@pbar Peter it is a workaround rather than a fix and I must admit that I am at a loss to understand why someone chose to create this “feature”!?
However, I am glad you brought it to our (my) attention and I did some more work alongside @Wolfgang and wrote my findings here Remove virtual copy? - #35 by BHAYT.
Using ‘Projects’ for “temporary” work should be entirely safe (famous last words) but ‘Projects’ are always at risk to the loss of the database, accidental or deliberate, on both the Mac and Windows versions of DxPL.
When I say ‘Projects’ that also includes ‘External Selections’, both reside in the same structure, as I have explained somewhere and probably many times, and the data is not contained in the DOP, so no recovery, other than a database backup.
But a database backup will lose any work you have undertaken between the backup you restore and the work you did later, albeit all but ‘Projects’ (including ‘External Selections’) data (and ‘Advanced History’ on the Mac) is contained in the latest DOP.
Regards
Bryan