Microsoft's Windows 10 October Update could be deleting user files, reports claim

Polycount

Posts: 3,017   +590
Staff

If you like to be on the cutting edge when it comes to Windows 10 updates, it might be best to rethink that policy moving forward. According to Reddit users, and posts from users within Microsoft's "Answers" community, downloading the latest Windows 10 update -- update 1809 -- could result in your files being deleted.

The files at risk seem to be those found in the Documents folder. So far, users have reported losing their music, videos, pictures, and other miscellaneous content. Naturally, if these issues are widespread, this is a serious problem, and Microsoft will need to fix it before the October Windows 10 update rolls out to everyone automatically next Tuesday.

If you're one of the unlucky individuals who have encountered this problem, there are two tricks you should try to mitigate the issue and potentially get your data back.

First of all, as a pre-emptive measure to prevent further data deletion, Engadget advises running the "gpedit" command, navigating to the Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/User Profiles directory, and disabling the "Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart" setting. It should be noted that the Group Policy Editor is a Windows 10 Pro-exclusive feature by default.

As far as recovering lost data goes, an "Independent Advisor" on Microsoft's Answers forums suggests restarting -- not shutting down -- your computer three to four times. While it's unclear whether or not that will work for everyone, it can't hurt to try.

Microsoft has not commented on this bug publicly as of writing, but with any luck, they'll make a statement confirming the issue in the near future. Hopefully, that statement will come with a fix for those who have already lost data.

Personally, I've disabled Windows Update entirely until this issue gets resolved, and it's probably best for you to do the same; temporarily, of course.

Permalink to story.

 
Well I updated to the October update two days ago and didn't have any problem. Although, I have my documents folder assigned to other partition different than the Windows 10 drive.
 
Luckily no problems for me, nothing I can see missing, but I haven't run every single application to see if anything was broken, but daily use so far is fine.
since they mention "disabling the "Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart" setting" I wonder if the fact that I did a clean install after the Spring Update made a difference (shorter number of days between then and now than if you have been running for year++)
 
Haha thats what happens when you install the trash that is windows 10. Did the update also reinstall candy crash for the 15th time without asking for permission. Anyone who runs windows 10 intentionally isn't all that bright.
 
Win10 updates have been uninstalling some of my programs automatically, silently since long back.

But haven't noticed any uninstallations for the past 2 or 3 major updates.
 
I'm in the tech field. Recent Win10 updates have uninstalled people's NIC (network drivers), given BSODs and made their Windows partition show unformatted, and now they're are deleting files. It's been havoc lately...

Same field same issues. These updates have been driving me crazy. This should be a fun month.
 
Oddly enough, I have updated 5 PC's with october update without any problems from windows update.

But this morning (DK time) I wanted to update another PC, but the update is gone... Windows update only found a small update for defender.

Trying to download the update assistant from the website only shows the april update assistant (ver 9252) - tried downloading it but it doesn't install anything..

Has MS pulled the update?
 
I'm in the tech field. Recent Win10 updates have uninstalled people's NIC (network drivers), given BSODs and made their Windows partition show unformatted, and now they're are deleting files. It's been havoc lately...

Same field same issues. These updates have been driving me crazy. This should be a fun month.
I can confirm this as well. Windows 10 is the buggiest OS to date.
 
Windows 10 feels like it was made by one developer in a shed. They need to ditch that "Windows as a service" garbage which just means more updates that break stuff and MS having more control over your OS and instead make a polished version of Windows 10 like Windows 7 was to Vista.
 
MICROSOFT is getting close to perfecting WINDOWS 10........................... Just give it 20-50 more years.
 
This sucks for the people that are affected by these updates, but W10 is the most stable Windows OS I have ever used, beating out Windows XP and W7. Imagine that....
 
The update did several things to my computer.
1. Video drivers wiped out and reverted to v375 from v411.70
2. Audio drivers reverted and all settings lost
3. Windows firewall settings reverted to defaults, all settings removed and firewall not functioning properly (had to reset it again )
4. All custom registry optimizations removed
5. Most of my privacy settings removed and or reverted to system defaults
6. Settings window back button from within any category not working. X-Out close button also not working forcing me to either Alt+F4 to close or close from a right click of the taskbar button
7. Most of the custom desktop settings reverted to windows default
8. System Restore completely disabled and all restore points lost.
9. Apparently no files lost, but I remand several system folders to a different drive I.e Documents, Music, Videos, Desktop,& Pictures all secured off of the C drive.
10. Still looking for anything else, but the system seems otherwise alright.. System timing is a bit sluggish. mass downloading causes chrome to virtually freeze.. This was not a problem before
 
Windows 10 feels like it was made by one developer in a shed. They need to ditch that "Windows as a service" garbage which just means more updates that break stuff and MS having more control over your OS and instead make a polished version of Windows 10 like Windows 7 was to Vista.
I completely agree..The Apple style of updating just does not work.. It causes more problems than solutions. Windows 7 is still the best and nicest looking OS they ever made.

I do say however, that the overall performance of Windows 10 is most satisfactory.. If they would go back to the W7 format with W10 performance.. it would be lovely.
 
I have little hdd space available and windows 10 1809 is warning me that if enabled, OLD FILES MAY BE DELETED....
 
Haha thats what happens when you install the trash that is windows 10. Did the update also reinstall candy crash for the 15th time without asking for permission. Anyone who runs windows 10 intentionally isn't all that bright.
Interesting, I've never had candy crush reinstall itself, neither has anyone I know who runs 10 and uninstalled it.

Thou protests too much about the brightness of bulbs methinks.
 
Interesting, I've never had candy crush reinstall itself, neither has anyone I know who runs 10 and uninstalled it.

Thou protests too much about the brightness of bulbs methinks.
As you literally comment on a story about windows 10 deleting thousands if not millions of users files/drivers/sys files from a update that was forced upon them with no choice. Candy crush and the endless data sent to Microsoft about your personal files is just but two examples of the endless suckage of windows 10 but keep up the fanboi effort to prop up the disaster that is microsoft.
 
Oddly enough, I have updated 5 PC's with october update without any problems from windows update.

But this morning (DK time) I wanted to update another PC, but the update is gone... Windows update only found a small update for defender.

Trying to download the update assistant from the website only shows the april update assistant (ver 9252) - tried downloading it but it doesn't install anything..

Has MS pulled the update?

Yes.

"We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809)* for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating."

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4464619/windows-10-update-history
 
Back