macOS lots of missing files

QuadLeo

Hi, I'm looking for some help with a pretty serious macOS problem. It's a bit long so bare with me if you can... I'm trying to include as much info as I can.

I have a 2015 MacbookPro, macOS Catalina 10.15.4. A few weeks ago I noticed some of my picture files were missing and then I had a deeper look and noticed all of my photos and many of my random files, documents and images located on desktop, and in various user folders had vanished. Every affected folder had the same “last modified” time stamp, which was two hours previous.

My first instinct was malware/ransomware. But all I was doing at the time was editing an audio file and emailing that file, all using legitimate software. I’m pretty careful about what software I use but obviously I can’t rule malware out 100%. Although I got no ransomware pop up window and the antivirus scans were all clear.

I thought it could be some kind of file/disk corruption? But it’s strange that it’s only user files (but not all user files) and not any system files that I can see. Also strange that it all happened at the same time, which would correspond to around the time I woke the Mac from sleep.

The only other thing I noticed was shortly after I started using the Mac a massive 90GB time machine backup started. This is unusual as it backs up regularly and usually less than 1GB per backup. I thought it was strange and I think this was what alerted me that something wasn't right.

I did all the usual things, I restarted the machine, ran disk first aid in recovery mode and all is ok. Luckily I had a a recent timemachine backup so I reinstalled from that and got all my files back.

I've been working away without issue for over a week now but this morning it happened again. Kind of the same pattern, woke the mac from sleep, opened up my audio software and started working. A few minutes later I noticed another ~90GB timemachine backup and I immediately knew what it was. I checked my desktop, my photos, and documents folder and most of my files were gone. All the folders and subfolders remain but they contain no files. Although the folders all still report that they contain the same size as before, but they're visually empty. All have the same "last modified" time stamp too.

I have a console system log from this morning if it's of any use. I tried to run the Apple Hardware Diagnostic tool by holding down "D", but it just sits on a black screen with the fans spinning full speed.

As this is the second time this has happened I'm a little concerned.

The only thing I can think to try next is wipe the mac completely, clean install, and manually copy my files back across.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is it a sign of a failing SSD? Any other ideas of what it might be?

P.S. I've checked my iCloud in case all the files magically synced to the cloud and were removed from the mac. No joy.

Doodah7

Have you the setting for saving space on your Mac switched on? The OS will move files automatically to the cloud and off your hard drive if space is becoming a little tight.

QuadLeo

Doodah7 wrote: »

Have you the setting for saving space on your Mac switched on? The OS will move files automatically to the cloud and off your hard drive if space is becoming a little tight.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I’ve checked my iCloud for the missing files but they’re not there. It was unlikely anyway as there is around 90GB of files missing and I don’t have that much iCloud space. I’ve also checked that macOS space saving setting and it was off except for photos.

I also managed to complete and Apple Hardware Diagnostic and it returned a clean result.

I’ve wiped the machine and did a clean install so we’ll see how that goes. If anyone has any other ideas I’d love to hear them as it seems like a serious issue.

I’m wondering if it might be a time machine / system snapshot issue as it seems to be all happening at once and is corresponding to when the machine wakes up or when time machine runs, or at least that’s when my attention is drawn to it.