How can I retrieve my missing inventory in Second Life?

Welcome back Anna

There have been some continuing problems with Inventory recently. If you don't have it installed yet, download and install the latest Linden Viewer 2 and try using that to see if your inventory shows up.

One way to retrieve missing inventory is to do a cache clear, although after being away for so long, I'm assuming that whatever viewer you were using before needed to be replaced when you logged back in again, so you *should* be starting on a fresh, empty cache. It's still worth doing though.

The best option is a manual clear and to do that:

For WindowsXP Go to

C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\AppData\SecondLife

For Windows Vista Go to

C:\Users\ <user name>\AppData\Local\SecondLife

For Windows 7 Go to

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife

Delete all the files in that folder, then restart the viewer.

NOTE: You may need to go to Windows Tools > Folder Options > View & enable Show Hidden Files/Folders, in order to find the folder you want.

If you are using Phoenix viewer: while in SL, look in preferences and you will see the route path to the cache for that viewer. Follow that path (you can open it from the viewer, but once opened shut down SL first) and delete all the contents of the indicated folder.

Before restarting SL, run the disk cleanup program on your computer and make sure you include the contents of the trash can.

If you are getting no joy from the Linden Viewer, try downloading and installing the Phoenix Viewer from here:

http://www.phoenixviewer.com/

If none of these things work, then it looks very much like SL's servers have eaten your inventory.

BTW Anna. I did get your message, but trying to locate you in SL came up with no search result for you. Can you make sure you are set so that non-friends can locate and see you online please?

Does your inventory show the word "(Loading...)" at the top, or when you try to open a folder? If it does, then your stuff is not gone but the system is struggling to retrieve it. It will eventually come back.

If your inventory is *completely empty* then it looks like it was stripped by Linden Lab for dormancy. They don;t often do this unless you previously had a premium account, but I guess they might, or else something went wrong. There were numerous problems with the asset servers a year or two ago.

If it doesn't show "Loading", then it would seem that it's all gone for good. If you are really lucky you might be able to persuade content creators to let you have another copy (some keep permanent records of sales and wold be able to tell that you purchased something from so long ago). Those who don't keep long-term records probably wouldn't help, and you'd just have to bite the bullet and re-buy them.

The chance of getting any help from Linden Lab themselves is pretty much zero. I don't think they keep backups of inventories so even if they could be bothered to answer support tickets (which they never do) they would be as incapable of retrieving your inventory as you are.

If it's any consolation though, even if your stuff was all still there, you'd probably want to replace it anyway. Quality of products in general has come forward in leaps and bounds, and two year old hair and clothes would look very dated now.

Second Life Inventory

it's an interesting question