Critical Windows 10 October 2018 Update Bug Deletes User Files During Install

[steven36]

A bug in Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) causes the complete removal of certain user files during the install of the new OS release.

 

While at this point it’s not yet known how widespread this problem actually is, there are several discussions online dissecting an issue that leads to users losing files in Windows 10 libraries and in the public folder (some examples are here, here, and here).

Judging from user reports, the glitch is encountered when upgrading from Windows 10 Fall Creators Update to the October 2018 Update via Windows Update.

Files like documents, pictures, music, and videos stored in Windows 10 libraries are deleted without any warning, and at this point, it looks like they can’t be recovered if a backup wasn’t created before the upgrade.

No fix, no way to recover lost files

Several users in the linked threads have already confirmed the problem both on their machines and on those belonging to other individuals or clients, and in most of the cases, it appears that Windows hasn’t automatically created a backup of the removed files. While a Windows.old folder does exist to allow users to return to the previous Windows version, backups for files stored in libraries aren’t included.

“It did happen to one of my PCs. Took out the SSD and attached it to my main PC using SATA to USB 3 and the drive was almost empty. I had backups, so that wasn't a big issue for me. Only thing listed was a Windows.old and the regular Upgrade folder,” reddit user SonicHyuga explains in a post.

There’s no word from Microsoft on this bug just yet, and a workaround does not exist, so we recommend Windows 10 users to create backups of their files before beginning the installation of Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

The cause of the glitch hasn’t been discovered, and it’s pretty hard to tell which systems could be impacted. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for more information on this and we’ll update the article if we get an answer.

 

Quote

 

Some users reported that files from User folders, e.g. Documents, were removed during the upgrade. One user reported on Reddit that the upgrade removed 60 Gigabytes of WAV files from the system, another that an entire user profile was deleted.

 

One administrator described the issue in the following way:

Just had this happen to a client of mine. Laptop with Windows 10 Home. Yesterday, it wanted to update to 1809, so he let it go. It completes and he boots and logs in -- and notices that all of his Documents and Pictures are gone. His background image is there. His desktop is there. His iTunes music is there. But all of his Documents and Pictures are gone. And not just moved somewhere else -- I scanned through with TreeSize just to make sure. They are gone.

An administrator who manages a PC affected by the issue suspects that the issue is caused by the Group Policy "Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart" in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles as it was set on the device and not on others where the issue was not experienced.

Whether the policy is indeed responsible has not been confirmed yet.

 

 

Source

[Airstream_Bill]

Automatic Cleanup of System.  Great Feature.  Ha Ha

[Pete 12]

A tsunami of ; " User Profile Service id=1534 " ......in the eventlogs , HOW to solve it............???

[Karlston]

Sad for the folks who have lost irreplaceable data through no fault of their own.

 

There may be a way to recover it...

 

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/win10-version-1809-buglog-including-troubling-tales-of-lost-user-data/#post-221574

 

Will Microsoft ever realise that relegating testing to the Windows Insiders has failed miserably?

 

I bet their spin doctors are hard at work coming up with ways to sanitise this disaster.

[nir]

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update is deleting some users' content

 

At an event in Manhattan this week, Microsoft announced that it's releasing the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. It's only available to "seekers", meaning that Microsoft assumes that anyone hitting "Check for updates" in Windows Update is seeking out Windows 10 version 1809.

 

People are already having problems though, as there's a Task Manager known issue, there's an issue with an Intel driver, and now, users are reporting that upon upgrading to the new feature update, their files are going missing. According to a thread on Reddit, people are finding that their documents, pictures, music, and videos are all gone.

 

Unfortunately, there's no fix for this issue yet, and Microsoft hasn't issued a statement on this. It's entirely likely that there will be a fix included with the cumulative update that arrives on Patch Tuesday next week.

 

When Microsoft released this update, it skipped over the Release Preview ring of the Windows Insider Program, completely jumping over a huge bulk of the normal testing. Now, anyone who checks for updates is a seeker, a method that started in the spring with the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, so you'll want to beware.

 

Source

[luisam]

Yesterday I updated through Windows Update to 1809 on Windows 10 Home, with previous 1709 update running. I was not aware about the issue so my files were not backed up. When I read about this bug I checked the laptop and  I'm not missing any document, music file, photo or image file.

Of course, I expect to learn what might be the condition causing this issue and how much "generalized" is the problem.

1 hour ago, Karlston said:

Sad for the folks who have lost irreplaceable data through no fault of their own.

 

There may be a way to recover it...

 

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/win10-version-1809-buglog-including-troubling-tales-of-lost-user-data/#post-221574

 

Some tips and information of this webpage related to update 1809 look interesting and enlighting, woth to click on and read carefully!

[Kalju]

Unfortunately, there is no such problem, up to now three computers have been updated.

Everyone is totally different, I didn't have any problems, so there is reason to believe that this is another act of provoking...

[Pete 12]

Indeed , no problems at all , all is fine , after the upgrade !

Untill you have a look in the eventlogs , it will suddenly reduce your happines ......

( some of my friends never look in it , maybe thats best as long everything works ok )

[nir]

@Pete 12  A tons of them happening according to discussions at this web page.

 

Note:  Deleting the listed registry keys in one of the posts solves the problem for me.  Good luck!

 

[Kalju]

30 minutes ago, nir said:

@Pete 12  A tons of them happening according to discussions at this web page.

I looked at them, obvious reason (if any such a problem exist) is that after the upgrade, you need to clean up the registry from outdated data. If they are there, then there's nothing to wonder about.
Recently, malicious recommendations have been spread, which often recommends that the registry should be not cleaned up. This is a very malicious recommendation.
Of course, there are very few programs, what to use. What is at all possible to use. And also you need to know what to remove and what not, but that does not mean that you should not clean registry at all.
I have to admit that pure curiosity was that why I have very much checked the things that are being discussed. So far I have found nothing that would be true. Most of them is only the registry problems that comes, if do not care about cleaning registry.

[Karlston]

This dreadful event should serve as a reminder to do regular backups.

 

Everyone has their favourites, mine are Macrium Reflect Free for image backups and GoodSync Pro ( here on front page ) for file/folder backups.

[Matrix]

19 minutes ago, Karlston said:

This dreadful event should serve as a reminder to do regular backups.

 

In my case some years ago I started creating a separate partition just for backed up files on each Pc I formatted 

[Karlston]

8 hours ago, luisam said:

Some tips and information of this webpage related to update 1809 look interesting and enlighting, woth to click on and read carefully!

 

Indeed. Woody is worth following, his advice as to when Windows updates are safe to apply or not (MS-DEFCON) help protect us from commonly flaky Microsoft updates.

 

AskWoody

[shorty6100]

To sound like a broken record, this is EXACTLY why I clean install every time-to avoid issues like this.

[Karlston]

WHY are 1809 upgraders getting their files zapped?

I’ve been looking at reports from all over the world, and can’t find a pattern. Some people got hit, others didn’t, and I have no idea why.

 

If you had your documents, pictures, or other files deleted on the road to 1809, please post on this Reddit thread and help Microsoft figure it out.

 

And make sure to tell your friends that all is not lost. A quick run of Recuva should bring the deleted files back.

 

UPDATE: There’s some question as to whether Recuva can recover 1809-upgrade-deleted-files from an SSD. Lots of moving parts. If you’ve hit the 1809-upgrade-deleted files problem, and they were deleted from an SSD, I’d appreciate your advice!

 

After that, you can roll back the upgrade. Which ain’t a bad idea.

 

Source: WHY are 1809 upgraders getting their files zapped? (AskWoody - Woody Leonhard)

[0nl1n3]

On 10/4/2018 at 10:30 AM, Airstream_Bill said:

Automatic Cleanup of System.  Great Feature.  Ha Ha

Microsoft improvements

[sefton22]

10 hours ago, shorty6100 said:

To sound like a broken record, this is EXACTLY why I clean install every time-to avoid issues like this.

me too, updates cause numerous unknown errors. it took 3 attempts at 1803 to get it to work. luckily reverting back to 1703 is quick.

 

I have come to loathe Win10 default apps, i currently having a few new issues, one being "An app caused a problem with the default app XXX" etc.

Hopefully the Oct Update will fix it

[0nl1n3]

6 hours ago, sefton22 said:

me too, updates cause numerous unknown errors. it took 3 attempts at 1803 to get it to work. luckily reverting back to 1703 is quick.

 

I have come to loathe Win10 default apps, i currently having a few new issues, one being "An app caused a problem with the default app XXX" etc.

Hopefully the Oct Update will fix it

I was thinking reverting to XP   but there is a solution for x32 only now to update so the extra memory will go away

[mantazzo]

Eh, I don't know, upgraded to 1809 from 1803, seem to have 0 problems with Windows 10 for now. No cleanups, no anything - just a simple upgrade.

[nir]

@mantazzo  For many this upgrade poses no problems and goes without a hitch.  For some this upgrade is a nightmare by deleting files. Therefore, Microsoft has pulled this upgrade. 

[mantazzo]

On 10/6/2018 at 4:43 PM, nir said:

@mantazzo  For many this upgrade poses no problems and goes without a hitch.  For some this upgrade is a nightmare by deleting files. Therefore, Microsoft has pulled this upgrade. 

And fair enough, it's a pretty serious bug. (And to be fair I'd rather do clean install but I prefer upgrading the version first, so that my activation doesn't go strange or something.)

But to be honest, the update isn't that big again, since Sets haven't made it yet again. Hope for 1903 Sets? (Currently probably the biggest change of this update was File Explorer getting dark mode. LOL.)

[The AchieVer]

I had upgraded to version 1809 through upgrade assistance , it went smoothly- no issues with either the activation or the files 😊

[steven36]

On 10/4/2018 at 2:47 PM, Kalju said:

Unfortunately, there is no such problem, up to now three computers have been updated.

That would be fortunate for  window 10 lab rats if it were true not  unfortunate. your backassward ,  For me it doesn't matter anymore  because i stop using  Windows 10 in March 2018 and installed what came with my PC back on it, witch is Windows 8.1.  Every since windows 10 came out in 2015  you had issues accepting the truth that people who install Windows 10 upgrades in the 1st month or 2 after they come out are just lab rats .  Because every time a new version of windows 10 comes the updates are  full of bug fixes.  They even pushed out 2 updates a month to fix bugs  . But this bug here was so bad  they pulled the OCT  update from there upgrade servers and you say it don't exist that shows what little you really know about windows. 

 

Just because you pirate windows 10 dont give you and excuse to be naive . Many pirates are silly they pirate Windows 10 Enterprise  and have the option to defer updates  tell Microsoft  says it's OK to install it for Business to install but they install it as soon as it  comes out they may as well use Windows 10 home. Some pirates are not so silly  like my friend, they wait tell Microsoft  says it's OK to install it for Business every time , Me i dont bother at all I just use Windows 8.1 and don't worry about it at all.

[Kalju]

@steven36  In one case, you made a mistake - two updates per month are not enough. This is history, if was released only one update and it happened usually on the third weeks Wednesday. Soon became two updates in month, but in September 2018 was released 7 updates for Windows 10 1803.
Yes, it's true, we are in Microsoft business program in role of laboratory rats.

Soon, we'll probably all begin to pay Windows-usage fees. At least that is what they are talking about in last time.

[steven36]

1 minute ago, Kalju said:

@steven36  In one case, you made a mistake - two updates per month are not enough. This is history, if was released only one update and it happened usually on the third weeks Wednesday. Soon became two updates in month, but in September 2018 was released 7 updates for Windows 10 1803.
Yes, it's true, we are in Microsoft business program in role of laboratory rats.

Soon, we'll probably all begin to pay Windows-usage fees. At least that is what they are talking about in last time.

I don't know what happen in Sept. 2018 because I no longer use Windows 10 since March 2018  and the last 6 months i used it  i disliked Redstone 3 so much i stayed in Linux and only booted in Windows 10 about once  a month . What good is is having something you dont use on your PC ? I know they use to push out like 2 updates a month before and i blocked updates and upgrades with my firewall  and I  would download the update  installer when i felt like it and update they  can't even push updates on me using Windows 10 home but i'm not a normal user.