How I restored my deleted file in VSCode: A cool trick you should know 🔮

#vscode #panic #knowyourtools #lostfiles

Hey there! Let me share a crazy experience I had recently. I was working on a lengthy piece of code in a new file in VSCode. After spending hours perfecting it, I accidentally deleted the file before committing it to Git. I only realized the mistake the next day. Total nightmare, right?

The Panic Moment

At first, I was in complete shock. I just stared at my screen, thinking, "Did that really just happen?". My heart started racing, and I felt this wave of panic wash over me. All that hard work, gone. Nothing in the Trash Bin. But then, I started googling whether it was possible to restore a deleted file from VSCode, and I found, to my surprise, a Stack Overflow question where someone in the comments suggested the following cool trick.

The lifesaver: Local History in VSCode

So, there's this feature in VSCode called "Local History: Find Entry to Restore." It basically keeps a history of your files locally, which means you can go back and restore previous versions even if you've deleted them! How cool is that!

How I got my file back

Open command palette
- First, I opened the Command Palette by pressing Cmd+Shift+P
Find the local history command
- Then, I pasted the phrase "Local History: Find Entry to Restore" in the Command Palette. It popped up in the list, so I pressed Enter.
Search for my deleted file
- Next, it asked me to type the name of the file I deleted. I did, and to my happy surprise, my deleted file was there!
Choose the right version
- After pressing Enter, I was presented with a list of snapshots of my file that VSCode remembered for me. I picked the most recent version and pressed Enter again.
Restore the file
- Finally, just like that, VSCode restored the contents of my file! It was like magic! I was so happy. Then it sufficed to just save this file contents on my disk with the hotkey Cmd+S and I could commit it now with Git. 🎉

The Happy Ending

Seeing my code back on the screen was such a relief. I avoided a counter-productive big loss of my work. Not only did I get my work back, but I also learned a super useful trick that I'm now excited to share with you. I hope you'll never need to use it, but... it's better to be prepared 😉

If you really feel like buying me a coffee

... then feel free to do it. Many thanks! 🙌

Top comments (22)

Luca • Nov 26

I created an account just to thank you.

I had an assignment with a controller file with over 500 lines of code, and I was helping my professor debug a PHP setup error and forgot to rename the dummy file. All my code was gone, I was devastated, went through total shock.

You saved my assignment, my time, and my mental health. Thank you for writing this, for sharing this. I wish the utter best for you.

Krzysztof Platis • Nov 26

I'm happy it worked for you! 🙌

Laurent Ionesco • Sep 8

It also works if you worked on a remote server. You opened files through Winscp, you edited them in VS Code (it opened and saved them in a temp directory). If something nasty happened on the server and you overwrote a file, you can recover it with the method here. Thanks Krzysztof!

Krzysztof Platis • Sep 9

Wow. Awesome you're sharing it! Thanks for info!

SenthilKumaranC • Oct 17 • Edited

I have lost of all my files. It got Permanently deleted. Unable to recover from anywhere.

Finally able to recover all files because of this post.

Thanks to you and also to my brother Arvind who pointed out this post.

Thanks to VS code team too.

alexantoshuk • Dec 14

I accidentally did a git checkout but forgot to commit, all the files were replaced by the old version. Local History helped me restore everything! Thank you!

Ayyash • Jul 28

you could have just opened the trash bin and restored :) but yes this is easier

Krzysztof Platis • Jul 29

Good idea. I've tried it too, but the file wasn't in the trash. Likely, because I've accidentally removed it with some git command (but not regular "delete file" action in the system).