Restore deleted project from the dashboard

Questions
1

I’ve accidentally deleted my project from the Defold dashboard.

Locally I have all my files saved, but how can I restore the project on the Defold dashboard to be able to synchronize my files, use development apps etc.?

1 Like
2

Hi,

ouch, that’s unfortunate! We don’t have the ability to restore deleted projects on our side, but you should be able to solve it in one of the two ways described below.

IMPORTANT: First of all, make a backup of your project if the below solutions don’t work out! Copy it somewhere safe!

Method 1

You should be able to delete the internal .git folder located in the project directory and then synchronizing the project from the editor. This will automatically create a new project on the dashboard.

  1. Make sure to save all your files in the editor.
  2. Right click on the project folder in the asset panel and select “Show in desktop”.
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  3. Delete (or move to trash) the .git folder that should be located inside the project folder.
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  4. Quit and restart the editor.
  5. Select open from disk, select the game.project file in the project folder.
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  6. Go to File->Synchronize and follow the instructions. This will create a new project on the dashboard and synchronize the files once again.
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Method 2

You should be able to manually create a new project on the dashboard and copy the “old” files into the newly created one.

  1. Create a new project on the dashboard web interface.
  2. Open editor with the old project
  3. Make sure to save all your files in the editor.
  4. Right click on the project folder in the asset panel and select “Show in desktop”.
  5. Select and copy all files and folders except .git, .gitignore, build and .internal.
  6. Close editor and open it again. Now select the newly created project.
  7. Repeat step 4 but for the new project. You should now be able to paste and replace the contents of the new project with the old.
  8. Go back to the editor and synchronize.
4 Likes
3

Thanks, Sven,

I went for the second options and created the new project. Of course, the commit history is gone forever. It would be nice to have some temporary “Restore” option. Or at least, it shouldn’t be this easy to delete the project (two clicks - and everything is gone).

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4

As an example github has 2 clicks and a password confirmation. Perhaps we should add the confirmation phase? Ping @samuel.nystedt

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5

Good idea, password confirmation always gives you second thoughts.
Besides, you can include in confirmation message that all source code & all history will be deleted (instead of simple “are you sure”).

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6

There’s definitely room for improvement here.

Password confirmation sounds like a good idea. Also the messaging both before and after deletion can be improved. Will add a ticket to our backlog.

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7

We did a quick fix to this one. While we chose to omit password confirmation (due to other priorities), the copy was clarified, and the exact consequences of deleting your project were added. Also, the title of the project was added.

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8

Can’t believe you’ve pulled the plug on your MTV cribs simulator Axel. I guess you have other projects to focus on.

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9

Yeah… Got into sort of a legal dispute with Xzibit, things got kind of ugly—you know how it is. Let’s just say that they heard I like lawsuits, so they put a lawsuit in my law suit, so they could law suit from their law suite.

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