addressed Imported .vpj file into VideoPad is blank

[Shellody]

Shortly after making my son's graduation video in 2019, my computer crashed and I lost the whole file of all his photos I was using. Today I found a file that says graduation.vpj, so I installed VideoPad again and it asked if I wanted to open the current file or one that was saved. I tried both ways and there is nothing there. Is there anything I can do to retrieve the video? I've tried to search the forum but haven't been able to find anything. I lost almost all of his pictures and this would be such a blessing to have. 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[borate]

The VPJ file tells the program what to do, and where to find source material;  it's not playable.  Search for an Autosave.vpj file in C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Roaming/NCH Software/VideoPad.  Double-click it, and it should load your project.  Don't try to load it into Videopad.   If this fails, search for any VPJ on the PC and double-click on it.

While editing, Save Project File AS routinely, giving it a unique # or name, so as not to overwrite prior saves.  Using Save Project Files (no AS) will overwrite.  From the HOME tab, that choice is available by clicking the chevron to the right of the Save Project button on the toolbar.  Saved VPJ files are your protection, in case of PC failure.

Hopefully, the crash did not wipe out your photos.  Check the RECYCLE bin.  And, if you have File History turned on, look in its back-up folder.

To find it, type Control Panel into Windows search.  Click on File History.  It will reveal whether history is active and where it's being saved.    Let us know the result.

[Shellody]

Thank you very much for the information. I had saved the project often while making it under name1, name2 etc., but unfortunately I saved them in the same file as was deleted. I was making a copy from my pc to an external hard drive when Windows decided it had to update. This was 2 years ago when I was making my other son's graduation video, which was a week before shutdown so I wasn't able to bring it to anyone. I did run 2 different file recovery programs and knew exactly what I was looking for. We were able to recover a handful of pictures, but they were fragmented. The others are lost. We tried on both the laptop and the hard drive. The file had close to a 1000 photos in it. I foolishly still had them all on one pc. They had been saved on multiple disks and memory cards. I was trying to get organized and had succeeded with his photos. When I started my youngest's video I knew I needed a copy so something like that didn't happen. There wasn't anything in the recycle bin from that folder, even ones that I had deleted manually, my latest back up was corrupted and they were removed from Google Photos. I know Google can remove from the pc, but didn't know the pc could remove from Google. What's worse was my son was in Basic Training at the time and we were in the beginnings of a pandemic.  After trying to recover the photos, I transferred everything of value onto my new laptop (and another hard drive) and put the old one away. My younger son who's studying at Umich to be a computer engineer wants to take a look at the old laptop and see what he and his friends can do, so I was double checking what was left and found this file. Now that I know what to look for, I will do a search and hopefully I will find the Autosave the program asked about. 

I will let you know if I am able to find and open the file and if the pricey tuition pays off. 😁 Thank you for your help.

[borate]

The VPJ opens VP if it's not already running, and loads the project as it appeared when saved.  Hopefully the autosave.vpj or another will do the trick for you.

[HackerDaGreat57]

Very sad to hear about your situation Shellody.

I believe NCH has made a data recovery program: https://www.nchsoftware.com/data-recovery/index.html

Basically every function in Orion is completely free except for the "Deep Scan" feature, which can be executed up to 3 times before needing to buy the program.

[Shellody]

Thank you. I bought the program when it happened and used it to find the few files that I did. 

[HackerDaGreat57]

Great! 😊

Did all of your files get recovered? Or only a fraction of them? I just need to see if I should consider saving up for Orion as well.

[borate]

Test the free version.