Jumping back in - I am having this issue happen more and more frequently again, and I religiously follow the rules of never having multiple editors open. I'm only not completely irate due to the fact that I export my app to json EVERY TIME I close my browser, and can import it when I experience data loss. You know we love you Retool, but this is a bug affecting the most basic and critical feature of any application: saving work. It's arguably the most important feature (hard to call it a feature as its just unthinkable to not have a save mechanism in an app), yet has been affecting users since at least last August. We're talking 5+ months of people losing their hard work. We see new features coming out, but what does it mean if the foundation is crooked?
At this point, why don't you implement a basic local storage save ran at the same time you sync changes to your cloud? Run a diff on the data held in storage and what the user actually has in the app when they open it, and inform them accordingly of discrepancies. Give the option to import what's in storage and simultaneously save a copy of what they have in Retool, just in case.
All in all, this needs to be addressed now. I've watched this post and it's interactions since August, and I find it troubling to say the least. We need stability and peace of mind that what companies are paying us to create for them in Retool isn't lost, and the platform we chose isn't so fragile that it might disappear our work permanently when we close our browser. Please, implement a temporary solution for this bug. At some point we'll have to start considering if Retool + hours of work lost really outweighs just making a React app.
First, I want to sincerely apologize for the ongoing issues you all are facing with saving - I understand how frustrating and disruptive this must be to your workflow.
As an engineer at Retool, resolving this has been my top priority since the beginning of the year. To provide full transparency, Iād like to share where we are in the process:
Why This Has Taken Time
After thorough investigation, we identified three distinct issues affecting saves:
Complete Save Loss (rare): The editor resets to a blank state.
Minor Progress Loss (more frequent): Small edits disappear when reopening the editor.
Major Progress Loss (more frequent): Significant work is lost upon returning to the editor.
These issues were particularly challenging because:
We couldnāt reproduce them internally at first, delaying root-cause analysis.
The three separate problems required individual diagnosis.
The good news: Weāve now pinpointed the core causes and are actively implementing fixes.
Current Progress & Timeline
Weāre overhauling the entire save architecture to address these problems holistically. Hereās what to expect:
Next Week: A fix for Issue #2 (Minor Progress Loss) will be deployed.
By End of Month: A permanent solution for Issue #3 (Major Progress Loss) will roll out. This directly addresses the problems reported by Joseph_Cileo, Miguel_Ortiz, and ch_dc.
Issue #1 (Complete Save Loss): While less common, weāre continuing to monitor and will prioritize a fix if reports persist after addressing #2 and #3.
If you encounter further issues or have questions, please donāt hesitate to reply here or DM me directly. Iāll continue to provide updates as we roll out these changes.
Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this.
Quick update: The fix for Issue #2 (minor progress loss) has been deployed!
However: Weāre still seeing some reports of minor progress loss, even after this update. My current plan is to merge the fix for Issue #3 (major progress loss), and then revisit Issue #2 if it persists.
If youāre still experiencing problemsāwhether minor progress loss or new/unexpected behaviorāplease let me know via this thread or DM!
Useful report information
What happened: Describe the issue (e.g., āLost 10 minutes of edits after refreshingā).
When it happened: Date/time (approximate is okay).
Browser/OS: Share your browser (Chrome/Safari/etc.)
Steps to reproduce: If you noticed a pattern (e.g., āHappens when I switch tabs mid-editingā).
@ Joseph_Cileo I couldn't agree more. Yes, we love you Retool, but this is extremely painful. Especially if you're running an agency where you need to pay the team, but can't bill anything as their is nothing to show at the end of the week.
My proposed quick fixed solution would be to enable version control on free plan, so it would be possible to build out new projects with peace of mind - or at least if you can please enable it on our account
So far we have not noticed losing progress on published versions.
@Vishnu_Ramamurthi our experience, if it helps you diagnose the problem
We have experienced major loss of progress on a multipage app (goolets.retool.com) . There were 2 developers working on a project, but never at the same time and they never left tabs opened.
It has happened twice that 2 days of progress have been lost, for both developers. When each one has opened the app from their computer, they did not see the changes made from the other. Before closing the app we have checked history tab that the changes made were recorded on server.
What happened: The usual. I reopened the app this morning and the last hour or so were gone. The changes in the history were there though, so I simply have to revert to one of the last changes made the day before to restore the state of the app
Losing progress like this is incredibly frustrating, especially when it impacts your workflow and deadlines. We know this isnāt just an inconvenience; itās a major disruption. I appreciate you all taking the time to share your experiences.
The team is actively working on fixes, and progress is being made to address these issues. Please keep sharing details, as it helps us ensure we catch all edge cases. I know this has been an ongoing pain, and I really appreciate your patience while we work toward a resolution. Weāll keep this thread updated as we have more to share.
What happened: Changes of about an hour of last days work we're gone.
When it happened: safety json downloaded at 22:02. 15.feb; Reopened app at 9:40 next day (GTM +7)
Browser/OS: Crome
Steps to reproduce: Do any edits on this project, come back next day and at least something is missing.
Before closing the app I've checked history tab, to see if changes were recorded there. I've exited with "go back home" button, not closing the tab. No other people were logged in to the project in the last 2 day (I've checked last login time in settings).
Side note: version control on free plan - on your website it is marked as included, but on pricing table in app it is not and it's not possible to use.
Hi @Gasper_Anderle1, thank you for sharing your experience, we added it to the internal report. On the other hand, could you point me to where on our website version control is marked as included in the free plan? We need to update that to prevent further confusion if that's the case.
I've just fallen foul of this bug AGAIN and now have to try and cherry-pick back through previous deployments to see if I can somehow reinstate lost changes when new changes have been deployed since. Very annoying.
That Source Control feature would sure come in handy to help alleviate this. Any chance of this feature being made available to the lower tiers to help users protect themselves from this issue?
As another update, The fix for Issue #3 (major progress loss) is now live. This should directly address the majority of issues @CWhite, @Gasper_Anderle1, @MiguelOrtiz, and others in this thread have been facing.
After some exploration, I've also discovered this should help with Issue #2 (minor progress loss), as well!
What we've started doing is validating saves on the backend, and if we detect that you are about to overwrite progress, we instead send your editor tab an error that looks like the image below.
Keep in mind, this currently requires each editor tab to be on the latest version of Retool - most of you guys already should be and the rest will be migrated over the next week, but to be safe I would recommend reloading all of the editor tabs you have open.
Iāll continue to actively monitor this issue, so please continue to send reports in this thread!
Just tagging this other thread. This is related to migrations deleting previous work, so not sure if it is the same scope of the fixes that you've reported.
That sounds like an instance of the save validation working as intended, @ferret141! Editing the same app across multiple browsers or tabs has historically been the primary cause for data loss, so I'm glad to hear that you didn't lose anything. Don't hesitate to follow up here if you notice anything else.
