Google’s mysterious Google Drive issue seems to be spiraling further out of control.
After a plethora of users recently reported an issue with Google Drive where they found that a chunk of their files have gone missing, Google rolled out a fix for the issue a week later, but users are saying that it’s not working and their ability to report issues with the fix appears to have been restricted by Google.
Related: Google Drive malfunction has become a nightmare for users who rely on the platform
On Nov. 22, a user created a thread on Google Drive Help reporting that their files between May and Nov. 21 have suddenly gone missing. Many other users replied to the thread reporting the same issue, leading it to become a trending topic on X.
A week later, Google finally acknowledged the issue saying that it was investigating it and later informed users that it was working on a solution after finding that the issue was impacting a “small subset” of users.
“We have identified the issue impacting a small subset of Drive for desktop users on version 84, which only affected local file changes that had yet to be synced to Drive,” said Google in a Nov. 29 Google Drive Help post.
Finally, on Dec. 5, Google unveiled a solution for users to help them recover their missing files. Users were referred to an article that instructs them to either download a recovery tool or run a command line tool where both are supposed to result in users’ missing files reappearing in a folder called “Google Drive Recovery.”
After rolling out the solution, a multitude of users have reported under the initial thread with the issue that their files are still missing even after following Google’s instructions.
“Google Drive DELETED my files so they are not available for recovery. This ‘fix’ is not a fix!” said one user.
“The Google ‘Fix’ Did not work for me either. Need a Google Eng to reach out IMMEDIATELY to retrieve my files,” said another user.
Google has also locked the thread with the proposed solution meaning that users are unable to reply whether or not they had success with resolving the issue under that post. It also means that they won’t have that post as a space to directly communicate with IT and receive replies on how to further resolve the issue.
It was also reported that Google allegedly also locked the thread that first flagged the Google Drive issue from receiving any additional replies from users after it reached 170. This reportedly happened shortly after the tech giant rolled out its proposed solution, but it seems that the post has since been unlocked again.
The “fix” by Google comes after it recently deleted inactive Gmail accounts that haven’t been used in the last two years, as well as the data that was stored in the account, in an effort to prevent those accounts from being compromised. The tech giant first announced this move in May and started deleting accounts this month.
It is unclear if the Google Drive issue that erupted late November is in any way related to Google’s recent efforts to delete inactive Gmail accounts.
Google did not respond to TheStreet’s request for comment in time for publication.
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