20H2” and a “Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool” was installed on May 12th.

My bulk photo files on my pc are all fine. They seem untouched.

When I pull up Tropy, my project file name is still there, but everything else is blank. I just see the “Drop your photos into Tropy to get started” prompt.

So, reinstalling the latest version would not nail the coffin shut?
I’m sure it’s an obvious and easy process, but could you walk me through it? I’m just so worried that I’m going to lose months of organizing, labeling, and note-taking.

This sounds a bit more ominous. First of all, are you certain that you’ve opened the right project file? You can check the location of the project file by right-clicking on the project name and selecting ‘Show project file’ to open it in Windows Explorer. (If you’re certain that this is the correct file you’ve been working on, let’s take this opportunity to make a backup copy before you do anything else.)

Apart from the project name, are all your project’s tags and lists visible in the sidebar? If they are, it’s possible that you deleted all items by accident. If that happens, Tropy will preserve your items for a few months before deleting them for good, so if you look at ‘Deleted Items’ and you see all your items there, just select them all, right-click on the items and restore them from the context menu.

If your tags and lists are not there, then I would guess that this is not the correct file. There’s no way to inadvertently delete all items, lists and tags in a project, so if there’s only the project name an nothing else, I think you’ve opened a wrong file by accident (or maybe created a new project with same name). In this case I would check your recent projects in the file menu or look for the project file in Windows Explorer. If you are certain that it is the correct file and that there is something wrong with it, we’re happy to take a look at it if you send us the file (the project file contains information about the most recent times it was accessed, so it should be easy to determine if it is indeed the file that was used prior to the update).

OMG - I found it!

I have the Tropy shortcut icon on my desktop which I click open every day and it takes me where I want to go.
Why would it suddenly take me to a new Tropy ghost file from another dimension? It was a file in a whole new folder? What a cruel trick to play on someone.

Thank you so much for your help. I’m backing it up right now (it’s been too long since the last backup)

Have a great day.