Despite its popularity, Google Drive has a significant issue as some users are reporting files missing. Users have reported unexpected data loss, mainly with the Google Drive for Desktop program.

On Google's support site, complaints about files disappearing out of nowhere have surfaced.

A concern was brought to light by a South Korean user who discovered that their Drive content was only available until May 2023, even though they had uploaded or produced files.

Strangely, after May 2023, the account's activity log stopped, erasing any evidence of files in the bin. This user confirmed not sharing files or syncing with others. They also tried unsuccessfully to perform backup and recovery procedures, and even after following Google's recovery instructions, they still don't know what happened to the missing data. 

(Photo : Unsplash/ Brett Jordan )

Preliminary Actions that Might Help

Get in touch with other Google's help forum users who also experienced similar problems like you are facing right now. Users are reporting missing files as recent as two years or as old as may 2023.

It's confirmed that Google has seen it and is working to fix the issue as communicated through one of the support notes in the forum.

In short, they discourage alteration of anything on your primary Google Drive file until then.

Intriguingly, this is not a problem for people who only use Google Drive online or on their device apps. This may not be that bad, but it can be pretty disturbing when you store some or most of your official work documents and personal files in your cloud storage.

Another source quoted the company admitting the possible sync problem with a specific set of Google Drive desktop clients' users, from version 84.0.0.0 to version 84.0.4.0, during the latest Google community help thread.

There are more than one hundred and ninety commenters expressing concerns like these.

Users highlighted that it was challenging to locate those files by their IT team, and another raised the issue about Google's demand to export drive diagnostic data.

Google Drive staff member, Saitej, warned against such actions as deactivating the account or moving the folder storing app information - for example, to Windows or macOS. The users were instructed to create a duplicate folder elsewhere and to avoid deleting/moving it at any cost.

Also Read: Google's Flagship Phone Showdown: Pixel 8 vs. Pixel 7 vs. Pixel 6

Google's Recommended Actions

Google strongly warned against deactivating the account, as well as against deleting or relocating the "/sdcard/gdata" folder during the proceedings.

Desktop users are the focus of this problem, but we do not know how severe it is up to now.

As a precaution, Google suggested that users will back up the app data folder if there is enough space available. Unlike what Google suggests, an alternative solution presented by one of its community bloggers involved investigating the user data folder.

There is no explanation by google for file recovery currently. Nonetheless, at least in this situation, some hope remains because of the existence of an independent user-oriented approach.

Related Article: Google to Delete Dormant Accounts: How to Preserve Your Google Account