Google Drive has cemented itself as the de facto cloud storage solution over the last decade. It comes standard on Android devices all over the world. To put that in perspective, we’re talking approximately 70% of all mobile users. Billions of people have put their trust in Google and its cloud storage service, and that trust has seemingly paid off. That is unless you’re a desktop user of their service.
Desktop Disasters
The week of November 26th, Google Drive users are reporting that a few months of their files have seemingly vanished into thin air. This phenomenon, reported on by The Verge and other news outlets, seemingly has affected a “small subset of users.” This bit of PR language goes a long way in playing defense for Google Drive seeing as their userbase is unimaginably large.
According to Google, this is a sync issue for Google Drive desktop versions 84.0.0.0 through 84.0.4.0. Hopefully, this means good news for Drive Users who have lost their data to the tech giant.
What Can You Do?
Sadly, until Google determines the source of the sync issue, users are going to find themselves out in the cold for a minute. For now, if we turn our eyes to Google’s support forum, we can take a few notes from a Drive team member named Saitej.
They warn not to click “disconnect account” within the Google Drive for desktop. This warning suggests tht disconnecting your account may result in further loss.
There is a secondary warning against deleting or moving the app data folder. This folder, if you are unfamiliar is located in the following locations for Windows and macOS users:
- Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS
Thirdly, Saitej recommends users make a backup copy of the app folder in a secondary location to ensure all of their bases are covered.
Don’t Lose Your Files Again
Unfortunately, we live in a world dominated by massive tech companies with a vested interest in hoarding every piece of your data they possibly can. AXEL is here to change that. We don’t harvest your data, and we certainly don’t jam it all into a centralized location where it can be lost in the digital abyss.
AXEL Go uses Web3 solutions for storage. Our decentralized storage structure means that minor issues like a sync hiccup won’t result in a heart-stopping loss of your files. We’re looking to bring a more dependable, less invasive cloud storage solution to the people, and if you’ve been affected by this Google fumble, then it may be time to take your business elsewhere.
