Windows 10: Files and folders in My Documents have disappeared!

Help! A couple of days ago I was saving a document and it said it could not find the file location. That is when I discovered all of the files and folders in My Documents have disappeared! The only folder in My Documents is Custom Office Templates and it's empty. I have searched my PC with *.docx and nothing. I looked in all user accounts. I have tried system restore. I have tried uninstalling the last update. I already had hidden files and folders checked to show. I don't know what to do! They just all disappeared out of the apparent blue. Please help. TIA

:)

 

Disappearing folder

I've encountered a strange problem in windows 10 where I tried to delete a file in a folder, but ended up deleting the whole directory. It did so without the usual pop-up to confirm delete or say it was too big for the recycle bin. It was my Videos folder, so pretty big, but the disk allocation has also remained the same.

I've always had a problem with 'double icons' for the different user folders, including videos, and so I'm thinking it could have something to do with the whole thing, especially as now one of the two video folders has disappeared from the users folders.

The first thing i tried was 'Undo delete', but it just bought the folder back with non of the contents. Then, I went straight to Recuva, but it came up blank (there must have been over 50 videos in the folder)

I'm at a little bit of a loss as where to start looking for this disappeared folder and was hoping someone might have some suggestions?

Screenshots below:

 

Files disappearing from my Documents folder

Yesterday I found that certain files had disappeared from my Documents folder. Some, but not all, of them had also disappeared from the back-up copies I keep in an external hard drive. I had made no changes to my computer and the files were there the day before.
I did a normal System Restore but it failed, so I did a System Restore in Safe Mode and this was successful and all the files reappeared.
Although I no longer have a problem, I am concerned that the same thing might happen again. Can anyone suggest what could have been the cause of the disappearance, please? Windows Defender has not shown up any viruses and I'm at a loss as to what could have happened. Grateful for any suggestions.

 

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.