Accidentally removed folder from the UI, how to recover?

I have mistakenly removed a folder from the Syncthing UI (folder->Edit->Remove).

Shortly afterward, I got a pop-up suggesting to add the same folder from one of my other nodes (I don’t think/remember of doing anything else). But this led to

folder marker missing (this indicates potential data loss, search docs/forum to get information about how to proceed)

I removed the old files from disk and tried re-adding the folder again, which led to

folder path missing

So now I have no files on the node and cannot add the folder back. What did I do wrong? How can I fix it? Other nodes are all working normally.

So, the first thing to do right now is go to your other device and set the folder to send-only mode there. That won’t affect the situation at all, but it’s an insurance against things going wrong when you add the folder back and all files getting deleted.

Then, this would have been one of the few appropriate times to just recreate the folder marker when it complained about it being missing. But now, since you have no files,

  1. Remove the folder again in Syncthing.
  2. Restart Syncthing, making more sure it forgets about the folder.
  3. Re-add the folder when prompted, files should sync back down to this device.

Then, once everything is fine, change back the mode on your other device to what you want it to be.

Great stuff, thanks for the blazing fast help @calmh!!

this would have been one of the few appropriate times to just recreate the folder marker when it complained about it being missing

Just so I know the next time, would that mean creating an empty .stfolder file?

Yes

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