OneDrive Files Disappeared

I think part of the problem is confusion over what onedrive does.   When I say confusion mean user, but partly microsoft fault and also companies that install onedrive for employees without having policy ("we got rid of our backup software - just use onedrive").

All I need is nightly backup.  Our company used to have backup service, it was straight-forward and effective.   This worked so well they decided to get rid of it.

Onedrive is not really backup . . . it is some kind of sync-ing w/ cloud (if you save over a file w/ onedrive one, it gets synced).   It is not clear to me exactly what it does in all situations, and it creates confusing messages sometimes.   The worst problem is that it conflicts with FEA code, so I can't leave it one.   So I have to manually turn it on and off.

I'm not saying that onedrive does not have a role - but I don't see it as good backup package.

I have also lost files.

This is not a safe storage. Hence I need to go back to regular disks. :-(

ALL my folders and files are gone. It's as though a new account was created. I had been uploading files to OneDrive since I created my Office account several years ago, but now those files are gone - and not even in the Recycle Bin.

Thank goodness I wasn't relying on OneDrive and have, in fact, been using other FREE modes of online storage, along with physical media.

Anyway, what can I do about this? And how do I know it won't happen again?

Thanks!

You should be able to go back in time to restore your files. They are kept for 30 days.

When I lost a good part of my files, the Recycle bin restoration was useless due to the number of files there: it took about a half-hour to try to list all of the deleted files - and then the directory of the Recycle bin crashed! This happened repeatedly.

But after some research, and several weeks of investigation, I was able to reach back a month and restore all of my missing files, although the restoration took about 20 hours! Even when OneDrive said my files were restored, they really weren't - it took another 10 hours of processing to actually finish restoring them.

Unfortunately, as I pointed out, OneDrive support is poor. No phone support. No chat support. And e-mail support is often VERY slow.

I recently reported a bug to OneDrive support. First, they tried to dismiss it. After I persevered, they said they'd look into it and get back to me. It's been a few weeks now and I still haven't heard anything.

Conceptually, OneDrive is a truly great product, but support is another issue entirely.

I have files missing that somehow had been 'deleted' over thirty days ago. What is this? how do i recover these precious files? it's like they were deleted off my computer without even notifying me..... FIX THIS NOW..

I have a similar experience. I have wrongly trusted OneDrive but have learnt that dont. You are fine until all of a sudden you have lost your files. Microsoft and so Office can not be communicated with. They sit behind a thick wall of AI and do not seems to care neither wanting to communicate.