When settings or the history start afresh

Snotra keeps your settings, the list of recent folders and the chat history in files in its profile folder. Since 1.24 If one of them cannot be read, Snotra does not write over it. It puts the file aside unchanged and tells you so in a notice under the title bar.

What you need

Nothing beyond the app. Showing the old file uses your file manager: Finder on macOS, Explorer on Windows.

Steps: when a file was put aside

The notice says Your model settings were reset., The chat history starts empty. or a similar line, depending on the file. Below it you see the file’s name and the full path of the copy Snotra kept, for example llm-config.json.unreadable-2026-10-16T09-12-44-120Z.

1. Choose Reveal in Finder (Show in Explorer on Windows) in the notice to see the copy.
2. Set up again what was reset: your models under Settings › Models, the web search key and the MCP servers under Settings › Tools › Setup. The view settings and the list of recent folders fill themselves again as you work.
3. Close the notice with ×. It does not come back for this file until something happens to the file again.

Keep the copy until you are sure you do not need it. Snotra never deletes it.

What happens

The file could not be understood. Its content was damaged — a crash while it was written, a sync tool, an edit by hand — or it was written by a newer version of Snotra than the one running now, for example after you went back to an older release. Snotra renames the file by adding .unreadable- and the time, then starts that part afresh. Every byte of the old file is still in the copy.

For the chat history the copy is the whole folder, chat-history.unreadable-…, or chat-history.undecryptable-… when it could not be decrypted with this system’s key; see Keychain questions and encrypted storage for that case. Since 1.25 When only one chat’s file is damaged, only that file is put aside inside the folder, and the notice says One chat could not be read and is missing from the history. Your other chats stay. A history from before 1.25 is kept as chat-history.json.unreadable-… or chat-history.json.undecryptable-….

When changes are not saved

A notice in red says Changes to your model settings are not saved. or the same for another file. Snotra found the file but could not read it or could not move it aside — another program holds it, or its permissions changed. So it leaves the file as it is and skips the save, rather than write over what is in it.

1. Choose Reveal in Finder (Show in Explorer on Windows) in the notice to see the file.
2. Close the program that may hold it — a sync or backup tool, an editor — or give your user account the right to read and write it again.
3. Change the setting once more.

What happens then: as soon as a save goes through, the red notice disappears by itself.

The chat history has a banner of its own in the chat for this case; see When a chat is not being saved.

If it doesn’t work

• I want the old settings back. Quit Snotra. In the profile folder, delete or rename the new file, then rename the copy back to its original name — llm-config.json, for example. Start Snotra. If the copy was damaged, it is put aside again; if it was written by a newer version, install that version again.
• The notice comes back at every start. Something keeps damaging the file — most often a sync tool working on the profile folder. Keep the profile folder out of OneDrive, Dropbox or iCloud Drive.
• The red notice stays. The file is still held or still not readable. Restart your computer to release every hold on it, then change the setting again.