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I'm not sure what happend, but my Documents and Downloads folder is empty. I've googled and tried every possible solution that was shown, but none of them seems to work, and I'm not sure what happened.

I've tried:

  • Registry fix mentioned here
  • Tried enabling the hidden admin account and trying to look for the files (didn't work)
  • Used an external file search program (search everything) to look for the files

I had files in the %UserProfile%\Downloads directory, but after doing a restart, that seems to have gone as well. I ran a disk check to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with my drives.

I'm at a loss at this point.

Here's what under my registry keys:

  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders enter image description here
  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders enter image description here

There is also a subdirectory called Backup and that has the following:

  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Backup enter image description here
JW0914
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cyberbemon
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  • So You can't see those files anywhere on your HDD? Try using Recuva or some similar software, and give us some feedback after that – Leshy Nov 21 '19 at 14:18
  • Do you know the name of a file that was in one of the folders? If so, pop open a command prompt and run `dir /s filename.ext` from the root of the drive that your `downloads` folder exists/existed in/on. – spikey_richie Nov 21 '19 at 14:20
  • Did you look in the Recycle Bin? – harrymc Nov 21 '19 at 14:34
  • @Leshy Nope, apparently that didn't work, ran Recuva with deep scan and didn't manage to recover any files. – cyberbemon Nov 21 '19 at 14:50
  • @spikey_richie Did as you told, and it kept returning File not found, I tried multiple file names, luckily firefox downloads had the names kept, so I tried them all, but none worked. – cyberbemon Nov 21 '19 at 14:50
  • @harrymc yes, that's the first place I looked. – cyberbemon Nov 21 '19 at 14:50
  • You might have a disk cleanup job in the Task Scheduler. – harrymc Nov 21 '19 at 14:54
  • @harrymc just checked, there is no such task, also checked the event viewer, I can't see anything that might have caused this. – cyberbemon Nov 21 '19 at 15:03
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    @cyberbemon You can restore the missing files by using [TestDisk](https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) to recover the files, _if they were deleted_. As to what caused the issue, that's harder to determine as it likely didn't generate a log entry in Event Viewer. Just an FYI, it's recommended to set up File History to back up every 12hrs - 24hrs to either an always-connected external drive, spare drive if a desktop PC, or a NAS. This would at least guarantee you'll be able to restore a file in one of the 13 user data directories _(there's also other methods, such as WIM backups)_. – JW0914 Nov 21 '19 at 15:26
  • Also, you'll want to verify your `%UserProfile%\Documents` and `%UserProfile%\Downloads` were not set up as linked to your OneDrive. The files should still list as placeholders if this was the case, but just to rule this out, login to your OneDrive account online and verify the files aren't in your OneDrive's Documents and Downloads directory. – JW0914 Nov 21 '19 at 15:33
  • Another reason I never keep important files in any user directory. – Moab Nov 21 '19 at 16:59
  • Did you computer update recently? Not sure if this is still possible, but there was an update quite recently which deleted the "quick access" folders. – GChuf Nov 21 '19 at 18:37
  • @GašperČefarin yup, it did update on the 17th and I only noticed the issue, yesterday. – cyberbemon Nov 22 '19 at 10:15
  • @Moab Wouldn't a more effective strategy be to set up backups via File History, `DISM`, or otherwise? – JW0914 Nov 27 '19 at 11:56

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