Google is coping with its second “misplaced data” fiasco previously few months. This time, it is Google Drive, which has been mysteriously dropping recordsdata for some folks. Google acknowledged the difficulty on November 27, and every week later, it posted what it known as a repair.
It would not really feel like Google is describing this challenge appropriately; the corporate nonetheless calls it a “syncing challenge” with the Drive desktop app variations 84.0.0.0 via 84.0.4.0. Syncing issues would solely imply recordsdata do not make it to or from the cloud, and that does not clarify why persons are utterly dropping recordsdata. In the preferred challenge thread on the Google Drive Community boards, a number of customers describe spreadsheets and paperwork going lacking, which all would have been created and saved within the net interface, not the desktop app, and it is exhausting to see how the desktop app might have an effect on that. Many customers peg “May 2023” because the time paperwork stopped saving. Some say they’ve by no means used the desktop app.
Drive has a number of methods of syncing recordsdata, which complicates any rationalization or analysis of what is going on on. The most suspect mode in the entire fiasco is the default “file streaming,” mode which is definitely cloud-first. Files get eliminated out of your pc and saved within the cloud, saving area and leaving solely an online hyperlink of their place. Perhaps a “syncing” challenge might take away recordsdata out of your pc earlier than importing (that also would not clarify the claims of lacking net paperwork, although).
Google nonetheless hasn’t defined what precisely occurred or the way it’s been fastened, however simply studying via these directions makes the difficulty sound moderately difficult. This is not only a easy case of fixing this “syncing” challenge by transport a brand new model and having everybody’s recordsdata reappear.
Google’s restoration directions define just a few methods to try to “get better your recordsdata.” One is by way of a brand new secret UI within the Google Drive desktop app model 85.0.13.0 or increased. If you maintain shift whereas clicking on the Drive system tray/menu bar icon, you will get a particular debug UI with an choice to “Recover from backups.” Google says, “Once restoration is full, you will see a brand new folder in your desktop with the unsynced recordsdata named Google Drive Recovery.” Google would not clarify what this does or the way it works.
Option No. 2 is stunning: use of the command line to get better recordsdata. The new Drive binary comes with flags for ‘–recover_from_account_backups’ and ‘–recover_from_app_data_path’, which tells us a bit about what’s going on. When Google first acknowledged the difficulty, it warned customers to not delete or transfer Drive’s app data folder. These flags from the restoration course of make it sound like Google hopes your lacking recordsdata will likely be within the Drive cache someplace. Google additionally suggests attempting Windows Backup or macOS Time Machine to search out your recordsdata.
Google locked the difficulty thread on the Drive Community Forums at 170 replies earlier than it was clear the issue was solved. It’s additionally marking any further threads as “duplicates” and locking them. Taking away the area to diagnose the difficulty and talk fixes provides to the sense that Google is extra considering PR harm management than serving to customers. It additionally would not enable folks to answer to the “resolution” put up, so it is exhausting to guage the repair’s efficacy since Google shut down the best avenues for consumer suggestions and help.
Of the few replies earlier than Google locked the thread, most recommended that Google’s repair didn’t work. One consumer calls the repair “full BS,” including, “The “solution” doesn’t work for most individuals.” Another says, “Google Drive DELETED my recordsdata so they aren’t obtainable for restoration. This “repair” shouldn’t be a repair!” There are a lot of different stories of the repair not working, and never many who say they acquired their recordsdata again. The concept that Drive would have months-old copies of recordsdata within the app data folder is tough to consider.
Drive is not only a shopper product, it is also aimed a companies on the lookout for terabytes of file storage, with paid tiers that may be priced into the stratosphere. Drive is a product that can reside and die by how a lot customers belief it. Bugs will occur, however I might have anticipated Google’s response to align with regular IT downtime procedures: a standing web page with fixed updates and a full postmortem explaining what went fallacious and the way Google fastened it. Instead, we acquired days of silence, locked forum posts, and imprecise explanations.