Many Google users are reporting that their personal files are mysteriously disappearing from the popular cloud-based storage service, Google Drive.
Users took to online forums like Reddit and Google’s support site, reporting lost access to files and issues with folder structures claiming a total loss of data uploaded after May 2023, causing frustration and concern about the security of their data stored on the platform.
“Hi, my Google Drive files suddenly disappeared. The Drive literally went back to condition in May 2023. data from May until today disappeared, and the folder structure went back to status in May,” a South Korean user Yeonjoong wrote in a post on the company’s support forum a week ago.
“Google Drive activity doesn’t show any changes (only show activity that was in May)
No files was deleted manually, so no files in Trash. I never sync or shared my files and drive to anyone, I used the drive locally.”
Following Yeonjoong’s post, many more users started reporting the same problem with files from May onward disappearing, with one user writing in all caps, “Same thing just happened to me. I am in a total panic.”
Apparently, the issue is widespread, affecting users around the globe, including those on Windows and Mac platforms.
In response to Yeonjoong’s post, a Google employee responded by saying that the company has begun investigating the issue, which it says impacts “a limited subset of Drive for desktop users.”
While the company is currently investigating the root cause of the problem, it advises affected users not to make any changes to their root/data folder in Google Drive.
- 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
Optional: If you have room on your hard drive, we recommend making a copy of the app data folder.
Keep watching this space for more updates, as this is a developing story!
