by Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2018 in Windows – 12 comments
Microsoft has corrected issues that caused data loss on systems upgraded to the company’s new feature update the October 2018 Update.
The company released the update on October 2, 2018 as a manual update to give interested users and administrators an option to install the update right away.
Reports emerged shortly after the release that data loss occurred on some upgraded systems after the upgrade to Windows 10 version 1809.
Microsoft stopped the update to investigate the issue and found the issue according to John Cable, Director of Program Management, Windows Servicing and Delivery.
An updated version of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update is distributed to Insider Channels. Microsoft will monitor feedback closely and will push the update to retail update channels afterward but a release date has not been revealed yet.
The issue
Microsoft discovered in its investigation that the issue impacted one one-hundredth of one percent of version 1809 installs.
Only devices with Known Folder Redirects enabled were affected by the issue and there only if the feature was enabled but files remained in the default folder.
Known Folder Redirects gives users options to move the classic Windows folders Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, and so on to another location. Some users and admins do that to free up storage space on the main drive.
The feature is built-in to the Windows operating system. Just right-click on any “known folder”, e.g. Documents, select Properties, and the Move under the Location tab to start the process. There you may also restore the default.
The issue was caused by two changes that Microsoft implemented in Windows 10 version 1809:
- Implementation of code to remove empty duplicate known folders automatically during upgrade.
- Change to the update construction sequence.
The result was that the upgrade process deleted the old folder and with it the data that it still contained as it assumed that it was a duplicate of the new folder.
In particular:
- Users who moved a Known Folder to a new drive experienced the issue if content of the old folder was not moved to the new destination.
- Users who moved a Known Folder to OneDrive but did not move files in the process had files deleted in the old location.
- Users who enabled AutoSave functionality in older versions of OneDrive as existing files were not moved to the new OneDrive location.
Microsoft confirms that it has investigated the issue fully so that the described issues won’t occur anymore.
We have fully investigated these issues and developed solutions that resolve all three of these scenarios, so the “original” old folder location and its contents remain intact.
Issues that data loss occurred was reported by Insiders to the Feedback Hub months prior to the release of Windows 10 version 1809. It appears that the reports were not noticed as they did not receive a whole lot of votes or feedback.
Microsoft enabled new feedback functionality today that adds options to classify impact and severity of the reported issue.
Closing Words
Some users reported that their entire profiles were removed during the upgrade. Microsoft made no mention of that in the update on the Windows Experience website.
In either case, it is best to create a full system backup of the system and important data before upgrades are installed to avoid these scenarios.
Now You: What is your take on this?