All my nostr follows gone - how do I get them back? \ stacker news ~nostr

All my nostr follows gone - how do I get them back?

2168 sats \ 25 comments \ @franzap 22 May 2023 nostr

I was trying out the new Iris Nostr client and decided to follow someone new.

From that moment on, I noticed my follows count reset from about 130 to 1 (that last follow).

I logged onto Primal, Snort, the regular Iris... they all show I'm following just one npub! Very strange stuff.

My followers are intact because that data belongs to other people.

What could have happened? As far as I understand there are no deletions in nostr, so how would I go about getting my follows back? Overwriting whatever change new Iris applied?

Any pointers appreciated!

My npub: npub1wf4pufsucer5va8g9p0rj5dnhvfeh6d8w0g6eayaep5dhps6rsgs43dgh9

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714 sats \ 4 replies \ @k00b 22 May 2023

I would really like to see a NIP where each follow is just another event. The contact lists seem kind of orthogonal to the rest of the protocol and are one of my least favorite aspects of its design.

308 sats \ 1 reply \ @TonyGiorgio 23 May 2023

At least for something that is updated very often.

71 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Likes are more trivial than contact lists and take way more space.

Maybe the spec should've encouraged relays to make at least one backup instead of a SHOULD delete past contact lists.

419 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap OP 22 May 2023

Never paid attention to NIP-02:

Every new contact list that gets published overwrites the past ones, so it should contain all entries. Relays and clients SHOULD delete past contact lists as soon as they receive a new one.

That update probably made it to all relays which means my data is permanently lost.

It's very kind of you to say least favorite, I would say it's terrible design. Any client you authorize to sign gets full access to perform any writes and in this case can make you permanently lose data which is a form of censorship.

122 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 22 May 2023

Technically, any event on nostr could be removed by a client that you give unrestricted signing access to (assuming relays respect delete requests ... which the earnest ones probably do).

Browser plugins and clients should probably treat this kind as more special though because the design is extra brittle ... I suspect this was a bug/accident on the client and not intentional. It's a foot bazooka.

513 sats \ 2 replies \ @benthecarman 22 May 2023

https://metadata.nostr.com/ might work

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap OP 22 May 2023

Thanks, it doesn't work. All those relays have already overwritten my follow list.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @samsamskies 23 May 2023

doh. keep that site bookmarked and always visit it before trying a new client.

430 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 22 May 2023

It's happened to me twice. I backed everything up, restored. Still nothing. I have decided to ignore it.

213 sats \ 2 replies \ @franzap OP 22 May 2023

Interesting, this seems like a major problem and priorities upside down. All these clients implementing the cool NIPs but destroy your data?

How did you back up and restore, btw?

142 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 22 May 2023

Look in your settings tab along the left side of the screen on Iris. You can download your data.

I don't know if this matters, but once was on Ubuntu Linux, and once on Nixos Linux

142 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 22 May 2023

Thanks, on MacOS.

Got a 2kb JSON with almost nothing - too late. This is annoying AF.

381 sats \ 3 replies \ @blockstream_official 23 May 2023

Could try the Rebuild Following+ Connections button on Nostrgram 👀

📡 Blockstream npub: npub1jg552aulj07skd6e7y2hu0vl5g8nl5jvfw8jhn6jpjk0vjd0waksvl6n8n

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitb 23 May 2023

Nostrgram is sadly not being updated anymore

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Thank you. I get a spinner that never finishes. Strange UI.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Nostrgram shows my timeline and profile as if is was April 22nd. The upside is that I could retrieve more follows from that old list.

It is pulling data from relays that other clients use, so I have no idea why it's stuck in time.

Nostr is weird AF

1000 sats \ 5 replies \ @gbks 23 May 2023

Snort still has a your following list with 68 entries. I pasted the content here: https://nosbin.com/nevent1qqszv6teeds5swtqgggds49tdkj6mr6xwataq9ruh7e0hfy6tuhn8vcpzemhxue69uhkzarvv9ejumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqg4waehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvsq3wamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wvekhgtnhd9azucnf0gq3gamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wdau8gu3wv3jhvqgswaehxw309ahx7um5wgh8w6twv5q3jamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3w0fjkyetyv4jjucmvda6kgqghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxxatjwfjkuapwveukjqg5waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t0qyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaeky6tw9e3k7mgprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujummjv9hxwetsd9kxctnyv4mqzxrhwden5te0wfjkccte9eekummjwsh8xmmrd9skcr4ncf0

brb.io also has an older profile of yours with 43 follows.

I've been wanting to add a feature to Nosta (https://nosta.me/) that does a profile health check for exactly this type of stuff. I also lost my follower list before, and I have some messy notes attached to my profile from experimental clients. Would be nice to just have a tool that does a quick scan, point out inconsistent/outdated/malformed data, and lets you quickly fix things.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Thank you!

Agree that tools around this are needed, especially so that newbs or non techie people don't get too discouraged.

Btw after this incident it's been almost impossible to use Snort. Not sure if it's their issue and pure coincidence, connections to most relays fail.

I just went back to https://metadata.nostr.com and see I have 6 relays again when yesterday I had 12, it's a complete mess. Permissions in clients should be more fine grained.

22 sats \ 3 replies \ @gbks 23 May 2023

My experience with Snort is the same (no idea why). I use it for DMs, but for the feed I need to use Primal. Early days...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Trying to follow you via Nosta, clicking on Follow does nothing 😄

Very neat relay status overlay, shows I'm at least connected to 5

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Good to know!

Nosta looks amazing by the way

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @gbks 23 May 2023

Ah, sorry, the follow button is not implemented, I need to disable it. It's a side-side-side-project with a very long to-do list 😬.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 23 May 2023

Found 90 follows from the time I tried out Gossip on desktop. Need to figure out how to export from there.

Lesson learned: always back up your data because clients can and will do random things with your private key.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @fiatjaf 22 May 2023

https://metadata.nostr.com/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @franzap OP 22 May 2023

Thank you but it seems too late, all follows gone. At least for the listed relays on there.