Windows 10: Documents Folder Straight Up Gone

I was working on my Laptop like usual. Finished some stuff I had to do.

Then suddenly, the PC did not restart or crash, nothing happened, but suddenly when I try to open Documents, a popup menu comes up saying "This folder is unavailable" (My PC's in German, this is my translation). Anyway, it tells me that all the files might have been moved or deleted, even though I did literally NOTHING. All gone.

I tried everything, nothing worked. Everything else is still there and I'm not logged into a temporary profile or anything.


I also noticed that I lost 10GB worth of important documents, files and programs, give or take, because my taskbar lacks 2 art programs that have to be installed into the documents folder. I tried the command prompt to check corrupted and deleted files, had my antivirus do a complete scan, tried data recovery, but it's all useless, especially because all data recovery programs are paid and the price is always 100$, which is too much just for one single thing.

I'm frustrated, I randomly lost a lot of stuff and I did not do anything. No amount of restarting etc has helped me, all I was able to do is use "shellersonal" so I can at least access the documents folder, although I hate that it's empty and all its files are completely gone without warning or anything.

:)

 

Downloads folder is the Documents folder

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to Restore to Default the folders and document settings and see if it helps.

Step 1:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Download folder.
• Right click on the Download Folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

Step 2:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Documents folder.
• Right click on the Document folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

After performing above steps change the settings as you required and check if it helps.

Hope these information helps, please get back to us for future support, we’ll be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

Multiple 'Documents' folders under 'This PC'

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

This may happen if one the “documents” folder has been stored on different target location.

Follow the methods below and check if it helps:

Method 1

I suggest that you check both the folders location where they are saved using the below method:

• 
  Right-click on any one documents folder and then click Properties.
  
• 
  Click the Location tab, click Restore Default, and then click Apply and OK.
  
• 
  Check what happens, try these step on all the documents folder.
  

Method 2

If the above step fails then try checking the target location of both the folders by using the find target option:

• 
  Right-click on any one documents folder and then click Properties.
  
• 
  Click the Location tab, click Find target.
  
• 
  Check where the target location of both the folders is and check if any one goes to the user name location and later delete the one which goes to wrong location.
  

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Documents/Pictures folders under 'This PC' refer to onedrive - not the local folders

Since the only folder that has incorrect file path is the Documents folder under This PC, we would suggest you do the same steps provided above. However, do it in your Documents folder under This PC. To do so, kindly follow the steps below:

• Open File Explorer
• Click This PC
• Right-click on Documents
• Click Properties
• Click Location
• Click Restore Default
• Click Apply
• Click OK

Also, we would like to inform you that "winhelponline.com" is not associated with Microsoft.

Let us know how it goes.