windows 10 (October 2018 update) (version 1809) deleted all my files

Thanks Sophie.

 If you want to report this to Microsoft use the Feedback Hub app in Start Menu where developers are tasked to process consumer feedback. They will not even see it here. This is a tech forums staffed mostly by volunteers trying to help others with your problems.

If you want to post back a Share link from your Feedback here others who see this thread can vote it up and add to it. I will also track the issue for you.

This almost caught me too - they've recently added the Download folder to the Disk Clean-up tool in Clean-up system files. So, either don't have any files in the Download folder or de-select that option in the tool.

This did catch me :(

The Download folder has been added to Disc Clean-up only since windows version 1809; and usually I tick off all the boxes - which is what I did again this time.

So I lost all contents in my download folder!!!

Tried to recover the contents using Shadow Explorer - but all the .pdf's, .mp4's, … which were recovered are corrupted! 

All "recovered" files are non-viewable and non-playable.

This is not an error or a miss on the part of Microsoft. I am certain I will not be the only person to lose files from the Download folder.

Why did Microsoft not warn us that the Download folder is now included in Disc Clean-up????

And so much for all those reviews of version 1809 - none mentioned the new "feature" of having the Downloads folder in Disk Clean-up (let alone the data deleted only upon installing 1809).

I'd be guessing it is hardware/driver compatibility issues. Just because the majority don't have a problem, does not mean it does not happen. Nor does it mean the user did something wrong.

I am still waiting for an update which actually allows me to install the fall update instead of being stuck in an endless install/reboot/recover loop due to a graphics driver incompatibility.

In my case, the laptop is getting old (6 years) but required hardware prevents me from updating, and since M$ forces me to update I have no option but to put up with the 8 hours of pain every couple of weeks.

Looks like there is a blog with more details explaining problem:

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/10/09/updated-version-of-windows-10-october-2018-update-released-to-windows-insiders/#WBz2COz4pki59qMG.97

So some more bewildering feedback for MSFT -- although something tells me their silence is a key indicator they are conveniently ignoring and hoping this mess quickly becomes yesterday's news...

As I reported earlier, wiht my folder redirection in play a non-profile (special) folder called "Desktop" had all its contents deleted after upgrading to 1809.  Yes, I had a backup, so a quick copy from my imaged drive had me running for almost a week on 1809 in all it's spendor :-|

Low and behold, I just discovered my SIP softphone (off of my Corporate Genesys platform) no longer functions on v1809 (there are .NET dependencies so guessing that's broken (again) wiht this new build -- similar to the Fall Creator build of 2017.  Build 1803 had this working fine so after some testing in the lab, sure enough, 1809 fails, but roll an upgraded PC back to 1803 and all is well with the SIP softphone.

Here's where it gets interesting...  When I upgraded, I lost all files in my C:\users\rcurtis\desktop folder -- again, not my 'real' desktop and not profile based, nor is it a 'special folder', just a folder I created and called it "Desktop".  After I rolled back to 1803, low and behold, what was there under 1809 is, again, gone.  Understandable since there was no such files in windows.old, but again, why is MSFT touching personal files -- shame on you MS!!

Bewildering indeed, can you clarify exactly what happened though?  I want to see if I'm understanding the process correctly.

First, you updated to 1809, and it deleted your files, but you restored from a backup and all was as it should be.  I'm assuming all files were placed back into their original location in your custom "Desktop" folder.

Second, you discovered that 1809 was incompatible with your SIP softphone, and rolled back to 1803 to restore that functionality.  You're saying that the restoration repeated the deletion, and the same files you'd restored after the original 1809 update were gone again?

One thing I don't understand though.. you say your "C:\users\rcurtis\desktop" folder is not your "real" desktop, and not profile based.  But isn't that the default location for the profile-based desktop?  I understand if you're changing specific names for privacy reasons, but it makes your situation hard to understand.

What I'm really curious about though is what would happen if you had not specifically named that folder "Desktop," or if you had kept that name, but placed it elsewhere on the hard drive, say nested in a program folder.  I'm curious how deeply whatever action is targeting personal files for deletion is digging, and whether it would go after any folder named "Desktop," regardless of where it was stored.

The fact that the same specific deletion action occurred both on the installation and reversal though is baffling, and makes me wonder if a step has been added to any update/restore actions that automatically attempts to do a disk cleanup.