Google Issues Warning To Drive Users Over Sudden Deletion Of Files

Google Drive users are complaining that their files have been suddenly deleted without explanation. The company now says it is investigating the issue and warning users not to make changes to the desktop app data folder.

The first complaints popped up last week on Google’s support forums, with one user posting that they lost all of their files that were created after May 2023.

“My Google Drive files suddenly disappeared. The Drive literally went back to [its] condition in May 2023. Data from May until today disappeared, and the folder structure went back to [its] status in May.” Google forum user Yeonjoong said.

MORE FROM FORBESGoogle Will Mass Delete Old Gmail And Photos Content Next WeekBy Janhoi McGregor

This post received 297 upvotes and 91 replies from other users describing the same issue, some of which are business customers. “6 months worth of business data wiped!” Anthony Vohl said in the same thread. “This is super super bad, as all of our company’s files are lying there” another affected user, Julia, said. There are several other threads on the support forums detailing the same problem.

Google finally responded last night and explained that the issue is related to people who use the Drive desktop app, hinting that there could be a problem with syncing between local and cloud files.

“We’re investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users and will follow up with more updates.” Google employee Saitej posted in the same support thread.

Google is advising that users don’t click “disconnect account” within Drive for desktop, or delete or move the app data folder. Rather users should make a backup copy of the app data folder.

Have you lost your Google Drive files? Get in touch.

Not the deletion Google had in mind

The sudden disappearance of Drive files for some users isn’t related to the upcoming mass content deletion plan Google is rolling out on December 1st.

The company has been warning users that Google accounts, which includes Photos and Drive users, that have been inactive for two years will be deleted starting this Friday.

The move was announced in May this year and Google has been sending out reminders to potentially affected accounts. The company says this is a necessary security measure because old, unused, accounts are more likely to be compromised because they receive fewer security checks by the user. Check out my story on the content purge here.