{
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  "path": "/t/urgent-support-request-lost-student-submission-records-in-space/176960#post_4",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-18T23:12:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://discuss.huggingface.co",
  "tags": [
    "(click for more details)"
  ],
  "textContent": "Hmm. In that case… if we are talking about salvaging the data from the Space itself, I think there is very little more that can be done from the user side at this point. But if we look outside the Space, there may still be a few possible recovery paths. The remaining part is probably the human/admin side of the incident:\n\n* * *\n\nI’ll avoid repeating the full storage explanation from my previous reply. The practical answer is:\n\n**From the Space itself:** probably no normal user-side recovery path remains.\n**Outside the Space:** there may still be recoverable copies.\n**Before reopening the form:** persistence needs to be fixed first.\n\n## What I would still try now\n\n### 1. Keep the Hugging Face support request open\n\nSince you already emailed Hugging Face, I would wait for their answer.\n\nIf there is any infrastructure-side recovery path, only Hugging Face can confirm that. But practically, I would not plan around that being possible. I would start the external-copy search immediately.\n\n### 2. Search for previously downloaded admin reports\n\nIf anyone downloaded the Excel report before the data disappeared, that file may still exist outside the Space.\n\nSearch admin machines, synced folders, and shared folders for names like:\n\n\n    specialization_report\n    submissions\n    specialization\n    .xlsx\n    .csv\n\n\nPlaces worth checking:\n\n  * browser download history\n  * local `Downloads` folder\n  * Desktop / Documents\n  * OneDrive / Google Drive / SharePoint\n  * Teams / WhatsApp / email attachments\n  * departmental shared drives\n  * backup/sync history, if available\n\n\n\n### 3. Ask students for acknowledgement files or screenshots\n\nThe app appears to generate downloadable acknowledgement HTML files. If students saved those files, they may contain their submitted choices.\n\nAsk students to search for files like:\n\n\n    acknowledgement_\n    acknowledgement_<student_id>.html\n    .html\n    specialization\n\n\nAlso ask for screenshots, printed pages, browser download history, or any saved acknowledgement page.\n\nThis may not reconstruct the original CSV perfectly, but it may recover enough records to reduce the damage.\n\n### 4. Keep a reconstruction log\n\nIf you start recovering records from acknowledgements, reports, screenshots, or emails, I would track where each reconstructed record came from.\n\nFor example:\n\nStudent ID | Source | Confidence | Notes\n---|---|---|---\n`<student_id>` | downloaded acknowledgement HTML | high | student sent original file\n`<student_id>` | screenshot | medium | manually transcribed\n`<student_id>` | previous admin Excel report | high | report downloaded before loss\n`<student_id>` | recollection / message | low | needs confirmation\n\nThis helps separate confirmed records from uncertain ones.\n\n## Why Space-side recovery is hard\n\nThe key problem is not simply that the file is missing. The problem is where the file probably lived.\n\nA committed file in the Space repository has Git history.\n\nA file written only inside the running Space container is runtime state. It is not automatically committed to the Hub repo, not automatically versioned, and not necessarily visible in the Space file browser.\n\nSo once that runtime state is gone, the user normally has nothing to roll back to.\n\nData path | What it means | User-side recovery expectation\n---|---|---\nCommitted Space repo file | Stored in Git/revisions | Maybe recoverable\nPrivate Dataset repo | Stored as a Hub dataset repo | Maybe recoverable\nAttached Storage Bucket | Persistent object storage / mounted volume | Maybe recoverable, depending on what happened\nExternal DB / Forms / Sheets | Stored outside the Space runtime | Depends on that system\nLocal file inside Space container only | Runtime-only state | Usually not recoverable after the runtime is gone\nDownloaded report / acknowledgement file | Copy outside the Space | Possibly recoverable\n\nSo for the lost `submissions.csv`, if it existed only as a local file inside the Space runtime and disappeared after restart/stop/rebuild/sleep/container replacement, then there is probably no normal user-side recovery path.\n\nThat is why the realistic remaining technical paths are:\n\n  1. wait for Hugging Face Support to confirm whether they have any internal recovery option;\n  2. search outside the Space for exported reports, acknowledgements, screenshots, or synced copies;\n  3. fix persistence before collecting anything again.\n\n\n\n## Human/admin side\n\nI cannot really advise what your institution should do. That is outside the technical side and should probably be handled by the department, course coordinator, IT/admin staff, or the relevant committee.\n\nBut I would document the incident clearly:\n\n  * what data was collected\n  * when collection opened\n  * when the data was last visible\n  * when the loss was noticed\n  * what recovery attempts were made\n  * which records were recovered from reports or acknowledgements\n  * which records remain missing\n  * whether a re-collection process is needed\n  * what technical change will be made before reopening the form\n\n\n\nIf the official record cannot be restored, the institution may need to decide whether to accept acknowledgement files, re-collect submissions, or use another official process.\n\n## Do not reopen the same workflow before fixing persistence\n\nBefore using this Space again for real student submissions, I would not rely on a local file inside the Space runtime.\n\nThe Space can be the UI, but the official record should be written somewhere persistent.\n\nHow persistence should be implemented next time (click for more details)",
  "title": "Urgent Support Request – Lost Student Submission Records in Space"
}