Some Google Drive Users' Files Have Mysteriously Vanished

Google Drive users have been warned not to disconnect their account within the Google Drive for desktop app, after a spate of reports of files going missing from the cloud service.

Google Drive
Alarm bells began ringing last week on Google's community support site when some users reported files mysteriously disappearing from Google Drive, with some posters claiming six or more months of data had vanished.

As noted by The Register, one user logged into Google Drive to find things as they were in May 2023, with everything saved since that date gone, despite attempts by Google's support team to help them recover the files. Currently, the thread of complaints has 217 users who clicked the "I have the same question."

The Google Drive team has since posted that it is "investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users." In the meantime:

  • 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

Google also recommends making a copy of the app data folder if there's space on your hard drive, until the sync issue is resolved. We'll update this article if we hear more.

Popular Stories

Apple Announces Special Event in New York Feature 1

Apple Reportedly Plans to Unveil at Least Five New Products Next Week

Sunday February 22, 2026 9:48 am PST by
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple will have a three-day stretch of product announcements from Monday, March 2 through Wednesday, March 4. In total, he expects Apple to introduce "at least five products." Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. A week ago, Apple invited selected journalists and content creators to an "Apple Experience" in...
tim cook data privacy day

Tim Cook Warned by CIA That China Could Move on Taiwan by 2027

Tuesday February 24, 2026 4:03 am PST by
Apple CEO Tim Cook was among a handful of top tech executives who attended a classified CIA briefing warning that China could attack Taiwan by 2027, according to a sweeping investigative report by The New York Times ($). The previously unreported briefing was apparently held in a secure room in Silicon Valley in July 2023. The meeting is said to have been arranged at the request of the...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3.1 Update for iPhones Coming Soon as 'Apple Experience' Nears

Sunday February 22, 2026 5:29 pm PST by
Apple's software engineers are testing iOS 26.3.1, according to the MacRumors visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.3.1 should be a minor update that fixes bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, and it will likely be released within the next two weeks. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.2.1 with bug fixes and support for the second-generation...

Top Rated Comments

tcgjeukens Avatar
29 months ago
The Cloud = somebody else's server
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
a m u n Avatar
29 months ago
It happened to me, 128GB is gone from my Google Drive! 🫨
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
heystu Avatar
29 months ago
Shows the level of dependency and trust we have on cloud storage now, if anything happened to my iCloud Drive I'd lose so much...think it's time to invest in a separate back-up solution, maybe get something decent in the Black Friday deals! Oh wait...
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
29 months ago
Always have a backup of your backup.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
29 months ago
This is why I have a dedicated online backup subscription and don't rely entirely on a cloud drive. There's just two much risk having all one's data in only a single place.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vagos Avatar
29 months ago
Google really is the next Microsoft...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)