Recently, numerous Google Drive users have observed the disappearance of files, prompting Google to confirm its investigation into the issue, which is believed to be caused by the desktop app.
To summarize the ongoing situation, users of Google Drive have experienced the sudden loss of data spanning months or even years. The problem seems to erase the stored information, almost reverting the account to a state before that data was added. Instances have been reported where spreadsheet data has vanished from recent periods, leaving data only from an earlier date.
This issue raises significant concerns, particularly for business users.
In a concise statement on its Community forums, Google officially recognized the problem of missing files and attributed it to the Drive for Desktop application.
Despite no clear explanation for the glitch, Google has specified that only a “limited subset of Drive for desktop users” are affected. The issue appears to be related to versions 84.0.0.0 through 84.0.4.0, which were recently released. Google is actively “investigating” the matter, and there’s currently no information available regarding a fix.
Furthermore, Google advises users against disconnecting their Google account from the Drive for Desktop app. Additionally, users are cautioned not to delete or relocate data from the “DriveFS” folder on their computers, situated under AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS on Windows and Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS on macOS. However, Google does suggest creating a backup copy of this folder if sufficient space is available on the system.
