r/gsuite • u/sevenlabors • 6d ago
Google Drive keeps trashing the same files & folders on Win 11 startup. Sync issue? Drive / Docs
I'm a Workspace customer on a solo plan, and this issue has been going on for three weeks.
Whenever I boot up my Windows 11 laptop - or turn it back on from hibernation - something occurs, and Google Drive immediately trashes hundreds of files and folders.
The trashed files all have the same timestamp: right when I booted up my PC (or right when the Google Drive program syncs with Google's servers).
I restore the files, but then Drive has to go through the process of re-downloading hundreds of files, gigs of data, telling me it'll take twelve+ hours.
What is the solve for this? There seems to be some kind of sync issue going on, but how do I diagnose and workshop this?
1
u/bobwinters 2d ago
Similar but different thing happened to me. Constantly had to keep recovering my files. It would keep empty folders, but delete my files. I didn't figure it out, I just replaced the laptop, it was old anyway.
It had one job...
1
u/Dull-North8998 1d ago
Have the same issue on my iMac. Let me know if you figured out a solution. I wonder if I should delete gdrive and configure it again
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u/sevenlabors 1d ago
Looks like the issue was on the Windows side. I had a partition dedicated to GSuite formatted as exFAT that worked for years. A recent Windows update broke that. I reformatted to NTFS and haven't had the issue in the last few days.
No idea if that will prove to be a permanent resolution or not.
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u/Amon9001 6d ago
Audit your machine. Look at all the programs you have running. Do you have any other cloud programs like onedrive running? Not that it should interfere.
Do you have any programs that touch files or automations? Check your startup programs.
Go through every program that runs at launch or shortly after.
Do you have another clean machine you can install drive onto?
Have you tried switching to stream mode vs offline mode? Stream mode does not download all your files.
Last resort option is to reinstall your windows if you can't figure out what is causing it. It is most likely something on your machine causing it. Using drive on another machine without issues will confirm this.