Won't save and deletes randomly

[labratmischeif]

So in my first lmms project I was working on the project just randomly messed up and undo wouldn't get it back to normal so I deleted it and started over, this time saving after every instrument I added to make sure if this happened again I could fix it. After working on the project for two hours it randomly deletes all the notes that I put in, all the instruments I added are still there but no beats, just empty. No problem I think, ill just load my save, and lo and behold that was somehow completely empty of beats too, only had my instruments. Not being able to save and randomly deleting itself kind of makes this daw completely unusable, but unfortunately I have tried several other daws and they just aren't as good for what I want to do and it is extreamly frustrating. I really really like lmms I just please please want it to work and not eat my project because I don't really want to spend hours on something that not only wont save natively I cant even just make it all and then record it with audacity because it might eat itself before I get to the end of the project. The fixes I saw for people with similar problems dont really apply, because my laptop was indeed plugged in and I saved over and over so even if it didn't save right once why would it not save literally any of the times? I saw something about backup files and im not sure if one exists or not, but I really need this to be fixed in a way where I won't have to go hunting for a back up file every time I try to make something... Thank you so much please help I am so deeply upset that lmms is broken and every other daw is either terrible for what I want or costs 200 dollars

[musikbear]

First off, Welcome to the Forum labratmischeif !
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randomly deletes all the notes that I put in, all the instruments I added are still there but no beats, just empty.

That is very, especially because

laptop was indeed plugged in

That was indeed a possible, but in fact only if the user shuts down imediately.

and I saved over and over

That you should not do, because that would make the backup corrupted if the main-project-file was damaged.

I saw something about backup files and im not sure if one exists

All about backup and file security is here:
https://docs.lmms.io/user-manual/4-production/4.1

But lets get back to your issue.
I presume you are using LMMS 1.2.2 or newer, that it is from our site: https://docs.lmms.io/ -and NOT from some 'cool-programs.cheat.ru' dubious site(???) and on a windows pc (?)

The first thing i can think of is that you have a disk-writing error on your harddrive.
I recommend you to do some read/write tests:
Type cmd or command into the taskbar search field and click Command Prompt to open the Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt, type in wmic diskdrive get status and press Enter. If the status reads OK, that means you've passed the Windows 10 hard drive test and your hard drive is healthy.

If that test show OK then the next possible reason could be that you have saved your files in the program-directory under windows.
That you should never do!
That directory is for windows os controlled activity, and never user-files!

You also says that its sad that LMMS is broken. Yes it would be, but it is not. The problems you have are only on your system. LMMS is not broken.

Try the forementioned and see if it helps
If not please post your:
* Name of your Operative System (Windows/ Linux/ Mac) And subtype (Home' 'Mint' '10.13' aso)
* lmms version, and the site where you got it from
* hardware specification (ram & soundcard is the most important)
Goto: C:\Users\<Username>\
There you have a file named .lmmsrc.xml
Open that in notepad
Copy and paste the content here (If you feel there is sensitive data, then delete it from the copy-paste