OneDrive Files Missing? Recover Now with 8 Ways

To seek convenience during work and life, considerable users will subscribe to and purchase cloud storage services to make sure they can access their vital files everywhere they want. For instance, using OneDrive, one can view, check, edit, and share files on multiple devices. The changes you made will also appear on other ends, which is convenient and user-friendly.

However, this brings troubles as well. Once the files get missing or deleted, they will not stand or fall alone on only 1 device, but get removed from everywhere, which is pretty horrible.

Plenty of users are being bothered by the OneDrive files missing issue and don’t know why or how to perform OneDrive file recovery. This article will dive into more reasons for this issue and introduce you to 8 effective ways below.

Why are my OneDrive files missing?

Several factors that lead to files missing from OneDrive will be illustrated in the following. Please read it carefully to find out the cause of the problem and fix it with corresponding solutions in the next part.

Troubleshoot OneDrive files missing accordingly 

Corresponding solutions are prepared as well. Try to recover files missing from OneDrive based on the cause of your problem.  If it's over 30 days or you cannot find it anywhere, try powerful data recovery software at last.

1. Search missing files in OneDrive

You may have enabled Files On Demand or synced only certain folders, in which case you will not find all files and folders. Try to search OneDrive missing files online.

Sign in to your OneDrive account (https://www.onedrive.com) in a web browser. Try to search missing files by typing the filename or part of it in the Search everything box.

2. Check the Personal Vault

Your missing files may be in the Personal Vault if they are not showing up in the search results. It is a special folder in OneDrive created to protect your important and private files by identity verification. It's only available for home and personal plans, and located in the OneDrive My Files folder.

Thus, you need to sign into your OneDrive account and click on the Personal Vault folder to verify your identification. Then, find if OneDrive missing files are there and restore it.

3. Check OneDrive Recycle Bin

If cannot find your files in the Search everything box, they may be deleted. You can then go to the Recycle Bin folder. Locate the missing files from OneDrive and click Restore at the top.

If your files are deleted from Personal Valut items, click Show Personal Vault items to unlock it and display OneDrive missing files in the Recycle Bin. If not, it's already unlocked.

4. Check your OneDrive account

You might have logged into an incorrect Microsoft account. Thus you have no access to your own files. Try to log in another account and see if your files are there.

You can choose to click the profile icon and Sign in with a different account. Then, the username and password of another Microsoft account to log in.

5. Contact the owner of OneDrive missing files 

OneDrive supports data sharing to facilitate working cooperation. You could view, and sometimes edit the files shared by others on your OneDrive. Go to Shared > Shared with you > check the files.

If the lost OneDrive file was shared by others, when the owner deletes the file from their drive, this file will be inaccessible to you right away. Thus, you may find it lost from your end, and see a notice of  “This folder is empty.”

Just go and coontact the file owner and regain access to recover lost OneDrive files.

6. Check for sync problems

Sometimes, users find OneDrive files missing after sync. In this case, the files might haven’t been properly synced yet, or you have met a OneDrive sync pending issue. 

You can try to check the following items.

• First, check your network connection and be sure it's stable during the sync process.
• Then, check if you are using the latest version of OneDrive. If not, update it. 
•  In addition, you can also check if the file name is too long. If yes, please shorten it.
• At last, try to pause and resume syncing. 

7. Add OneDrive folder to the Indexed Locations

It is possible that your OneDrive folder has been removed from the Indexed Locations, making it think OneDrive files missing. 

Just search Indexing Options and open it. Then, click Modify to open the Indexed Locations window and navigate to Users > UserName. Scroll down to find OneDrive and click OK to add it to the  Indexed Locations.

8. Recovering OneDrive missing files using software

Commonly, it is feasible to restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive from its recycle bin in 30 days; or, restore from the desktop Recycle Bin if it hasn’t been emptied yet.

However, over time, your data may easily get permanently deleted, not to mention many users have accidentally emptied the Recycle Bin.

Given this, - MyRecover, a professional Windows data recovery software, facilitating users to perform OneDrive file recovery, is a good option for you. 

Step 1. Install and run this app > Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. Then the scanning process will start automatically. The Quick Scan searches for deleted files while Deep Scan searches for other missing files. It supports sorting the missing files by Date modified, Type, Size, etc, and previewing before data recovery.

Step 3. Go to Deleted files > find the Onedrive folder > choose the deleted or missing OneDrive files > click Recover x files.

Thus you could recover lost OneDrive files in a breeze. It also helps recover deleted files from Dropbox and Google Drive.

The way forward

OneDrive files missing issue could be properly settled with the fixes offered in this post. Just log into the correct Microsoft account, check the sync feature, regain permission to the shared files, etc., or use a professional and easy tool.

For the sake of precaution, take some actions to protect your data.

• Do not delete synced files in a hurry.
• When you need to empty the Recycle Bin, make sure no important files were deleted.
• Create cloud and local backups to protect your data. Use professional backup software for Windows to help you.
• Keep the vital file copies stored in different places.