Have you ever experienced the frustration of not being able to find specific files on Google Drive? You’re not alone. Many people have encountered this situation where certain files seem to have mysteriously disappeared from their Drive. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you solve this problem and find the perfect solution for it. In this guide, you’ll find methods that can work specifically for your situation. Let’s dive in and find out how to retrieve those missing files on Google Drive!
Solution 1: Check the Google Drive Activity Panel
The easiest place to look for missing files is the Activity Panel. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1. Go to the official Google Drive website and log in with your Google account.
Step 2. Click on the “My Drive” option on the left side of the screen.
Step 3. Then, click on the Info icon and scroll until you find your missing file.
Solution 2: Try using Private Browsing Mode
Private Browsing Mode is a partial solution to the issue of missing files on Google Drive. Follow these steps:
Step 1. Open a new private browsing window on your computer.
Step 2. Log in to your Google account and access Drive. There’s a high chance that all your missing files will automatically appear in Private Browsing Mode.
Step 3. Open any file in a folder, then close it. Next, go back to the standard browsing window and close all tabs.
Step 4. Open Google Drive again, and your missing file should now be visible. You may need to repeat this process for each file.
Solution 3: Restore from your Google Backup
Another recommended method is to use DroidKit to recover data from your Google backups. It can retrieve important data such as messages, call logs, Wi-Fi passwords, photos, contacts, WhatsApp chat history, and calendars that you’ve backed up to your Google account and easily extract them to your device or computer. With an intuitive user interface and step-by-step guidance, DroidKit makes the recovery process easy for everyone, regardless of technical knowledge.
Follow these detailed steps to resolve the issue of missing Google Drive documents:
Step 1. Download and install the latest version of DroidKit and launch it on your computer. Choose the Data Extractor mode and then select the Google Account option.
Step 2. Select the Google Backups option, choose Messages (you can select the types of data you want to recover), and click “Next.”
Step 3. Log in to your Google account with the correct email and password (if your Google account has two-step verification enabled, you need to disable it before logging in).
Step 4. Next, you need to log in to your Google account on the website, click “Continue,” and wait for the authorization to succeed. After that, please click “I have authorized” in the software.
Step 5. You can view the backup files. Please select a backup to download and then click “Next.”
Step 6. Now, you can view the content of the messages and select the messages you want to recover. Click “To PC” to retrieve them (if you want to recover them to your Android phone, you need to connect your device to the computer).
Step 7. Your text messages are now successfully extracted.
You can also follow the video tutorial to find the missing files on your Google account (we’ll use contacts as an example in this video).
Solution 4: Try using a different browser
Users can also check the browser they’re using to access Google Drive. If files are missing on Google Drive, try the following method to see if they are still missing:
Step 1. Check if the browser you’re using has a connection problem that may be causing this issue.
Step 2. Select another browser on your computer, open it, and log in to your Google Drive using that browser.
Step 3. If your previous browser had an issue, all your files will instantly appear in a different browser.
Solution 5: Restore from the Trash
You might think that Google Drive has deleted your files. Well, that might be true. But don’t worry, even if Google has deleted your files, you still have a chance to recover them from your Drive. The steps mentioned below will help you restore your files from the Trash:
Step 1. On your computer, open the Google Drive website.
Step 2. When the page opens, locate the missing file in your Drive.
Step 3. Once you’ve found the file, right-click on it and select the “Restore” option to recover the file to your Drive.
Solution 6: Restore from the Admin Console
If none of the previous methods work to retrieve the missing files on Google Drive, your last hope could be the Google Admin Console. To restore your file or folder using the Admin Console, follow these steps:
Step 1. Log in to the Google Admin Console using the Administrator account. Go to the Applications section and select G Suite, then click on Drive and Docs.
Step 2. Click on Manage Team Drives and select a filter option.
Step 3. On the right, you’ll see the Restore option next to the team drive name.
Step 4. Select the range of data for file restoration and click on Restore Data.
Solution 7: Contact Google Drive Support
If you’re the owner of the missing file or folder on Google Drive, you can also seek help from Google Drive Support. Follow the method below to know how to proceed:
Step 1. Search for and access the “Google Drive Help” page.
Step 2. Click on “Contact us” on the top right, then click on “Missing or deleted files,” and choose the email support option.
Step 3. Fill in the information regarding your missing file and click on “SUBMIT” to send your request to Google Drive Support.
In conclusion
In this article, we discussed effective methods to solve the issue of missing folders on Google Drive. You can try any of these solutions. We hope these methods will help you retrieve your missing files on Drive. If you have any other useful methods to solve this problem, we’d love to hear them in the comments below! And remember, if you need more help with Google Sheets or any other aspect of Google Drive, visit Crawlan.com for more expert tips and tutorials. Happy Drive-ing!
