Downloaded files are beeing moved to windows recycle bin and then deleted from Sharepoint

Question

Hi all, 

we are dealing with similar issue as this: 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice\_sharepoint-mso\_win10-mso\_o365b/files-are-randomly-and-automatically-deleted-from/b05d437e-4ffa-4c1c-8cde-3703cf816cc3

We have a SharePoint sites with 50 desktops clients running the OneDrive app mostly at up to date Win10.

Today we discovered that we are missing hundreds of files. Strange was, that we were missing only files... folders were there. We found who deleted them (in sharepoints recycle bin) but she claims that she did not delete anything. Because she is newcomer she was browsing through many files and she claims the she found the files she opened in computer's recycle bin the next morning. Because the files, I've seen in her recycle bin, were deleted almost at the same time I would believe her as it would be impossible for a normal user to delete so many files in such a short timeframe. The only way to do that is to delete all folders, but only some files at some folders are deleted.

There is no retention policy and no workflow active at all (never touched those settings).

I found many questions but no solution so I'm opening this one, willing to cooperate in order to find the solution. 

Do you have any idea what could cause that those files were deleted?

Thanks 

Lukas

P.S.

Something similar happened one week ago but there is suspicion for accidental deletion.

Answer 1

Hi All,

The Service Health Dashboard has indicated that the incident OD244709 has been resolved. If you still experience a similar issue, please let us know by starting a new thread as this may indicate either a scoping issue or an independent problem.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!!

Best Regards,

Sukie

Answer 2

Hi All,

Sorry for all the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

We have received similar reports from the members in this community, and we noticed that this issue was posted to the Service Health Dashboard (SHD) as an incident OD244709 starting at Monday, March 15, 2021, at 7:15 PM UTC. The user experience of this incident is Some users noticing synced local copies of OneDrive for Business files becoming unavailable.

User Impact: Users unexpectedly seeing local copies of OneDrive for Business files becoming unavailable.

More info: Users can still access impacted files online as they are unaffected by this issue. Users may have received notifications that their files have been deleted, seen a message from OneDrive stating "Remove files from all locations", or may have seen that their files were being removed from their synced folders. Subsequent file syncs restore the files to the appropriate local folders. Impacted users can manually initiate a resync to resolve the problem by restarting their machine. or an automatic resync will occur within 24 hours.

Current status: We've determined that during a recent Azure Active Directory (AAD) incident posted as MO244568, OneDrive for Business file sync to local machines wasn't working as expected, resulting in synced files being unavailable. Most impacted users will have already experienced a resync, recovering the impacted files to the appropriate sync folders on their local machine. Resyncs will continue to resolve this issue and users can initiate a resync by restarting their machine or we expect that an automatic resync will initiate within 24 hours. We're monitoring the overall progress of file sync to confirm that this issue is resolved for all users.

Scope of impact: This issue could have impacted some users with a file sync during impact associated with MO244568.

The tenant administrator can view current information and updates on SHD at the link here.

Besides, we are going to lock this thread so that other affected customers can easily identify the information here. You may subscribe to this thread or SHD and I will post in here as long as this service incident gets any updates from the related support team.

If you are experiencing a similar issue and do not see an SHD post, please let us know by sharing your tenant information via Private Message (PM) as this may indicate either a scoping issue or an independent problem.

Appreciate all your understanding and patience! 😊

Best Regards,

Sukie

Answer 3

We have the same issue with 3 different users. the first one deleted 65000 files! It has happened on 3 different days.

Answer 4

Hi Lukas,

~~Thank you for querying in this forum.~~

From your description, it seems that 50 users in your organization have used OneDrive sync client to sync SharePoint files to the local, however, you found all files have been moved into newcomer’s Windows Recycle bin, and she didn’t do anything. At the same time, there is no retention policy and workflow.

~~May I know if my understanding is right? If so, we have also tested it on our side with the latest version OneDrive sync client and we cannot reproduce the same situation as yours. We do understand the inconvenience caused by it.~~

~~Since you mentioned that all files have been deleted at the same time. Given this situation, we assume this issue may be related to third-party application or antivirus software or group policy.~~

~~We’d suggest you let newcomer refer to this article:~~[~~How to perform a clean boot in Windows to reboot your computer~~](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd) ~~in clean boot to check if the same problem will occur. You can determine whether a background program is interfering with your program.~~

~~At the same time, we’d suggest you let that user go to task bar in Windows > click blue cloud icon > Help & Settings > Settings > Account and unlink the account, then you can check if the files on the local and OneDrive sync folder will also be moved into Windows Recycle bin after unlinking OneDrive.~~

If it is convenient to you, could you also provide the information below?

1. May I know if all users in your organization have the same problem?
2. May I know if you set any group policy on the windows of your organization?
3. May I know if the other local files in her Windows have the same problem?

~~@SimonLee,~~

~~Thank you for sharing your experience here, we also noticed that this issue occurs after updating Windows, we’d also suggest you try the suggestions we provided above and provide the information we confirmed above, this will help narrow down this issue.~~

Thank you for your understanding and patience. I hope that you are keeping safe and well! 😊

~~Best Regards,~~

~~Sukie~~

Answer 5

Similar things happen for me.

What I've experienced is I synced the SharePoint folders with the OneDrive, and that night, Windows ask for updates. After click on update and close, I just went to sleep.

And when I wake up, the OneDrive folders including the SharePoint folders are gone on my desktop. I've found the files are deleted on the SharePoint web page.

But when I update the Windows before, there was no such an issue, so can't be sure, but should be something related with that update.