I keep losing the recent changes despite backups, committing etc

Discussions
1

Hello, I am a beginner, so not a dev. I am using cursor to develop a software for myself. It’s been working fine but I keep losing my recent changes.

exemple, yesterday night, around 1am I asked cursor to “commit changes, create a backup version, and add the word “final” to the backup version name”

today all my changes form yesterday disappeared, we rolled back to an earlier version. When I ask cursor to list me the available backup versions, there are some auto-backup listed aswell as some “final” backup listed, but none after midnight, although I did create at least 3 backup version after midnight

I think I am missing something here, anyone could give me some basic explanation please

thank you

edit : upon investigating, cursor tells me : “Found one “final” backup after midnight: feac313 at 01:54:20. The reflog shows a reset that may have removed commits. Checking for lost commits”

2

Hi Hamza,

Don’t panic – this is actually good news! The message you saw (Found one ‘final’ backup… feac313) confirms that your work is safe and stored, it is just currently ‘hidden’ from your view because of how Git works (likely a ‘reset’ happened in the background).

You can recover your work instantly by telling Cursor to jump back to that specific save point (commit).

Here is how to get your files back:

  1. Open the Cursor terminal.

  2. Type the following command and hit Enter:
    git checkout feac313
    (This commands Git to go back to the timestamp where your ‘final’ backup was created).

  3. Check your files. You should see your work from last night appear again.

  4. To save this state permanently as a new branch so you don’t lose it again, run:
    git switch -c recovered-work

Let me know if that brings your changes back!
(Save your work somehow so you can explore this workflow without losing anything)

Hint: Copy my text and ask the Chat/Agent to help you or give you some advice.

3

thank you I got it back!

1 Like
4

Hello, sorry to open this thread again, but I just lost my work again.

Before going to sleep, I asked cursor to create a backup, add “final” to it’s name and make sure to commit changes so we can revert back to this backup at any time

When waking up, I had build errors, and in the process of fixing them, cursor reverted back to a version from many days ago. When I tried to revert back to my backup version, all the modules of my app were all over the place in term of size and position, and I did not changed the layout at all in recent versions.

Can you explain to me what are the best practices to safely versioning and not loose the work ?

Thank you

5

I think I’ll do what my prehistoric cavemen mind tells me to do, just zip the whole folder and store it somewhere :sweat_smile:

6

Hi Hamza,

I just wanted to check back in on this as I missed your recent updates.

Were you able to recover your work using the git checkout command? Since you mentioned being a beginner, I know Git can be a bit intimidating at first. If you are stuck or seeing any error messages, please feel free to paste them here.

As long as that “final” backup commit exists in the list, your code is definitely safe—we just need to point Cursor to the right place.

7

hello, I was able to recover most of it, but the most secure way I found is to simply zip the whole folder as a backup. When using git fail to restore the correct version !

8

Hi Hamza,

if you want to work with ZIP-Folders feel free to do so – but in a long-term I would “advice” you to use Git.

Happy vibe coding!