How to recover corrupted Eclipse workspace?

Question

I just managed to corrupt contents of my Eclipse .metadata directory. Starting up with eclipse -clean did not work out. Deleting .metadata and then importing all projects, p

Answer 1

This thread may be a bit older, but since this still is a problem nowadays, I thought I’d propose a new solution for backing up Eclipse.

• At http://profiles.yatta.de you can download the Yatta Eclipse Launcher. You can use it to save your Eclipse and workspace setup.

• After installation, the Launcher will discover your existing Eclipse installations and workspaces.

• Click the Upload & Share button (the blue one) on the right of the entry you want to back up.

(You won’t actually “share” your Eclipse or workspace with anyone. You’ll just upload a setup file with your metadata that only you have access to yourself . You could share this later, but you can also just use it as a backup).

If you do that, you’ll be able to re-setup your IDE really fast if you ever have a fragged workspace or Eclipse installation.

Answer 2

In my case only removing org.eclipse.e4.workbench directory (under .metadata/.plugins) and restarting Eclipse solved the problem.

Answer 3

If the workspace is not that big you could backup to say dropbox as a private locked folder.

Answer 4

When workspace is damaged and Eclipse cannot start, even using the -clean option, removing single file workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap may help (source: comments to article https://web.archive.org/web/20200517003712/https://letsgetdugg.com/2009/04/19/recovering-a-corrupt-eclipse-workspace/).

Update: when Eclipse 4.X cannot start after crash, try to start with -clearPersistedState option; if it didn't help then remove file workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench/workbench.xmi (sources: https://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/m/1269045/ https://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/522428/ https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=404873). Note: you'll lose configuration of your perspective/views/tabs.

Update: Subversive plugin may be responsible for inability to start Eclipse with corrupted metadata. If you have Subversive plugin installed, update it to latest build (at least 0.7.9.I20120210-1700) from update-site. Related bugs 372621 and 370374 were fixed by Subversive developers.

Answer 5

You should be able to start your workspace after deleting the following file: .metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.e4.workbench\workbench.xmi as shown here :

Answer 6

None of the above worked for me. But what actually worked was deleting all *.snap files from my workspace. This also preserves almost all settings including imported projects. Make sure to back up the workspace before trying it though!!!