Find SharePoint files disappear? How to recover missing files on SharePoint? This article gathers reasons and solutions to help you fix this issue and recover deleted files from SharePoint.
SharePoint is a web-based platform that allows users to share documents and information with colleagues, customers, and partners, making it popular for its seamless collaboration features.
However, data loss can be a significant issue for users managing important files on SharePoint.
SharePoint Files disappearing with no trace
I am having an issue at our company where we place folders in SharePoint with several documents. Then at some point, they disappear without a trace. It was not deleted as it was not in the recycle bin.
- Question from Microsoft Community
File loss is not a rare case in collaborative platforms. Except for SharePoint files missing, quite a lot of users have reported OneDrive file missing issues.
Some even have found their important files disappear without any traces or clues or deleted SharePoint files not in Recycle Bin. Naturally, the question arises: how can you restore lost SharePoint files? Let's read on!
SharePoint users often face data loss issues when collaborating with colleagues. Some back up important data regularly, but many skip it to save storage space and costs.
Thus, many users search for ways to recover permanently deleted files in Windows without backups. Fortunately, professional Windows data recovery tools like MyRecover can help. MyRecover allows users to scan and recover deleted files from their computers in just 3 easy steps.
Step 1. Install and run the software > hover the mouse over the source drive where the deleted files previously stayed > click Scan.
Step 2. File searching and sorting can help you target your files quickly. You could use filters: Size, Type, Date modified, path, etc., to locate them.
Step 3. Go to Deleted files> go to the original location > find and select your wanted files > click Recover x files. Or go to Other missing files > select a certain type to restore.
You could use it to recover deleted files or folders in OneDrive as well.
Now, follow the solutions to fix the SharePoint files missing issue. With the help of these methods, you could easily recover accidentally deleted files from your computer.
As what has been told above, the files and folders could be accessed by all or a specific group of users. If some of the files were suddenly lost, the permission to you might have been shut.
For example, if a file has unique permissions, all other users could not access it.
>> Just check the permission or contact the host to change the permission settings.
When you use metadata, files could be filtered out via a view. Thus, some of the files could be invisible to you by chance. Go and check your filtering.
>> See if you have checked the option Show items only when the following is true > if so, change it to Show all items in this view.
Because the desired files or folders may have been moved by others to another location, you need to regain access by contacting the user or searching the files in all site collections.
>> You could input the filename in the search box > set the Results found in Everything.
Thus, all sites in your environment could be scanned. And thus you could have the SharePoint files disappear issue fixed.
Still cannot find missing SharePoint files? If so, the files could have been deleted already. But luckily, you could still recover deleted SharePoint files from the Recycle bin.
Step 1. Go to the original SharePoint site (where the files were deleted from) > click Recycle bin on the toolbar.
Step 2. Select the deleted SharePoint files > click Restore.
If you find no deleted SharePoint files in the Recycle bin, they might have been permanently deleted. Please move on to the next method.
Shortly speaking, yes. Document deletion feature is feasible in SharePoint Server 2016 for users to avoid and against risk.
Users could specify their preferences in file deletion: time, temporary or permanent deletion, etc. Given this, many enterprises will equip backup for Microsoft Office 365 to guard against data loss as well.
So, this might be one reason for SharePoint files disappearing. To dig out more, move on to the next part.
If unfortunately, you could not find your wanted SharePoint files, you could check out these to specify the causes.
Among these causes, deletion is a major one. After all, it is difficult for ordinary users to avoid accidentally deleting files from computers.
SharePoint files disappear issue could be properly settled with the provided solutions in this post.
For those SharePoint files missing due to permission settings, users could contact the owner and re-obtain the files; for files lost due to filters, or place changes, users could re-check and search their files.
If the SharePoint data was deleted, please go to the Recycle bin or turn to a data rescuer.