Google Drive has been the go-to cloud service for users on Android but in the latest series of events, it has experienced a significant slip-up. Reports on the Google Drive support forum are rife, detailing instances of missing data, leaving users distressed and questioning the reliability of a platform that has become an integral part of their digital lives.
Around 6 days back, one of the users posted on the forums that their Google Drive files suddenly disappeared. “The Drive literally went back to condition in May 2023. Data from May until today disappeared, and the folder structure went back to status in May”. In other words, approximately 6 months worth of Google Drive data of the user was lost.
A bunch of other users corroborate the issue of missing data with Google Drive in the ‘Replies’ section, stating that they faced the exact same problem. “Same thing happened to me too. I’m devastated right now because the missing files dated back >3 months ago. Our IT team try to contact google support but no solution yet. Hopefully the files can be restored”, one of the users wrote.
One of the other users wrote that he contacted Google regarding the issue and the company ran a data recovery tool which proved to be of no help. Number of other users claim that Google did the same for them but no data was recovered. “Data function in Google Drive only helps if you actually deleted the files, which you didn’t”, a user said.
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Google’s potential response
A user who was affected by the issue then posted a reply he received from Google Support yesterday morning. “Please accept my sincere apologies if I’m unable to join the Google Meet session. I am continously tracking this case and to be transparent with you we totally agree now that you are not the only customer affected by this behavior”, the post read.
We cannot confirm if this is indeed a reply the user got from Google support as they didn’t post a screenshot but only the text. “Aside from the thread link you provided there are other admins now that have reported the same behavior we encounter where after the update there are files that went missing. This is now being investigated by our Product Engineers and we are also waiting for a root cause analysis as well on how we can fix it. Due to the ongoing investigation we are unable to provide an ETA yet”, the reply further read.
To conclude, Google’s efforts so far haven’t helped users recover their important Google Drive data. Losing user data can be a huge setback both for the company and the users. It’s important that companies who are running such cloud services on a huge scale, prioritise user data security so that such instances can be prevented.
As of now, if these reports are true, we can only suggest users to take backup of their Google Drive data somewhere else, such as on an offline storage device. It would be the correct step to take until Google clarifies what has been happening with Drive and solves any major bugs plaguing the service.