OneDrive deleted local files and started syncing old files !

Anonymous

Hi,

OneDrive has suddenly deleted files in local folders that was not synced with OneDrive.

I installed OneDrive a while ago on my work computer and copied a lot of different files including Visual Studio projects to the OneDriver folder.

Later found out that OneDrive was causing problems for the Visual Studio projects and even though I had marked all folders to also be kept locally it wasn't working correctly.

So I moved all of the Visual Studio projects and several other folders back to the original location to make sure I had them locally.

Time goes by, and today when I turn on my computer I notice a lot of old files have been synced to my Desktop which is synced using OneDrive.

Then I also realize that the files that I moved out of the OneDrive synced folders have suddenly appeared again and old versions from back when I initially copied the folders are being synced again.

When I look at the local folder that is NOT synced with OneDrive, many of the files are gone - just like that - GONE.

There is no way to get the files back and all my recent work is lost.

I have looked in the online Recycle Bin and the Second stage recycle bin and none of the files are there (since they were never in OneDrive but only locally).

It seems like OneDrive has reverted the old actions of when I moved the files to the local folder and now old versions from back then are being synced.

This is completely unacceptable.

I have lost all my recent work.

How do I get my local files that has now been deleted by OneDrive but which was not synced with OneDrive back?

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124 answers

Anonymous

2022-01-31T20:49:38+00:00

OMG!!! You are an absolute genius and I have found ALL 111 GB of my missing files! I have spent countless hours looking for these files and they were here all along.... I assumed that the location of C:\Users(profilename)\OneDrive would lead me to the incomplete file location on the OneDrive server.

You have made me EXTREMELY happy and did more for me than the Microsoft Support people have done for me since October 8th, 2021, the date of my data loss. Why the hell don't they know about this faulty OneDrive issue!?!?!?!?!

So, I will suggest all of you wonderful people look in the C:\Users(profilename)\OneDrive location on your hard drive ASAP.
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Anonymous

2022-01-31T20:21:18+00:00

I had the same issue. There was a syncing issue, I resolved it, then every file on my Desktop vanished. It looks like Microsoft is giving me the "user error" brush off. I did manage to find a few files in the C:\Users\profile name\OneDrive folder so thanks for that. How Microsoft can write programs that wipe your local C: drive without warning in an unrecoverable fashion. Here's a thought, if you're going to do stupid stuff like that, how about just sending it all to the recycling bin so that it is recoverable if it wasn't intentional? As with everything, Microsoft knows better. I'm sure my business didn't need all of those contracts and data that you just deleted. Oh, and of course the syncing wasn't working correctly either so the only backups that I truly have are the ones that I had made to other drives. You wonder where this gets to the point of being a class action sort of issue. The program is obviously defective and they advertise it as a set it and forget it type of service.
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Anonymous

2022-01-31T16:15:57+00:00

I had OneDrive sync deactivated in 2020.

After one of recent updates, I believe MS reactivated the sync.

It ran out of space today and removed all local files at once.

There is not restore created and no recovery software finds this files or folders. I am lucky I just changed the SSD 2 days ago and I still have the old one.
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Anonymous

2022-01-30T03:26:51+00:00

I have had the exact same issue and now am worrying and am not sure I will able to re-write my essay/re-do my assignments on-time! This is unacceptable!
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Anonymous

2022-01-29T19:10:37+00:00

I recently had an issue with this as well, all my local files had gone completely missing and all I had was the OneDrive data from my last sync (which had been almost a year prior). Both OneDrive Support and Microsoft Support were of no help. I did manage to find some of the data in my Recycling Bin, which lead me to the data that I had lost! The path for me was in my C Drive-> Users ->(my profile name) -> OneDrive (which is a folder named OneDrive but not ACTUALLY connected to OneDrive). That's where my missing data was! I was missing my Documents folder and in that OneDrive folder my Documents folder was there with all my missing data! I hope this helps someone as this was a huge hassle for me and I had no help from Microsoft.

C:\Users(profilename)\OneDrive

After data recovery, make sure that OneDrive is no longer syncing your folders or anything for that matter in the OneDrive app, then delete OneDrive off of your desktop if you no longer intend to use it (just like I did). If anyone needs help figuring out how to stop OneDrive from auto syncing anything please let me know.

Microsoft, you need to fix this issue where data is moved when transferring OneDrive files to the local files. As you can see by this thread it's caused many issues for people who have seemingly lost their data and not been able to find it. This is detrimental for some people.
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