This article contains a list of steps you can take in order to retrieve lost inventory. While some of the steps presented may not appear to be relevant to your type of inventory loss, you should read through the entire article and follow all applicable steps. None of the procedures here can damage your inventory, so when in doubt, try them all!

COMMON SOLUTIONS

Clearing Second Life's cache

Second Life® uses hard drive space on your computer to store data, including a list of items in your inventory. If this cache becomes corrupted or your Viewer did not completely fetch your inventory, items in your inventory may erroneously appear to be missing. In many cases, your items are not lost and will reappear after you clear Second Life's cache:

Go to Edit > Preferences on the menu bar.
Click the Network tab.
Click the Clear Cache button.
Exit Second Life.
Log back into Second Life.
Wait in place for 5 minutes; Second Life needs to reload much of your previously cached information.

Object Missing From Database Error Message

If you get an "Object Missing From Database" error message when you rez an item from your inventory, don't panic! Sometimes Second Life is able to automatically recover your missing object. To see if Second Life was able to recover your missing object, you should wait one hour, clear your cache as described above, logout and then log back into Second Life and look in your Inventory window to see if the item has reappeared.

Region issues

The Region you are in may experience technical difficulties, especially in high traffic areas. This behavior can prevent you from rezzing items from your inventory. If you are unable to escape to another Region, exit Second Life and log back into a different Region:

Go to Edit > Preferences on the menu bar.
Click the General tab.
Turn on the option Show Start Location on Login Screen.
Exit Second Life.
Launch Second Life, but don't login yet.
Enter Sandbox Newcomb, or another known Region name, into Start Location.
Click Log In.

Try to find a Region with a low Traffic score and relatively few objects- such Regions generally experience less strain, and are less likely to exhibit symptoms like inventory loss.

PERCEIVED INVENTORY LOSS

Sometimes it may appear that you have lost part of your inventory because outside forces can prevent Second Life from displaying your inventory properly. Remember, common solutions and search techniques can often solve a case of perceived inventory loss!

Connectivity problems

An unstable Internet connection can lead to apparent inventory loss in Second Life. High packet loss may cause your inventory to fail to retrieve a complete list of items from Second Life's servers. Wireless and satellite connections are unsupported for this reason, and other types of connectivity may yield similar results.

You may also experience a temporary problem with Second Life or your connection to the Internet. If the list of items in your inventory usually loads without incident, temporary inventory loss may go away within 24 hours. In addition, clear your cache as described in Clearing Second Life's cache, log out and then log back in and look in your Inventory window to see if the items have reappeared.

Inventory Item Count

The Item Count in the Inventory window is not always precise. It represents the number of items that have been successfully downloaded to your Viewer. Thus, when the number changes it does not mean you have actually lost or gained inventory items. If you notice the number has dropped significantly and the Viewer has finished fetching your items then try Clearing Second Life's cache, log out and then log back in and look in your Inventory window to see if the items have reappeared.

SEARCH TECHNIQUES

Did the objects vanish after being returned?

The Coalesce feature may cause confusion by making it appear that objects have vanished instead of being returned to your inventory. When a group of objects gets returned, they are merged into a single coalesced listing, in your inventory's Lost and Found folder. This happens when you or the owner of a parcel exercises their ability to return objects to their owner.

For example, imagine you have a living room. Inside the living room there is a television, coffee table, sofa, rug and a remote control. Then, by accident, everything is returned! To locate the returned objects, you search through your inventory, but after searching, the only object you can locate is the remote control. Where did everything else go? The television, coffee table, sofa and rug have been merged with the remote control. Simply drag the remote control from your inventory onto the ground everything else that was returned with the remote control should appear.

Trivia: Icons are used to represent different types of items in your inventory. the icons used for objects and coalesced objects are similar, but different. The object has an icon that looks like a cube, and the coalesced object has an icon that looks like a stack of cubes.

Use the steps below to locate objects that have been recently coalesced and returned to your inventory:

Click the Inventory button.
In the Inventory window, go to Sort > By Date.
Locate the Lost and Found folder.
From top to bottom, work through the list of objects, dragging each coalesced object onto the ground until you locate the missing objects. Alternatively, look for coalesced objects that you know were returned on the same or similar dates as when you lost your objects.

Inventory Filters

The Filters panel in your Inventory window contains a list of different inventory types. To learn how to use the Filters panel, follow the steps below:

Click the Inventory button.
Inside the Inventory window, choose File > Reset Filters.
Choose File > Show Filters.

Here, we make adjustments so that we only view Objects (and not textures, animations, etc) in the search results:

Click the None button to turn off all filtering type options.
Go back and turn on the Objects option.

To view objects placed into your inventory within the last 7 days:

Enter "7" into Days Ago.
Press the Enter key.

To find your own filtering style, experiment with the options in the Filters panel. If you ever need to reset all options back to their defaults, simply go to File > Reset Filters.

OTHER TIPS & TRICKS

No Copy Objects

No Copy objects will be deleted from your inventory when placed inworld or transferred to another Resident. Objects without the (no copy) tag will remain in your inventory when you place them inworld or give them to another Resident.

Recent Items

In the Inventory window, the Recent Items tab allows you to see objects that have been received or edited since the last time you logged off.

Use the Mini-Map to locate your objects

The Mini-Map can be a useful tool to help you locate objects inworld. To activate the Mini-Map, click the Mini-Map button at the bottom of the screen.

Can I re-size the Mini-Map?

Yes. Click and drag the mouse at the bottom-right corner to the Mini-Map window.

Can I zoom in on the Mini-Map?

Yes. Right-click the Mini-Map window and choose Zoom Close. The Mini-Map's default is Zoom Medium. You can also use your mouse wheel to control zoom on the Mini-Map.

What do the different colors mean?

Cyan (light blue) represents your objects.
Pink represents objects deeded to a group of which you are a member.
Gray represents objects that belong to other Residents.

Select Only My Objects

The Tools menu has a useful option that allows you to select only objects that are owned by you. This can help locate all your objects in the immediate area; they may be hidden by other Residents' objects.

Go to Tools > Select Only My Objects on the menu bar.
Go to Tools > Select Tool > Edit on the menu bar.
Now that the Edit tool is activated, click-and-drag your mouse to make a selection. Only your objects will be highlighted, possibly revealing the object you were unable to see before.

Locate items lost underground

Objects may be lost underground as the result of an editing mistake or changes in terrain. The following steps provide instructions to help locate objects that may be stuck underground.

First, hide the ground: Activate the Advanced menu at the top of the Second Life window. Then, choose Advanced > Rendering > Types > Surface Patch.
Press Esc to deactivate any open windows and close the chat box
Hold down the Alt key and press Page Up or Page Down. This allows you to rotate your camera, locating any of your objects that may be buried underground.

Invisible objects

It may be impossible to see some objects if they are invisible. The Highlight Transparent feature allows you to view invisible objects. Transparent objects will turn translucent red once this feature has been enabled.

Go to View > Highlight Transparent on the menu bar.

Beacons

Often, objects you are looking for may contain a script. Beacons make it easy to locate any objects that contain a script.

Go to View > Beacons > Scripted Objects on the menu bar.

If the beacons don't appear to be working, make sure the Render Beacons option is enabled. This draws cross-hairs over any beacons, making them easier to locate.

Go to View > Beacons > Render Beacons on the menu bar.

There is an option that increases the line width used for beacons, making them easier to view. This is especially useful when Second Life is displayed at a high resolution.

Go to View > Beacons > Beacon Width on the menu bar.
Select "4" or a higher value.

Request a replacement

Many merchants understand that items may be lost during unique circumstances. If recovery efforts fail, contact the merchant and request a replacement.

How many items are in your inventory?

Keeping your inventory tidy is always a good idea. If your inventory has more than 10,000 items, it may not load in a timely fashion. To make sure your inventory loads quickly and properly, go through the list of items in your inventory and remove any items you no longer want or need. Moving objects into folders is easier when using a second Inventory window. From Inventory, go to File > New Window. Drag inventory from one window to another.

COMMON CAUSES OF INVENTORY LOSS

Inventory offers declined while in Busy Mode

Any inventory offers to your avatar while in Busy Mode are automatically declined. To locate items that have been declined, search your Trash folder; all declined inventory offers go to your Trash.

Is a friend allowed to modify your objects?

Friends who have modify rights to your objects can move them around, possibly to a location where someone may return or delete them. Modify rights also allow friends to take copies of objects that are copyable. When a friend with modify rights takes a copy of your object, next owner permissions are applied to the copied object.

Land owned by a Resident

A Resident who owns a parcel of land can return or delete any objects placed onto their land. Second Life sends notifications when objects are returned, but not for objects that have been deleted.

Land deeded to a group

A group member with the ability to return objects can return or delete objects placed on group-owned land. Typically, Owners and Officers of a group have this ability.

Second Life sends notifications when objects are returned, but not for objects that have been deleted.

Shared or deeded to group

An object that is shared or deeded to group can be manipulated or possibly taken by group members with the Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects ability. Typically, Owners and Officers of a group have this ability.

Shared or deeded objects may have been taken or moved to another location and later returned or deleted.

Objects which are Shared with group and taken by a group member who does not own the object, will have next owner permissions applied. This can possibly restrict your ability to modify or copy them. Best practice: Make sure you have a copy of your own object before setting it to Share with group.

Objects which are deeded to group can only be moved or taken by group members with the Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects ability.

Private Regions

Objects located on a Private Region (a Region owned by a Resident) can be returned by the Region owner or an Estate Manager. Second Life sends notifications when objects are returned.

Autoreturn

Objects not owned by the land owner, or not set to the group to which the land is deeded, will be returned after a set time limit if About Land > Objects > Autoreturn is enabled. Returned objects can be found in your Lost and Found folder and may be coalesced.

Decrease in available prims

The number of primitives a land parcel supports is calculated by the total square meters of land owned by a resident or group in a Region. If the total square meters of land decreases, the parcel may no longer support the primitives on the land, resulting in the return of any excess objects.

Example: Larry owns two parcels of land in a Region. Each parcel of land is 512 square meters. The total square meters of land owned by Larry is 1024 square meters. Normally, 512 square meters of land supports 117 primitives and 1024 square meters of land 234 primitives. Larry can place all 234 primitives on one of his parcels. However, if Larry deeds one of these parcels to a group or sells it to another resident, the remaining parcel will only support 117 primitives. Any extra primitives will be returned according to how long they have been on the parcel, youngest age first.

Inventory accidentally placed into an object

Items may have been accidentally dragged from your Inventory window and placed into an object.

Items like notecards and sounds cannot be rezzed inworld. If you drag them from the Inventory window onto an inworld object, they will be placed into that object. An object can be placed into another inworld object if the CTRL key is pressed while dragging an object from the Inventory window onto the inworld object.

To see the contents of an inworld object, and possibly locate any inventory accidentally placed into it, right click the object and choose Edit. Then, in the Edit window, click the Content tab.

Items accidentally given to another avatar

It is possible your items may have been given to another Resident. There are three ways this can happen. If you:

Drag items from your Inventory window onto an avatar inworld.
Drag items from your Inventory window onto someone else's profile window.
Drag items from your Inventory window into an open IM window.

ACTUAL INVENTORY LOSS

Inventory never received

A malfunction or Region issue may cause a scripted vendor to fail to deliver purchased items. Unfortunately, there is nothing Second Life Support can do to help recover items that were never received.

Contact the Resident that sold the items, and explain that you never received your purchase. If you are unsure who to contact, you may look at your transaction history:

Visit http://www.secondlife.com/account/transactions.php

Loss of objects as the result of a Region crash

Recently rezzed objects that are missing after a Region crash may likely be lost. A Region rolls back to a previously saved state when it recovers from a crash. Sadly, anything lost as the result of a Region crash cannot be recovered.

SURVEY

Please include the following information when submitting a ticket to Support about your lost inventory:

What were you doing when your inventory item(s) were lost?

[ ] Nothing, items disappeared from my inventory and item count is lower.
[ ] Items were auto-returned from parcel but I never received them.
[ ] Item was purchased from a vendor but I never received it.
[ ] Item was taken from land INTO my inventory when it disappeared.
[ ] Item was being taken OUT of inventory (rezzing into world) when it disappeared.
[ ] Item was given TO another avatar who never received it.
[ ] Item was being received FROM another avatar but I never received it.
[ ] I was wearing the an item/attachment when it disappeared.
[ ] I was attaching or detaching an item/attachment when it disappeared.
[ ] The item was sitting on my land when it disappeared.
[ ] Other, please describe.

How many items did you lose?

What were the names of the items? Just list the top 3 using their exact names if possible.
How many items do you have in your inventory now? Bring up the Inventory window and look at the top of the window. If not visible then click on the Recent Items tab to see.

Did folders disappear and if so what were their names?
When did this happen (use PDT/PST Date/Time)?
What Region did this occur in?
Was anything happening shortly prior or when you lost your items including:

[ ] Lots of lag
[ ] Viewer crash
[ ] Region Crash
[ ] Manual Region rollback
[ ] Rolling restart
[ ] Second Life Grid problems
[ ] Teleporting
[ ] Region crossing
[ ] Other, please describe

What type of item was this?

[ ] Scripted object
[ ] Non-scripted object
[ ] Clothing
[ ] Gesture
[ ] Texture or image
[ ] Script
[ ] Animation
[ ] Landmark
[ ] Notecard
[ ] Bodypart
[ ] Sound

Please be sure to update the support ticket if you find the item.

Linden Lab Official:Inventory: Complete recovery steps and information about perceived loss

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