There’s a bug with Google Drive, check your files 🆘

Some Google Drive users recently experienced an unpleasant surprise. They report having lost several months’ worth of data backups.

More than three months of missing files 😰

The problem was initially reported by a user with the pseudonym Yeonjoong on the Google Drive pages. He noticed that his files had suddenly disappeared.

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.
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.

Other users were quick to report similar experiences, with some reporting the loss of files from the last three months, while others reported a period of up to six months. Several users reported a total absence of files beyond May.

A Google employee on the forum confirmed that the company is aware of the problem and is investigating it. The malfunction appears to affect users of Google Drive for Desktop. The following measures are also recommended:

• 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.

If you use Google Drive, we highly recommend that you check the integrity of your data. If your data is missing, follow the instructions above until the problem is resolved.

Sources : 01Net, Support Google Drive