restoring snapshot to new machine

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Win 11 pro, latest version, not Beta or Early release 10.0.22621 Build 22621

Fences 4.12

I have image backups of my machine before i did a clean reinstall of Win 11. Profile names unchanged

on at least some, maybe most of the backups of old machine, the desktop was getting synched OneDrive cloud.

When I first started new windows, logged into OneDrive those desktop icons came down.

Then i disabled desktop synching.

 

Next i started Fences.

Then copied some of the files in the fences app data backup file to the same path on newly installed machine. I tried restoring some of the snapshots. 

the Fence titles restored, but all of the fences were blank except for New Items and one misc Fence. 

Most of the icons were gone also.

Then I exited Fences and the icons reappeared.

 

Properties of the icons seem normal, but only checked a few.

 

 

 

fences
9,736 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. When you disable onedrive sync. Did you copy back all those icons from Onedrive directory into your physical Desktop directory? something like C:\Users\xxxxxx\Desktop


Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

when i disabled OneDrive synching desktop to cloud, the desktop icons remained on the desktop. When I made an image backup of the machine, the desktop was saved.

Then I did a clean install of Win 11 and allowed OneDrive to synch the cloud desktop down to the local machine.  Then i disabled synching desktop to cloud. The icons remained.

Next I copied the contents of the image backup of drive c, folder that contained Fences snapshots.

Enabled Fences. picked a good look snapshot to restore.


But most of the resulting Fences were empty.

Disabled Fences and the icons reappeared  all in one big group on one of the multi monitors.

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

It is possible if those missing icons is currently on another Fences desktop page. Try disable Fences desktop page and see if the missing item returned.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

disabling pages doesn't change anything.

If i try to move an icon using File Explorer from the Desktop folder to a fence on the desktop, I get a message that a file of that name is already there.

I can copy an icon, but the word "copy" gets appended to it.

So it's as if the icons are there, but hidden.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

If you copy a file from your physical desktop folder into a Fences on your desktop. It will said that. It just shows that icons physically still on your desktop. Just it somehow get hidden.

Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation. Retest and report back here.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

user error:

after performing  the above steps, all the empty fences did appear, and all  my old desktop icons were in the "new items/unassiged" fence.
it wasn't obvious because there were so many of them and the display was truncated until I stretched/dragged it.

Which is why I got an error about them already there when i tried to copy from the desktop to the Fences using File Explorer.

I was then  able to drag every icon in the "new items" to specific fences.

Q: To avoid this in the future, what should I explicitily backup so i can restore the icons in their proper fences if my windows11 profile has to be deleted?

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Not really sure what happened on your system so I can't really recommend anything. Just try not to use Onedrive Desktop Sync, which I know will cause issue with Fences from various reports with other users. Else the normal backup steps should work.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

 

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

"not using OD desktop sync", yes I've disabled synching desktops to OD. Gets crazy when the same user logs into a different pc with different monitors and possibly different apps.