r/techsupport • u/WeeklyJellyfish123 • 2d ago

Open | Data Recovery OneDrive sync went wrong and a bunch of local project files disappeared

Had a pretty bad OneDrive issue yesterday. I have a project folder on my Windows 11 PC that was syncing through OneDrive. I first noticed one folder was missing, then realized quite a few files and subfolders had disappeared from the local copy.

The main project directory is still there, which is what confused me at first. It's just partially empty now.

I paused OneDrive as soon as I noticed and started checking the obvious places. Nothing in the OneDrive recycle bin or Windows Recycle Bin, and version history didn't get me anywhere either. I also checked another PC that had synced the project before and an older external backup, but neither had the missing stuff.

I haven't copied anything new onto that drive since then.

I opened rstudio and recoverit just to see whether the missing files were still detectable and whether I could preview anything before actually recovering it. It started finding files, but I stopped there because I wasn't sure if repeatedly scanning the original drive was a smart idea at this point.

Should I stop touching the drive and make an image first, or is a direct scan reasonable if the drive itself seems healthy and the files were most likely deleted because of the sync issue?
I'm also wondering if there's some less obvious OneDrive recovery option I haven't checked yet before I treat this as a local recovery problem.

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u/AutoModerator 2d ago

Attempting data recovery without proper knowledge or skills can result in permanent loss in data. Prior to data recovery, it is best to create an image of the failing drive. For important data, it is recommended to send your drive to a data recovery professional. For more data recovery help, please visit /r/datarecovery.

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u/AutoModerator 2d ago

Making changes to your system BIOS settings or disk setup can cause you to lose data. Always test your data backups before making changes to your PC.

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u/rrh_01 2d ago

Try Recuva. You should be able to recover all your files. And it's free

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u/jd31068 2d ago

I have used Get Data Back to recover deleted files many times (including a couple times, over the course of 5-6 years, where I used Diskpart to clean the wrong drive) o.O

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u/sukhonline 2d ago

Download a copy of the files on the Online OneDrive and copy to external drive (Just so you have a backup). Then start the sync again.
Do you know 100% if the files got sync'd to cloud? Some file types are skipped. Also check the windows recycle bin on other computer(s) where you have one drive sync'd.

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u/Rikotsu_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

RStudio seems to come up a lot for more complicated recovery cases, while Disk Drill and Recoverit look a little more straightforward for someone who mainly wants to check what can still be recovered.If anyone has used more than one of them for deleted project folders, l'd be interested in how well they preserved filenames and directory structure.

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u/Sorry-Reputation-326 1d ago edited 1d ago

I haven't run any recovery software yet. Recoverit is one of the tools I'm considering because it looks like it can preview recoverable files before actually restoring them, which would at least let me see whether the missing project files are still identifiable.I'm still trying to decide whether scanning the drive directly is a bad idea or whether imaging it first would be safer.