Anger as some Google cloud customers locked out of files

The problem was first reported on 22 November by a user who said their Drive had reset to a May 2023 version.

It is not known how many customers are affected, but people in multiple countries have reported problems.

Drive is part of Google Workspace, a suite of applications which has more than three billion users worldwide.

Users reacted angrily on Google’s support site, with one calling it “very devastating”, adding “the files are very important to me”.

Others said they had lost files from recent months – and wrote of the stress it was causing them.

“This is crazy and not a dependable cloud service,” one commented. “In a panic!” they added.

Another posted: “I pay for this service every month and will pursue legal action if needed. Unacceptable and highly aggravating.”

The original poster, who was using Drive for Desktop on Windows, says none of the fixes suggested by Google so far have worked.

In their post on the forum, Google said they were investigating the reports and would “follow up with more updates”.

They suggest that people do not disconnect their account in the Drive for desktop app, and do not delete or move the app data folder.