OneDrive corrupted files

Question

I already have contacted support via email and even have a case created, but after few replies I realized I shouldn't expect my issue to be resolved as the latest reply I received was pretty "standard" and dismissive: "...we would like to inform you that OneDrive doesn't corrupt the files, it is simply a storage allocated to you in the cloud, it does not have any mechanism that your corrupt or change the content of your files in any way, it simply uploads and keeps your data safe in the cloud...". I'm posting this question for awareness. Perhaps, it could help other people to avoid data loss like the one I have experienced. However, in case you have any thoughts on this or can offer a working solution or a workaround, your comments are highly appreciated!

TL; DR OneDrive or SharePoint may occasionally corrupt your files when you sync them locally. In certain cases, you won't be able to restore them even from the version history. I would not recommend relying on this service for storing important information.

So, my issue is following: one day all of a sudden a number of files stored in cloud and synced locally with OneDrive became "corrupted", e.g. respective applications (Excel, Acrobat Reader etc.) stopped opening them showing a message "The file can't be open ... bla-bla":

An attempt to open the remote (server) version of the same files in browser from the SharePoint web page lead me to the same result - "The file can't be opened..." kind of message:

Those files where uploaded to OneDrive quite a while ago and they were accessible before. So I decided to look into Version History hoping to restore a proper version from there. How surprised I got when I figured out that current (corrupted) version was the only one record in the history. Another weird discovery was the modified date of the file not matching the modified date of that history entry record:

When I looked at the locally synced file, I noticed, that its modified/created date wasn't changed, e.g. it was Feb 26, 2020 and not Nov 18, 2020:

I then decided to look inside the file and try to figure out what those apps meant when saying "corrupted". I found this:

This happened to me with the paid Office 365 Family subscription. But even if you're subscribed to Office 365 Business and you think you could "rest assured", you're wrong, unfortunately. I'm experiencing exactly the same issue with my Office 365 Business subscription too. But in this case I'm able to restore some of the files. Here I'm able to see the "corrupted" version and the previous one in the version history:

Note, that modified date/time and size match exactly in both versions. The only difference is "Modified By" field (real names are blurred intentionally, but they are different), e.g. those versions are kind of "authored" by different users. I was able to "fix" the file by restoring it to a lower version number. I'm afraid that in case of personal OneDrive storage, the uncorrupted version is lost or not displayed which makes file content lost forever.

I shared all of this with the support and still received a "... this can't be true ..." kind of message from them. So, as I said in the beginning, I'm not expecting any REAL help from them. But I would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this from Community as the situation itself is very frustrating.

Dear Office support! After reading this, do you still believe that "...OneDrive doesn't corrupt the file..."? You can repeat this as a mantra multiple times, but this won't change or hide the facts. Please face the truth: ONEDRIVE DOES CORRUPT FILES!

Answer 1

Hi Briny,

I am exactly on the same page as you here. Struggling to believe this is really happening and years of files are simply lost when they were supposedly safely stored on MS cloud service. 

I am currently discussing with MS support without much hope after reading through this I guess.

Answer 2

Hi 

I confirm I have exactly the same problem with all my files on onedrive loaded before a certain date (around may 2020) . 

Excel, Word PDF all are corrupted.  

I use both Mac and W10 with multiple users in Office 365 

I'm now doing backups of all the files on external disk just to be sure. 

I do not recomend using Onedrive for storing any data for which you do not have a copy elsewhere.

Answer 3

Same exact problem since April, date tag in version history missmatches the file date, GBs of files corrupted as described.

Slowly restoring office files , but not the same luck with PDF files that show a single version on history log.

To bad to be true... After reading all the comments start planning to migrate to a different solution since OneDrive is really sucking from now one!!

Answer 4

Ditto. Same event as reported above, most every file corrupted, and Restore shows zero history.

Total catastrophic loss. We are at a standstill as to what to do or where to begin.

But I know I will move our company off OneCloud ASAP.

Answer 5

Sad but true. I have come through all stages of grief into acceptance now after a long series of emails with OneDrive support. It’s a pity that such a cool (by design) product as OneDrive suffers from ignorance of support and/or product team.