Some Google Drive Users' Files Have Mysteriously Vanished

Google Drive users have been warned not to disconnect their account within the Google Drive for desktop app, after a spate of reports of files going missing from the cloud service.

Google Drive
Alarm bells began ringing last week on Google's community support site when some users reported files mysteriously disappearing from Google Drive, with some posters claiming six or more months of data had vanished.

As noted by The Register, one user logged into Google Drive to find things as they were in May 2023, with everything saved since that date gone, despite attempts by Google's support team to help them recover the files. Currently, the thread of complaints has 217 users who clicked the "I have the same question."

The Google Drive team has since posted that it is "investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users." In the meantime:

  • Do not click "Disconnect account" within Drive for desktop
  • Do not delete or move the app data folder:
    Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS
    macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS

Google also recommends making a copy of the app data folder if there's space on your hard drive, until the sync issue is resolved. We'll update this article if we hear more.

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Top Rated Comments

tcgjeukens Avatar
18 months ago
The Cloud = somebody else's server
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
a m u n Avatar
18 months ago
It happened to me, 128GB is gone from my Google Drive! ?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
heystu Avatar
18 months ago
Shows the level of dependency and trust we have on cloud storage now, if anything happened to my iCloud Drive I'd lose so much...think it's time to invest in a separate back-up solution, maybe get something decent in the Black Friday deals! Oh wait...
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
18 months ago
Always have a backup of your backup.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rnizlek Avatar
18 months ago
This is why I have a dedicated online backup subscription and don't rely entirely on a cloud drive. There's just two much risk having all one's data in only a single place.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vagos Avatar
18 months ago
Google really is the next Microsoft...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)