Google describes the Drive data loss as “persistent,” and is shutting down forum threads saying otherwise

Google is dealing with its second “data loss” fiasco in the past few months. This time, it’s Google Drive, which has mysteriously lost some people’s files. Google acknowledged the problem on November 27, and a week later, published what it called a fix.

Google doesn’t seem to describe this issue correctly; The company is still calling it a “sync issue” with Drive desktop app versions 84.0.0.0 to 84.0.4.0. Sync issues just mean that files aren’t getting to or from the cloud, which doesn’t explain why people lose files entirely. In the The most popular Release thread in the Google Drive community forums, several Users Describe Data tables And missing documents, all of which could have been created and saved in the web interface, not the desktop app, and it’s hard to see how the desktop app could affect that. Many users associate “May 2023” with the time when documents stopped being saved. Some say They’ve never used a desktop app.

Drive has multiple ways to sync files, which complicates any explanation or diagnosis of what’s going on. The mode most suspected of catastrophic failure is the default “File Streaming” mode which is actually cloud first. Get files Removal From your computer and stored in the cloud, saving space and leaving only the web link in place. A Sync issue may remove files from your computer before uploading (although this does not explain claims of missing web documents).

Google has yet to explain exactly what happened or how to fix it, but just reading these instructions makes the problem seem rather complicated. This isn’t just a simple case of fixing this “sync” issue by shipping a new version and resurfacing everyone’s files.

Google recovery instructions Select some ways to try to Recover Your Files. One is via a new secret UI in Google Drive desktop app version 85.0.13.0 or higher. If you hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Drive menu bar/system tray icon, you will get a special debugging UI with a “Recover from Backups” option. “Once the recovery process is complete, you’ll see a new folder on your desktop containing the unsynced files named Google Drive Recovery,” Google says. Google doesn’t explain what this does or how it works.

Option #2 is surprising: Use the command line to recover files. The new Drive binary comes with “–recover_from_account_backups” and “–recover_from_app_data_path” flags, which tell us a bit about what’s going on. When Google first acknowledged the issue, it warned users not to delete or move the Drive app’s data folder. These signs of the recovery process make it seem as if Google is hoping your lost files are in your Drive cache somewhere. Google also suggests trying Windows Backup or macOS Time Machine to find your files.

Google closed the issue thread on the Drive Community Forums at 170 responses before it became clear that the issue had been resolved. It’s also a sign Any additional topics As “duplicates” and lock them. Reducing the space needed to diagnose a problem and communicate fixes heightens the sense that Google is more interested in PR damage control than helping users. It also doesn’t allow people to reply to the “solution” post, so it’s difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the fix since Google has closed the easiest avenues for user feedback and support.

Of the few responses before Google closed the thread, most noted that Google’s fix didn’t work. 1 user He calls the fix “complete BS,” adding that “the solution doesn’t work for most people.” Another says, “Google Drive deleted my files so they are not available for recovery. This ‘fix’ is not a fix!” there a lot from the last Reports Of the fix doesn’t work, not many say they recovered their files. It’s hard to believe that Drive would contain months-old copies of files in your app’s data folder.

Drive isn’t just a consumer product, it’s also aimed at businesses looking for terabytes of file storage space, with paid tiers that can be priced into the stratosphere. Drive is a product that will live and die by how much users trust it. Mistakes will happen, but I expected Google’s response to be in line with normal IT downtime procedures: a status page with constant updates and a full post-mortem explaining what went wrong and how Google fixed it. Instead, we got days of silence, closed forum posts, and ambiguous explanations.