diff --git a/bin/unforget.py b/bin/unforget.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..e3b1b395
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/unforget.py
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+"""
+unforget.py: rebuild db from logfiles
+2022-09-07, v0.1, ed <irc.rizon.net>, MIT-Licensed
+https://github.com/9001/copyparty/blob/hovudstraum/bin/unforget.py
+
+only makes sense if running copyparty with --no-forget
+(e.g. immediately shifting uploads to other storage)
+
+usage:
+  xz -d < log | ./unforget.py .hist/up2k.db
+
+"""
+
+import re
+import sys
+import json
+import base64
+import sqlite3
+import argparse
+
+
+FS_ENCODING = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+
+
+class APF(argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter, argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter):
+    pass
+
+
+mem_cur = sqlite3.connect(":memory:").cursor()
+mem_cur.execute(r"create table a (b text)")
+
+
+def s3enc(rd: str, fn: str) -> tuple[str, str]:
+    ret: list[str] = []
+    for v in [rd, fn]:
+        try:
+            mem_cur.execute("select * from a where b = ?", (v,))
+            ret.append(v)
+        except:
+            wtf8 = v.encode(FS_ENCODING, "surrogateescape")
+            ret.append("//" + base64.urlsafe_b64encode(wtf8).decode("ascii"))
+
+    return ret[0], ret[1]
+
+
+def main():
+    ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    ap.add_argument("db")
+    ar = ap.parse_args()
+
+    db = sqlite3.connect(ar.db).cursor()
+    ptn_times = re.compile(r"no more chunks, setting times \(([0-9]+)")
+    at = 0
+    ctr = 0
+
+    for ln in [x.decode("utf-8", "replace").rstrip() for x in sys.stdin.buffer]:
+        if "no more chunks, setting times (" in ln:
+            m = ptn_times.search(ln)
+            if m:
+                at = int(m.group(1))
+
+        if '"hash": []' in ln:
+            try:
+                ofs = ln.find("{")
+                j = json.loads(ln[ofs:])
+            except:
+                pass
+
+            w = j["wark"]
+            if db.execute("select w from up where w = ?", (w,)).fetchone():
+                continue
+
+            # PYTHONPATH=/home/ed/dev/copyparty/ python3 -m copyparty -e2dsa  -v foo:foo:rwmd,ed -aed:wark --no-forget
+            # 05:34:43.845 127.0.0.1 42496       no more chunks, setting times (1662528883, 1658001882)
+            # 05:34:43.863 127.0.0.1 42496       {"name": "f\"2", "purl": "/foo/bar/baz/", "size": 1674, "lmod": 1658001882, "sprs": true, "hash": [], "wark": "LKIWpp2jEAh9dH3fu-DobuURFGEKlODXDGTpZ1otMhUg"}
+            # |                      w                       |     mt     |  sz  |   rd    | fn  |    ip     |     at     |
+            # | LKIWpp2jEAh9dH3fu-DobuURFGEKlODXDGTpZ1otMhUg | 1658001882 | 1674 | bar/baz | f"2 | 127.0.0.1 | 1662528883 |
+
+            rd, fn = s3enc(j["purl"].strip("/"), j["name"])
+            ip = ln.split(" ")[1].split("m")[-1]
+
+            q = "insert into up values (?,?,?,?,?,?,?)"
+            v = (w, int(j["lmod"]), int(j["size"]), rd, fn, ip, at)
+            db.execute(q, v)
+            ctr += 1
+            if ctr % 1024 == 1023:
+                print(f"{ctr} commit...")
+                db.connection.commit()
+
+    if ctr:
+        db.connection.commit()
+
+    print(f"unforgot {ctr} files")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/copyparty/up2k.py b/copyparty/up2k.py
index b50699d2..4d7a0141 100644
--- a/copyparty/up2k.py
+++ b/copyparty/up2k.py
@@ -2026,7 +2026,11 @@ class Up2k(object):
                         dst = os.path.join(job["ptop"], job["prel"], job["name"])
                         if not self.args.nw:
                             bos.unlink(dst)  # TODO ed pls
-                            self._symlink(src, dst, lmod=cj["lmod"])
+                            try:
+                                self._symlink(src, dst, lmod=cj["lmod"])
+                            except:
+                                if not n4g:
+                                    raise
 
                         if cur:
                             a = [cj[x] for x in "prel name lmod size addr".split()]