Lost meta tags

[plc613]

Hi All.

My wife spent the better part of two weeks carefully entering meta info for her products(~50). I just noticed that for some reason they're all gone! Now admittedly, many things have changed since she entered this:

1) Moved the store from one host to another
2) Upgraded from 1.5.0 to 1.5.1
3) Various layout changes over an extended period
4) ran php script to change db collation from latin1_swedish_c1 to utf-8_general_c1

SO....I'm asking here for a best guess as it were, as to what the most logical/likely cause is? IMHO, of the changes made, the only ones affecting the db backend(where the tags are stored right?) is the migration to a different host and the collation. That said, export from old, import to new...done. Why would I have lost the tags(and only the tags). And that's just it, why the heck did I only loose the tags and nothing else? Perhaps it's none of the above!?

I can setup a staging area to restore backups until I get to the point where the tags are there but I'd rather not "fiddle" with things prior to having some logical reason for doing so.

Any advice, 2 cents, 3 cents...Since there's no apparent emoticon for me sitting in a dog house I'll go with this:

Our site is: littlecloset DOT ca

[Absolute]

First things first - phpMyAdmin - check your database and see if the Meta Data is even in your database. There is a table called meta_tags_products_description.

Does this table have any data in it?

If not, it may be quicker for you to install the backup on another database, and then just copy this data from one table to the other.

You need to check what other data has been affected as well, as product IDs "should" match up, but you will need to check.

Absolute

[plc613]

I'm 0 for 2 so far. The current db is, as suspected, empty in meta_tags_products_description.

The latest export pre-migration is also empty, sigh. Hope I can get a cheap heat lamp off kijiji...Still pretty col at night in my neck of the woods.

I'm combing through backups to find the second latest pre-migration export. I'll post back when I see that one.

[plc613]

Well it's been nice knowing yall...I've gone as far back as I can and still that table is empty.

I'll probably never know but it would be real interesting to find out how the heck that got delete. If you need me I'll be in the little house at the back with my best friend.