Troubleshooting: How to Recover Missing Files in Google Drive for Desktop

Reports of Google Drive users’ personal files mysteriously disappearing from the cloud service are currently under investigation by Google. The tech giant addressed the issue today in a new Google community support thread, acknowledging that it affects a “limited subset” of Google Drive for desktop app users and is related to sync issues for versions 84.0.0.0 through 84.0.4.0.

One user, who lost all Google Drive data dating back to May, brought attention to the issue last week, seeking support through a Google community support site, as reported by The Register. Google’s support team attempted to assist the affected user with data recovery methods, but unfortunately, no success was achieved.

Currently, the thread has 192 users who clicked the “I have the same question” button and has a handful of panicked commenters with very similar issues. One user noted that their “IT guy” couldn’t find any traces of the files, and another noted that Google asked for an export of their drive diagnostic data.

Saitej, a member of the Google Drive team, issued a warning advising users to avoid clicking “disconnect account” within the Google Drive for desktop and to refrain from deleting or moving the app data folder, which is located in:

Saitej also recommends users make a backup copy of the app folder elsewhere, just in case.