Why are my Google Drive folders/documents disappearing?

Information on a known issue with Google Drive which causes folders and files to seemingly disappear.

Google Drive users may experience an issue with Google Drive folders, documents, or other Google files seemingly "disappearing." One or more refreshes may be needed in order to get the "missing" files to show up, or folders may appear to be empty upon first opening them and only populate with files after refreshing the page. 

As of November 2022, this is a known issue and Google is working on a fix. In the meantime, OIT recommends the following workarounds:

• Clear the cache and cookies from the browser and open Google Drive from a different tab.
• Login to the incognito window immediately and open drive.google.com. You will see all the files and folders there.
• Open the Drive for Desktop app and click the exact file/folder you don't see in the web. It will then appear in the web version after you refresh the tab.

Users can also try a more extreme workaround by following these steps:

1. Go to drive.google.com
2. Open More tools > Developer Tools
3. Go to Application tab
4. Open IndexedDb
5. Expand GoogleDriveDs under drive.google.com
6. For each item, right click and clear

For more information on fixing common issues in Google Drive, please visit this Google Drive Help article.