Files and folders disappearing Indesign Win10

[smaunune]

After updating Indesign to CC 2018 I've encountered a very alarming behavior. When working on a document on Indesign, files and even folders suddenly disappear from HDD. These seem to be files that are linked to document or subfolders that are in the same folder as opened .indd file.

- Running Windows 10 with latest updates.

- HDD where the files disappeared is local (same as OS).

- Today a folder disappeared from a Google Cloud synced folder (if it makes a difference?)
- Happened too many times for me to just zone off and delete them by accident

Folders are simply gone. They are not replaced or renamed - I have run search, checked trash and even tried Recuva to find them. I can see the files in recent files shortcuts, but they link to missing media. I've run diagnostics and HDD and OS should be just fine. Virus and malware scans are green. This problem does not affect any other files - just jpg, .indd, .pdf and other files made or associated with Indesign (or maybe some other CC program).

I've lost tens of hours of work to this weird issue. I have started to mirror all folders containing .indd files to cloud so that I can restore them, but I have to do this at least once a day. And it is pretty tedious thing even with back ups.

Anyone else having issues of missing files?  Is this OS or CC? Bug or by design?

There seems to been few similar issues, but I couldn't find a definitive solution/cause.

Disappearing Files - Adobe Indesign Window
.indd file gone minutes after saving?!

InDesign File Missing - Graphic Design Stack Exchange

[BobLevine]

That sounds like malware of some sort. No way I can think of for InDesign to just delete folder and files from your harddrive.

Windows 10 is now at version 1803.

[Laubender]

Hi Bob,

there is Google Drive into play here. Don't know, but maybe someone removed shared content? Or moved it to a different place?

Regards,
Uwe

[smaunune]

Google Drive wasn't it as I am only user and the folders disappear from HDD but not from drive, but there might've been a malware. 

I had run Malwarebytes and Norton suite deepscan, but they had missed it. Today I purchased Bitdefender Total Security 2018 and it spotted a suspected trojan in Creative Cloud folder and disinfected it.

\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\Experience\js\node_modules\ffi\build\Release\ffi_bindings.node_modules\ffi\build\Release\ffi_bindings.node

Gen:Trojan.Heur.LP.jy5@aSQO4Lci

Google has very little hits on this, this 2014 thread pinpoints it to Adobe Reader.
Virus - Gen:Trojan:Heur.LP.Ev5@auW5fMI

[dannygarber]

Get rid of Norton. Causes more problems than solutions. Try Avast Antivirus. www.avast.com

[AaronWinters]

Im having this identical problem.  This is becoming chronic and ongoing. NLocally saved files. Win10.

Most recent instance, saved and closed INDD on Friday. Opened next on Tuesday morning. Between the 2 sessions, I exported to v3, v4, v5 PDFs as client proofs. When going to re-open maybe 30 minutes later to update, and export what would be v6 PDF: INDD file is gone. 

It is not in trash.

It is not returned in search, either locally or by my IT department on any redundant servers.

The shortcut appears in the File > Open Recent list, but file is not found.

The visual thumbnail screen seems to be very selective as to what files it sees as Recent.

Fortunately, for this particular file, I caught it quickly and IT was able to restore backup from Friday night. But I recently hit a 'dead zone' in which NO INDD files were found between 12/19 and 1/11. Its not remotely possible I didnt touch INDD for 3 weeks... first of year I'm updating annual forms like crazy.

I'm beginning to think it might be possible Creative Cloud is trying to sync against our agency's ISO policies and returning null results for certain file types. Essentially overriding files with an empty cloud version. We dont use the CC cloud storage for ISO reasons, so we save everything to local C and H drives. That explanation of phantom sync doesnt make a lot of sense butu no one on our end has any idea what's going on.

[karissa31875720kh37]

Any updates? I had the same problem today, posted below about it. 

[karissa31875720kh37]

Did you ever figure out what was causing this issue? I had a similar thing happen today. An entire folder disappeared. No trace of it except broken shortcuts. Not in trash, not in quarantine from antivirus. I published my InDesign doc that had the files and walked away while it was processing. Then this morning I'm getting broken link messages in InDesign and search for the folder and it's just gone. It had the AI file and 15 jpgs exported from that AI file. So much lost work. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Glitches of any kind from any app that delete files, much less folders, are pretty rare.

OTOH, it's pretty easy to hit Delete at the wrong time and accidentally/absent-mindedly/inadvertently confirm it — such as when you're rushing a bit through a save-and-exit routine. And if it wasn't a vanilla local folder, it may not show up in trash.

[BobLevine]

Whatever the issue is it has nothing to do with InDesign. I suggest checking your system for malware and if you're working in a Dropbox or other shared environment, make sure you are not using a cloud-only syncing feature.

[karissa31875720kh37]

I would have thought the same thing as you if it hadn't happened to me. I'm not working in a Dropbox or shared environment. The files were on my local hard drive. I did not accidentally delete the folder. It is not in my recycle bin. There were shortcut links in illustrator to the file and when trying to open from there it says the files do not exist. My antivirus is fine and up to date. My spouse is an IT professional and did a thorough check on my computer to verify all of those potentials.  The folder was there when I walked away from my computer as I was publishing my InDesign document online. And when I came back the next morning the entire folder is gone and the InDesign publish failed. I don't know what happened but it is not something that I did and it's not malware. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It could be, but if it were not somewhere between very rare to specific to your setup, it seems like we'd see quite a few more posts — this is not a trivial bug.

My solution would be to use a data recovery tool like Norton to explore for and restore the deleted folder, and "read the tea leaves" to see why and what deleted it in the first place.

[defaulty93vrm2w4al0]

This exact thing is happening to me, I thought it was an accident at first, then I went onto google drive where I have a backup ad the files are in the folders there just not on my desktop in the folder.  I am the only one using this computer, folders and google drive.  Please Help!!

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Please try the suggestions shared in this similar discussion. Feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.

Thanks

Rishabh