If you’re missing a task or project in OmniFocus, the following troubleshooting steps will help you find the missing data or collect enough information to pass on to our Support team for further assistance. It’s rare that OmniFocus ever loses data entirely, so these troubleshooting steps are a great place to start.
Are they hidden by your current View settings?
A task or project can be hidden in certain perspectives by a defer date in the future, a tag with “on hold” status, etc. The following steps work best from the built-in Projects or Tags perspectives. To rule the View settings out as the cause, try these steps:
- Launch OmniFocus and enter the perspective you expect to find the task(s) or project(s) in.
- Click/tap the View (eye) icon in the OmniFocus toolbar.
- Click/tap to select the All option.
- Look for the missing items.
Note
If you are using OmniFocus for Mac, it can also be helpful to choose from the top menubar: View > Expand All.
If you are using OmniFocus for the Web, it can also be helpful to click the disclosure triangles until everything is expanded (many views start out collapsed to help them load quickly in your web browser).
Were they accidentally changed or marked complete?
The steps above should locate the missing items for you if they were accidentally changed or marked complete. But just to be sure, please try the following:
- Launch OmniFocus and enter the Changed perspective.
- On a Mac: Choose from the top menubar: Perspectives > Changed.
- On an iOS device: Near the bottom of the OmniFocus Home screen, tap Show to reveal your Other Perspectives, then tap Changed.
- The items in this perspective are sorted chronologically based on the last changed date. Look near the top of the list for your missing items.
Note
If the missing item is a folder, the Changed perspective will not return folders in the list of results, even if they were changed recently.
Can you find them by using the Search feature?
Again, the steps above should work for you if your missing data is still in the database somehow, but to be extra sure you can also use the Search function.
On a Mac:
- Launch OmniFocus.
- In the toolbar’s Search field, click the magnifying glass with small down-arrow icon and select Search Everything.
- Type a portion of the title of the missing item in the Search field.
- Look for the missing item in the Search results that appear.
On an iOS device:
- From the OmniFocus Home screen, tap the Search (magnifying glass) icon.
- Tap the Everything tab to switch the Search parameters.
- Type a portion of the title of the missing item in the Search field.
- Look for the missing item in the Search results that appear.
Are they in an archive or automatic backup of your OmniFocus database?
If you haven’t located the missing items after trying all the above steps, it’s likely they aren’t in the current copy of your database anymore. If you have OmniFocus for Mac and use the Archive feature, it’s a good idea to check the Archive file for the missing items in case they were accidently marked complete and then moved to your archive. To check that, choose from the top menubar: File > Open Archive, and search in your Archive window for the missing items.
If your missing items were accidentally deleted at some point, backups are likely the best option for trying to recover them.
Option #1 - Search automatic backups on your Mac
OmniFocus for Mac backs itself up regularly. If you can find the missing items in a backup file, you can copy-paste them back into your current active database window. To view your backups, choose from the top menubar: File > Show Backups in Finder. Make sure the Finder window is sorting them by name (the date/time stamp is saved in the name of each backup file). Work your way backwards chronologically, starting from the latest one. Double-click a file in the list to open a separate window displaying that backup. Use the steps in the “Can you find them by using the Search feature?” section above to search within each backup file until you locate the missing items.
Note
OmniFocus backup windows are differentiated from your active syncing OmniFocus window by the yellow bar underneath the toolbar, which reads: “OmniFocus Backup - [Date] [Time]”.
Option #2 - Revert to a backup on an iOS device
If you don’t have access to your Mac, or don’t have OmniFocus for Mac, you can revert your entire OmniFocus database to an earlier OmniFocus for iOS backup. This method is time-sensitive because those backups get overwritten every day. The OmniFocus for iOS app only stores one automatic backup at any given time, to save storage space on your device. Keep in mind that restoring a backup loses all edits that have been made since the backup was created.
If you are reasonably certain the missing items are in the iOS version backup, and you’ve already made a note of any changes/new items made since the time of the backup (so that you can manually re-enter them after reverting to the backup), follow the steps in this article to revert to your OmniFocus for iOS backup.
Would they be on one of the server’s snapshot backups from the past week?
The Omni Sync Servers save a snapshot of all your OmniFocus and OmniPresence data, once every 24ish hours, for the past seven days. Snapshots older than 7 days are overwritten with the new snapshots. We cannot tell if your missing items are in any of the snapshots currently on the server, because your data is encrypted. However, if you’re reasonably sure that the missing items would be in one of those snapshots, we are happy to swap one of them in, overwriting your current, actively-syncing database.
This method, similar to reverting to a backup on one of your devices, loses any changes you’ve made to your database since the date of the snapshot that we swap in. Please make sure to note any changes manually so that you can re-enter them after the swap.
To explore this option with our Support team, please email us from the email address that is associated with your Omni Account, asking to see a list of snapshot server backups so that you can pick the specific snapshot you’d like us to swap in for you.
