User files in IsolatedStorage being lost in Windows Phone 8 app

Question

I'm developing my first Windows Phone 8 app and notice that occasionally when Visual Studio 2012 pushes a new debug version of my app to a physical device that user files in IsolatedStorage are being lost.

This doesn't happen all the time.

I've only noticed it happens when I've not done any development for a few days, make some changes, then debug against the physical phone.

Any idea why my user generated files may be getting lost?

I haven't noticed a pattern yet.

I've tried doing tests where I change version numbers in AssemblyInfo.cs and WMAppManifest.xml , but this doesn't seem to trigger the issue.

I'm a little concerned that when I release the app and provide upgrades then live users may end up losing their data.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

When you do a rebuild in Visual Studio then start debugging, your app will be uninstalled (which will remove all files in iso store) then reinstalled.

You don't need to worry when you publish your app to the store. If you deploy an update through the store, your app will be updated (instead of uninstalled then reinstalled) and all files should stay intact.