Lost locally stored data after updating to Legend

blkio

I updated to legend and now all my locally stored documents have dissapeared. I managed to find where the .json backup files are stored (C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Moo.do\backups), but when I try to import them it says “Invalid JSON format. The developers have been notified with details of the error.” What the hell guys?

Jay

blkio I think the problem may be that you had set a directory to use for local files and those are saved in the old preferences file and we did not migrate that over to the new app. Do you remember which directory you chose? You can set that again in the Desktop app section of the settings and it will pull in the files.

If you don’t remember, it should be the value for “docsDir” in C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Moo.do\prefs.json

If that’s not it, do you see any files in either of these folders?
C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Moo.do\docs
C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Legend\docs

The new app should move the files from the Moo.do docs folder to the Legend docs folder.

blkio

Jay Thank you for the speedy response. The path that shows up is the one you listed “C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Moo.do\docs”, I navigate there and it’s an empty folder. The Legend docs folder has one JSON file in it from January 2020…
And is the import function broken?

Jay

blkio Had you ever set a documents directory before? If you open Moo.do now does it still see the documents?

I’m looking into the import problem.

blkio

Jay Nope, never messed around with setting directories, just left it all as default. The only thing that changed before upgrading was removing encryption password. I have tried removing encryption option from local files and logging out and in, but still no luck.

Jay

Can you try copying the latest backups into C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Legend\docs? You shouldn’t even need to import them, just copy them into that folder.

blkio

Jay Tried it, still not showing.

Jay

blkio Can you try restarting the app and see if they show up once they’re in C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Legend\docs? And can you check the “Desktop” section of the settings to see if that’s the path it has set?

blkio

Jay That is the path it shows and where I copied it to. Restarted the app, still no luck.

Jay

blkio Would you want to do a quick video call so I can try to figure out it while seeing your screen? I’ll send you a direct message about it.

blkio

Jay I can’t do that, there’s personal information on all my docs, even the names. I can post any screenshot though.

Jay

Ok I think I figured it out. You said you removed the encryption password before upgrading? It seems that does not immediately update the encryption on all local documents, so I think the documents are failing to decrypt. So if you set your password back to what it was before, the documents should then decrypt successfully and load correctly.

blkio

Jay I removed encryption in the first place because I couldn’t remember it. Does this mean I won’t even be able to restore the data from the import settings too?

Jay

Yes, the import is failing because it’s unable to decrypt it. Do you possibly have the encryption password written down anywhere?

Jay

I’m working on fixing the bug where removing the password did not immediately update the local documents and will try to get that out tomorrow. And I’ll also fix the issues with load and import silently failing when they can’t be decrypted.

But I’m trying to figure out how to recover the encrypted documents and I’m not sure there’s a way to do it without the password. If you think the password was fairly short I could try to brute force hack into it - you could send me (in a private message) just the “doc” section at the top of the json file (you can remove the “text” if it’s sensitive). But outside of that I’m not sure what we can do.

blkio

Jay Honestly, it’s great to hear you’re keen to fix what you can and do whatever in your power to help, it’s greatly appreciated. Do you mean you might be able to find the decryption password from the file or just be able to unlock the file itself? If you mean telling me the decryption password, I can send you one document that doesn’t contain any sensitive information, but if you mean just unlocking the documents, please help me in understanding what parts to keep and remove after the "{“moodoVer”:7,“doc”:". Oh and I think at most the password would be 15-20 characters.

Jay

It’s possible I can find your old decryption password from the file, but I’d have to brute force it and try every possible combination of characters. At 15-20 characters that’s probably not possible without a cluster of supercomputers 😢 But if it’s shorter it might be possible, though unlikely. I would need just the “doc” section of the file, but you can remove the “text”.

Are you 100% sure you don’t have the password saved anywhere? When creating the password Moo.do would have prompted you to save it in a file. Or maybe it’s saved in a password manager app?

blkio

Jay I see, well I sent the file, you can give it a shot, no pressure. I don’t have the password saved anywhere, and neither did I save that file. Password manager didn’t save it also. I’ve kind of accepted it’s gone now, lesson learned, be more careful especially if I’m going to use software as an extension of myself. But I’ll keep the files around just in case.

Jay

Ok I’ve downloaded it and will see what I can do tomorrow (it’s midnight here in Singapore).

blkio

Jay Sleep well! Will keep an eye for your update tomorrow,

Jay

blkio I fixed the bugs in the latest version, and ended up just removing the whole encrypting local documents feature in the latest version because it seems like it’s not worth the risk of lost data. https://forum.legendapp.com/d/137-beta-updates/68

And I’ve between trying a brute force attack on the password with a big list of the most common passwords but it’s after a few hours of running it’s halfway through the list of about 50,000 passwords and hasn’t found a match. I don’t think we’re going to be able to recover that password, but I’ll keep running it. If I manage to find it, I’ll let you know.

Jay

blkio It finished testing all the passwords and couldn’t find a match. I don’t think we’ll be able to recover your password 😢