Re: Folders from user suddenly in trash
On Sun 06 Jul 2025 at 19:51:01 (+0200), Hans wrote:
> > But the regular trash folder? My first guess is "the user did
> > that" (of course without noticing: "modern DEs" are complex enough
> > to make such a scenario plausible). My second guess would be some
> > bug in the desktop environment (or in some extension thereof).
>
> Yes, that is what I think, too. Although the user is over 70 years old, I do
> not believw, he did it. Especially as this was not the first time, it
> happened.
>
> More I believe, this happens due to some settings or some script in the
> background.
>
> All the files are not gone, all the files are in the trash (trash means: Trash
> folder on the desktop). I have disabled the possibility to delete files
> directly, all deleted files are moved into the trash. After recheck the user
> then can empty the trash (Windows-behaviour).
Am I right in thinking that Trash folders typically keep a note of
when items were placed there? Apart from analysing which folders were
moved and which left behind, the timings of their arrival in the Trash
could be helpful, particularly if a script is the cause (when the
script runs might be discoverable).
> Today I restored all his data (restored his complete ~home directory, which
> resides on a seperate partition (thus it is easy to backup and restore using
> clonezilla).
Why not move the folders back from Trash, so you don't lose any recent
changes to the files that might not have made it yet into the backups?
> Additionally I installed Deja-Dup, so he has backup if things happen again.
>
> My question to the forum aimed mainly, if someone in the past got this issue,
> too.
>
> In the web, most messages of disappeared folders were related to Windows, not
> linux.
Presumably you can lose those by including KDE, and perhaps Trash,
among the search terms. Most of the hits I read seemed to be about
whether the Trash folder had special properties in its behaviour
(like its icon, and its right-click menu, for example).
Cheers,
David.
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