Pleco data folder gets deleted on each reboot

Styopa

Member
I recently did a full backup of apps by Titanium Backup (TB) that froze the phone up while backing up Pleco, and I had to do a hard reboot. After that I found that the data in Pleco (the app folder is /storage/emulated/0/android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem) was completely gone. Not only that, but any time I create any data (copy into it from a backup, create a flashcard, etc.), the folder gets erased with the next reboot, even when I disable root permission for TB. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing Pleco to no avail.

Would you have an idea of what may be going on and how I can fix it? I have also reached out to TB for support. I don't think I can recover the lost data other than going to a backup from a couple months ago (since I cannot find my flashcard backups - either those got deleted too, or I apparently wasn't saving them like I thought I was), but I NEED to be able to save app data in order to continue using Pleco. I can make it work if I set the storage to external SD card, but that's not a great option for me.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Usually when we hear about something like this it's due to a cleaner or space-saver feature of some kind, not a backup utility - is there any space-saving system setting or app that you can disable?
 

Styopa

Member
Thanks. I don't have a cleaner app, and haven't messed with any native OS settings. After freezing some recently-installed apps (trying to resolve another app incompatibility issue), and giving it a day or two, I now seem to be back to normal. In the meantime, TB also ran another backup, which may have reset any folder permissions or settings that had been messed up. Anyway, thanks for the help!
 

Styopa

Member
Thank you for the help, even though it wasn't a Pleco issue!

I do have a question about importing cards, since now that I have hundreds of backlogged cards to re-import, I'm trying to use the file function. I mostly have the pronunciations (just simplified characters), and I also want to create custom dictionary entries, though have the cards mostly matched to the Pleco or other dictionary entries.

At this point, I can't even get the file to import the card definitions. If I import the file, it will add the cards to the correct category, but no definitions. I "prefer file" set, and "fill in missing fields" (see screenshot), but still isn't importing the defs. I tried importing directly to my dictionary, but then it has issues with the pinyin not filling in, therefore not matching up to the corresponding entries in the pre-defined dictionaries.

Would you mind giving some thoughts / pointers here?
 

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Shun

状元
Hi Styopa,

(Mike can still answer—here's a quick answer upfront.) The problem is likely to be the Merge Cats setting under "Duplicate entries". If you already have the same cards elsewhere in your Flashcards database, then Pleco will copy the ones you already have to the category you are importing to instead of creating a new card with the definition from your imported text file. Two possible solutions are:
  1. Setting "Duplicate entries" to Allow, although then you will have two separate cards for the same word in different places in your flashcards database.
  2. You could also set it to Update + Merge, which will change all the cards with that headword to the new definition.
Merged cards are only saved once in the database, but they can show up in different categories. It's quite easy to deal with once you have understood how it works.

Hope this helps,

Shun
 
Last edited:

Styopa

Member
Thank you, Shun. That's a good point, and I think it solves my problem. I prefer to keep the cards mapped to the dictionaries, as well as merge categories instead of creating new ones. However, in order to also import the definitions (which I just want for reference, not for the cards usually), I should then create a new import file and import them into a temporary category (allowing duplicate cards), which will then create the dictionary entry for me. I'll try that - thanks!
 

Shun

状元
You're very welcome! Perhaps you could also import these handmade definitions into a pure user dictionary for this purpose, bypassing the flashcards system altogether. You could do this in Settings > Manage Dictionaries > Your User dictionary. There, you could simply Import Entries (Then there wouldn't need to be a category line with //s in the import source anymore.). See the following screenshot:

IMG_4299.png

Cheers, Shun
 
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