# Avoiding data loss
**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/avoiding-data-loss/22848
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [September 22, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/avoiding-data-loss/22848 "2024-09-22T14:52:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ProactiveServices](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/ProactiveServices)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/avoiding-data-loss/22848/1 "2024-09-22T14:52:51Z")
People suffering data loss because of misconfiguration, misunderstanding or hardware oddities are a recurring, if infrequent, feature here and on the issue tracker. For some of us we’re wise to things going wrong and/or dropping databases when we were young and foolish (listen, it was only a single site’s entire accounts data, OK? they had five other sites), but it’s not really right for us to say “you should have a backup” and wish them luck.
What do folk think of a first-time, very brief prompt that succinctly warns people about the possibility of data loss? Would it have helped previous victims, and prevent some future ones? Would the minor, one-off irritation be worth it? Should it force people to type “YES OK I GET IT I PROMISE I HAVE BACKUP” before being able to use syncthing?
If you’ve been a victim - or nearly been a victim - would this have saved your data?
I imagine it being a config directive which experienced users could just set to “true” when we generate our configurations, because we definitely have backups already. We definitely test them and know they work. Definitely.
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### Author:  [@Nummer378](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/Nummer378)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/avoiding-data-loss/22848/2 "2024-09-22T15:11:59Z")
> [@ProactiveServices](#):
>
> If you’ve been a victim - or nearly been a victim - would this have saved your data?
My younger self would have just clicked yes, ignoring everything. My older self actually has backups and would also click yes.
> [@ProactiveServices](#):
>
> because we definitely have backups already. We definitely test them and know they work. Definitely.
“Why should I test my backups? They’ve never worked to begin with…”
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### Author:  [@mopani](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/mopani)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/avoiding-data-loss/22848/3 "2024-10-19T23:37:57Z")
Perhaps a link to “read more” about effective backup and/or some pitfalls of running Syncthing without a backup? I suspect its partly a failure of imagination in first-time users – “its just copying files between two computers, how can it possibly hose all my files… oh no!”
_Someone should write/do something…_