OneDrive automatically deleting files from OneDrive folder

Anonymous
2018-05-22T21:43:34+00:00

The OneDrive forum appears to have been locked, so I am trying this one.

I moved some large files (photos) to my OneDrive folder to share between PCs and left them synchronising.  When I came back to check on their progress, the files had disappeared from the PCs.  Looking at the OneDrive window it shows them being added to Onedrive then mysteriously being removed a few minutes later.  What on earth is going on?    I tried Ctrl & Z to see if it could undo the removal.  The files looked as if they were being restored - but just disappeared again.  It's a good job I noticed, otherwise I could have lost these files forever.  I can't afford to have my important files just disappearing like that.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

120 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-06T00:30:27+00:00

    Yes, one of the computers I was using was a direct clone of the other. Including all of the same software. However, I had cloned my main pc about a year and a half ago and had practically zero issues. But about 6 months ago I started having issues. And It didn't seem to matter what I did I would sometimes not have any problems all week and then sometimes I could "restore" the same file 5 times in the same day.  

    After "clean" installing windows on my laptop it seemed to fix most of the issues. Every now and again one file won't sync between the two and ill end up opening and saving the old version but that problem is minor compared to before when one drive would just automatically start deleting things.

    I would recommend uninstalling and then possibly reinstalling windows. But I don't know why this wasn't an issue for a whole year and why it suddenly started messing up. But a clean install did seem to do the trick for me. Since windows pushes automatic updates they should just go ahead and push automatic clean installs.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-23T08:03:06+00:00

    This is the second time ive lost all my desktop data and one drive files after uninstalling one drive.  Once it gets its tentacles on all my files theyre ready to be uploaded but when i try to uninstall Onedrive it deleted all my files on my desktop !! Twice it did this ??!???! ****!!??! It took me months to reconstruct all my files after that. Nice work Octapussies

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-14T22:15:16+00:00

    Almost all my One Drive files were moved to the recycle bin.  This will not work.  

    One person said when he restored his files some were empty.  

    So now we need to back up One Drive Cloud somewhere else???  

    If the moved files remain in the recycle bin no matter what — per a  much earlier reply from Microsoft — where are the contents of the files that are gone when files are restored?

    This apparently happened yesterday while Synchronizing.  If the contents are gone this is a HUGE problem for me.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2020-02-02T07:30:14+00:00

    Dear Greg ,

    I'm using onedrive for business and it keeps deleting files by itself , it doesn't sync when I retrieve it from onedrive recycle bin , also the critical issue is sometimes I can't find the deleted files in recycle bin .

    Kindly need your assistance

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2020-03-30T19:36:03+00:00

    Greg

    I wanted to use OneDrive just for reliable backup of pictures and important documents.

    I have not touched it for more than 6 months.  I disabled sync.

    And yet -- every time I restart the computer, I start getting notifications that "you have deleted 9817 files from this device".  I have done NOTHING to delete these files!  I keep restoring them,  And then it sends me another message "you have deleted xxxx files...etc".  This goes on three or four times.  Each time I say Restore files.  And yet, when I went to Onedrive, I saw thousands of files in the recycle bin.

    This is catastrophic!  Is it deleting the files from everywhere else too????

    Please help - I have seen dozens of messages like mine, BUT NO CURES.

    thank you!

    Ajl999

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments