My canvas looks empty or data seems missing

1. Right workspace?

   Look at the first breadcrumb (colored dot + name). If you have several workspaces, your work may simply live in another one — click the crumb and switch.

2. Right browser & profile?

   Without a connected folder, data lives in the browser profile where you created it. Chrome work profile vs. private profile, Chrome vs. Edge, normal vs. incognito — each is a separate storage. Open visualOS where you originally worked.

3. Folder connected — but the right one? And readable?

   Settings → Folder & Workspace: is the folder the one that actually contains your data? If the folder is on a cloud drive, is it downloaded (Keep Downloaded)? If visualOS can’t read the folder it shows a message and touches nothing.

4. Deep in a sub-folder, or just far away?

   Press Shift+1 (Fit all) — maybe the content is just outside the current view. Use search (Cmd/Ctrl+F) for a word you know you wrote; it looks through every folder.

5. Just deleted something?

   Cmd/Ctrl+Z. Deleted folders and elements restore completely for several minutes — files included. The safety net.

6. Restore a version

   With a connected folder: Settings → Versions lists automatic snapshots of earlier states — pick the one from before things went sideways. Your current state is backed up first, so trying a version is risk-free. Guide. Also check your folder for canvas-data.conflict-….json files — every “losing” version of any conflict is preserved there and restorable from the same list.

The architecture behind the calm

visualOS never overwrites data it can’t safely read, snapshots before every substantial replacement, keeps conflict copies of both sides, and refuses destructive operations whose backup failed. If data seems gone, the overwhelmingly likely truth is: it’s somewhere safe — one of the steps above finds it.