# Flows disappear when restarting Raspberry pi

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [19 December 2021 16:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439 "2021-12-19T16:30:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Loonhaunt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loonhaunt/32/34517_2.png) [@Loonhaunt](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loonhaunt)\
**Post date:** [19 December 2021 16:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/1 "2021-12-19T16:30:11Z")

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How do I keep flows from disappearing when I power down or restart my Rpi? I don't know how to recover a flow. This doesn't seem to be consistent. I can work on a flow add nodes create functions etc. If I close my browser and re-open many times the flow that I have just worked on is gone?

DB

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**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [19 December 2021 16:39 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/2 "2021-12-19T16:39:17Z")

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When you press the Deploy button - Node-RED should update your flows.json file on the Pi that NR is running on.

What I have experienced - is that if the the SD card goes into read-only mode (as its worn out) when I actually restart my Pi - the flows are gone.

They don't go until the filing system is restarted as changes are held in RAM so you don't notice that the SD-card is in a failure mode until the filing system is restarted

Doesn't sound exactly your experience but I'd blame the Pi hardware/OS software rather than Node-RED if experiencing such issues

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**Author:** ![Loonhaunt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loonhaunt/32/34517_2.png) [@Loonhaunt](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loonhaunt)\
**Post date:** [19 December 2021 16:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/3 "2021-12-19T16:42:27Z")

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Thanks I am going to watch for that. I will post results.

DB

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**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [19 December 2021 17:35 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/4 "2021-12-19T17:35:23Z")

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Add some nodes to your flow and deploy, then look in your .node-red folder and check the timestamp on the flows file is showing the time you deployed, and note the file size. Then do a power cycle (not just a reboot, a power off, wait a minute, and power on again). Then check the file timestamp and size. If it has gone back in time then chuck the SD card in the bin and start again.

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**Author:** ![Loonhaunt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loonhaunt/32/34517_2.png) [@Loonhaunt](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loonhaunt)\
**Post date:** [4 January 2022 14:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/5 "2022-01-04T14:32:48Z")

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I was not always deploying changes prior to closing window. Thanks for the tip.

Loon

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**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [4 January 2022 14:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/6 "2022-01-04T14:46:17Z")

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> [@Loonhaunt](#):
>
> I was not always deploying changes prior to closing window

The browser should have warned you that you were closing it with unsaved changes. Did that not happen?

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**Author:** ![Loonhaunt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/loonhaunt/32/34517_2.png) [@Loonhaunt](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Loonhaunt)\
**Post date:** [4 January 2022 14:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/7 "2022-01-04T14:49:29Z")

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It did not! I am using FireFox on most systems. I will need to pay more attention to that.

Loon

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**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [4 January 2022 15:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/8 "2022-01-04T15:14:31Z")

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So if you, for example, move a node and then close the window you don't get a warning?

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [5 March 2022 15:15 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/flows-disappear-when-restarting-raspberry-pi/55439/9 "2022-03-05T15:15:23Z")

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