Umbraco - partials etc. inside webmatrix but gone from content tree after restart

Question

I'm pretty new to Umbraco, and I'm hoping this is something obvious not yet covered in the PluralSight course.

I've just installed Umbraco 7, standard install using SQL Server CE via MS Web Matrix. I use WebMatrix to fire up Umbraco CMS and then I browse to http://localhost:58507/umbraco to login and create my DataTypes, DocumentTypes and pages etc.

I save my work using Save & Publish and I can see my changes etc. but if I restart my laptop and go back into Umbraco all of my work is gone. No DataTypes, no DocumentTypes... just the defaults. Inside the solution tree in WebMatrix I can see my work - my uploaded media, partials and views. But they do not appear in the content tree.

This happens every time I restart the machine. What on earth am I doing wrong?

Is the embedded DB file being created in the App_Data folder? I cannot imagine using Web Matrix would cause the data directory to be placed in a different location but its worth checking. — Anth12

VictorySaber VictorySaber · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-04T10:12:05

The problem comes from the combination of Web Matrix with SQL Server CE, as explained in this Umbraco forum post it has been an issue seen as early as Umbraco 4.

SQL Server CE by default has a 10 second delay in sending data to be written to the DB. If in that time Web Matrix has an issue, or you close/restart it, that data can be lost. This explains why the problem for me was intermittent.

The fix is to download Microsoft SQL Server Express and use that instead (or the full blown SQL Server if you have it).

Umbraco - partials etc. inside webmatrix but gone from content tree after restart

1 Answers