Recovering Replays

Computers crash, accidental deletions happen, we may reinstall software without realizing things will get removed. This page is to help recover your replays if you somehow are unable to interact with the extension normally.

If your replays are already backed up from the extension

The extension allows you to export your replays as plain text. If you already have all the replays you care about exported then you can just import them the extension installed on another computer or a newly installed Chrome, no problem.

If you can access Chrome

For example, you can open Chrome just fine but the extension crashes when you try to load it (due to so many replays). See the Gist here. This will walk you through exporting your replays from the extension background page and deleting them from the database. After you do that it's recommended you uninstall and reinstall the extension to clear any other data that may be causing problems, then import the replays you want to view/render several (50-100) at a time.

If you cannot access Chrome

For those who can only access the files on your hard drive but not open Chrome, for example:

1. your computer crashed but you can connect your hard drive to another computer
2. parental restrictions prevent you from opening Chrome but you can access the files
3. you accidentally deleted your replays/reinstalled Chrome but you have a backup of your Chrome profile folder

Replay files are stored using IndexedDB. If you're on Windows, Chrome is likely storing the IndexedDB data for the replay extension here:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\IndexedDB\chrome-extension_ejbnakhldlocljfcglmeibhhdnmmcodh_0.indexeddb.leveldb\

or in some sibling folder with a name that includes the id of the extension (ejbnakhldlocljfcglmeibhhdnmmcodh).

The contents of that folder are not the individual replays, but represent the indexedDB database for the extension. If you have a copy of that folder you essentially have all your replays.

Steps:

1. If you're copying from the same computer, make sure you know the platform-specific folder that holds the extension IndexedDB data you're trying to recover.
2. If recovering from a broken hard drive or backup, copy the whole folder to someplace safe on your computer (like My Documents or Downloads)
3. Install the extension from the Chrome web store on your browser of choice (Chrome, Opera, Chromium). We will make your replays accessible through this copy of the extension.
4. Locate the same IndexedDB folder for the copy of the extension installed in the above step.
5. Close Chrome and then delete that folder, replacing it with a copy of the IndexedDB folder we located in the first few steps. If the name of the folder you deleted differs from the one you're copying over, rename the copied folder to match the one you deleted.
6. Open Chrome, navigate to the TagProReplays menu, and see if your replays load.

If you want to play it extra safe, just in case the above may cause some problems, at this point you can export your replays and then re-import them into a fresh install of the extension. Steps:

1. Using the instructions here, recover your replays as text files.
2. Once you have all your recovered replays as text files (and somewhere safe), remove the extension from your browser and also make sure the indexedDB folders you copied from before are removed from the indexedDB location in your browser's settings directory
3. When you're totally done, reinstall the extension so it's in a clean state and then you can import the text file versions of the replays that you recovered.