Google Investigating Drive Issue, Causing Files to go Missing

Google is investigating an issue affecting its Drive app. Users have noticed that their files have unexpectedly gone missing. This issue has cause files not only dating back a few days but months or even years to vanish.

Thankfully, Google is looking into the matter, reports 9to5Google. As of now, the company believes the issue stems from the desktop app and not the mobile verson of Drive.

Those affected by the bug have witnessed their files go missing without cause. In some cases, files and even spreadsheets taking back years has gone missing. Some users have noticed the bug become prevelant in May 2023. A user claims that from this time onward, all changes to files and folders have reverted to the way they were in May.

In a Community forum post, Google confirms that it is “investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users.” The company also confirms that it is a Desktop app issue. Unfortunately, Google hasn’t identified what causes the problem yet.

For now, Google urges users to not click “Disconnect account” their Google account from the Drive on a desktop. Additionally, users should avoid deleting or moving data from the ‘DriveFS’ folder. This is located under ‘AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS’ on Windows and ‘Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS’ on macOS. Finally, Google suggests that if users have the hard drive space, make a copy of the app data folder, as a backup.

While Google does provide way for users to save their data, this is still troubling. For users and buisnesses who require access to up-to-date data and files, this issue must be a priority for Google.