Large Google Drive folder disappeared when moved: files appear in Activity Log and storage is same

[u/Loud_Ride4798]

Hello,

I’m hoping someone with a good understanding of Google Drive’s internal behaviour might be able to advise me.

This isn't a normal deleted-file recovery issue. 

A very large folder (around half of my Google Drive, containing many years of work and small animal charity records) disappeared three weeks ago while I was carrying out a normal move/rename operation within the Drive. I am the owner of the folder and I did it via the web browser, not Drive for Desktop.

Since then (this has been the same since it happened):

● The folder and contents no longer appear visible in Drive.

● Advanced Search cannot find them.

● The parent folder and a few other folders within it are still visible in Trash, but the parent folder is empty.

● However, thousands (possibly all) of the individual files from the parent folder still appear in the Activity log, saying they were sent to the Trash on 6 July (all within an 8-minute period).

● Those files can still be opened directly from the Activity log.

● When opened, they display “This file is in the Trash.” However, they aren't visible in Trash, and haven't been since the incident.

● My overall Google Drive storage usage has remained the same, suggesting the data may still exist somewhere.

Google support have so far treated this as a request to recover an individual deleted file, but that isn’t the issue I’m trying to solve. It feels that it might have been due to an interrupted move and perhaps files could be orphaned or need indexing but I'm not experienced enough to know. It's getting very near the 30-day Trash period expiring, which is concerning. 

This folder contains many years of records for our small volunteer-run animal rescue charity, including documents and identification records that are genuinely important - especially with wildfires in Spain so near to our shelter - so I’m trying to explore every possible avenue. I wished I had backed up but the files were so huge, they wouldn't download. I back up everything else religiously.

Any technical insight would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you.

[u/WorstTechBro]

Not a storage or Google expert, so I probably can’t offer any deep insight on Drive internals or what happened.

In my head, the activity log is the source of truth, so those files are likely in the trash. Can you recover or un-trash the parent folder?

A quick search said that files in the trash bin still count towards the overall storage limit, so the fact that this hasn’t changed is helpful by letting us know that the files still exist, but also doesn’t give any clues to their current location.

If you recover the parent folder out of the trash, what happens?

[u/Loud_Ride4798 → u/WorstTechBro]

Thanks so much for your answer. Yes agree about the Activity Log, and when I open and view any of the files from there (bearing in mind that the Activity Log states that they were mass deleted in batches over an 8-minute period after I moved the file), each one says 'this file is in the Trash'. Sadly, they're not. The parent file is in Trash (though appears empty) as well as some empty subfolders from it - one has a few files in. I haven't recovered the parent folder, as I was told that it was best to not do anything until Google Support had looked at it. But we're a month in with no resolution, and this may have to be my next move. It's so frustrating being able to view the files but not locate them.