I have a folder that had about 30 files in it. Suddenly, they have all disappeared. I attempted to get them back with Recuva. It didn’t find any files formerly in that folder. Can anyone help me?
Hi, @Voyager1
Let’s see if we can work out just what has happened here, and hopefully find your files.
If Recuva cannot find the files then that may be because they have not actually been deleted at all.
Or it may be that you were not using Recuva quite right, maybe not looking for the right things, or looking in the wrong place.
In normal use Recuva looks only for files that have been deleted - So if your files hadn’t been deleted but had only been moved, then a search with Recuva for deleted files wouldn’t find them.
So to start with a few questions:
First we need to know details of what operating system we are talking about here, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, something else?
Then we need to know what kind of drive it is, HDD, SSD, USB stick, SD card, something else?
Is it an external drive, or is it inside your computer?
If you can explain more about what you were doing when “Suddenly, they have all disspeared” that could also help.
What kind of files were they, photos, documents, spreadsheets, PDF’s, something else?
Is there anything unusual about the folder pathname? Can you tell us what that pathname is?
Try using Search in File Explorer for one of the filenames, to see if they have somehow been accidentally moved to another folder.
When you com back with the answers to all the questions above then we can suggests other things to do depending on what those answers are.
I am running Windows 11 with an SSD drive. I tried to save a Word document to a folder that contained about 30 Word documents. The folder opened up and the files were there for a moment. Then they all disappeared before my very eyes. How did this happen and how can I get them back?
I told Recuva to search for all files in the subject folder, It scanned for a long time, then came up with the empty folder.
OK, whilst that is very odd it doesn’t sound as if the files had been deleted, more like something moved them or hid them from you.
(Which may be for the good, recovering deleted files from an internal SSD is rarely possible).
Presumably if you now look at that folder in File Explore you no longer see the files there?
Just in case they were accidentally deleted though - Have you checked your recycle bin?
When files are deleted the bin is usually where they go,
Are you using OneDrive,Cloud Storage for Word, or any other Cloud-Storage?
ie. Do you have Word Synced to the cloud’?
Doing that can sometimes move files about.
Are you using an Anti-Virus or other security software other than Windows Defender?
First I would try rebuilding Windows the icon cache. it may just be the icons that have gone missing.
See Method 1 here: How to Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 11/10? – To Fix Icon Issues - MiniTool Partition Wizard
After Restarting the computer, in File Explore go to the folder, can you see the files?
If not click View>Show and tick ‘Hidden items’. Can you see the files now?
Leaving ‘Hidden items’ ticked:
In file Explore go to ‘This PC’ and use the ‘Search’ with one of the filenames that you remember (or just part of one will do), that will search your computer for any file with that name or partial name.
Does it find anything?
Every morning I have been opening the problem folder and finding it empty. This morning all the missing files have magically appeared!
I had not yet tried any of your suggestions, so again I do not understand what has happened. I’m so very grateful that my files are back, but I sure would like to know where they have been.
I appreciate very much the trouble you have gone to in advising me.
Good to hear that they have come back.
I thought that they wouldn’t have been deleted but had just gone AWOL.
My best guess is that the files were there all along but they weren’t showing because the Windows icon cache, or possibly the Windows file table, had got corrupted (scrambled).
It happens occasionally and Windows will normally repair itself if/when it does, but that can take a few days to happen.
It sound as if that is what happened here.
If you would like to then you can run a few commands to give your Windows System a check over.
Nothing too special, many ‘techie’ people run them regularly.
Let us know if you would like to do that and we’ll tell you what to do.
Sounds like a good idea.
OK then let’s just do the simplest one. (It’s one that every computer user should know anyway).
I’m not sure if you have Windows 11 or Windows 10, but it doesn’t matter because the commands are the same.
Open your start menu (or use the searchbox) and type ‘Command’ it will show you the Command Prompt app.
Click on ‘Run as administrator’ and it will ask you for permission to open the command window, click Yes and an Administrator Command Prompt window will open.
Type in- sfc /scannow -and press Enter.
That will scan your Windows operating system, and if it finds any errors it will correct them for you:
That one took about 3 minutes on this machine, it may take longer on yours (particularly if it does find something that needs fixing).
It didn’t find any problems to fix so I can just close the command window and carry on.
If your does find and fix errors then ‘Restart’ (not Shutdown) your computer.
You are then good to go.
Please let us know how it goes.
If it says that if found errors but couldn’t fix them then we can move onto other commands to sort that out.