Google Drive users are being warned never to click on certain buttons after dozens of users lost months of work on the system. In a statement released last night, Google said it was investigating reports of personal files missing from its popular cloud service. One user reported losing her business for 6 months, and so far her 268 users have clicked "I have the same question" in a thread about the issue on Google's community support site. Writing on the company’s help centre, Google staffer Saitej said: ‘We’re investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users and will follow up with more updates.’ Google did not say how many users may be affected. However, Mr. Saitej strongly warns all his Google Drive users not to click the "Disconnect Account" button on the desktop version of Drive, and that this can be revoked if a user clicks it accidentally. I didn't mention whether it would be possible. And unfortunately for the user who originally reported the issue, his team at Google Support had already told them to do just that.

Read More: Google issue three week warning to users

Writing on the help site, Yeonjoong said his Google Drive activity didn’t show any changes, and no files were deleted manually, so could not be retrieved from Trash. He described the loss as ‘very devastating, the files are very important to me’. Replying to Saitej, he said: ‘The Google support team already ask me to “Disconnect account” within Drive for desktop after backup DriveFS folder. and re-paste it in the same place. ‘Will it be a problem?’ Saitej has not yet replied publicly. However, in his original post he also advised users not to delete or move the app’s data folder, which can be found in:

• %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\DriveFS for Windows
• ~/Library/Application for MacOS

On the main issue of lost files, Google said it relates to versions 84.0.0.0 to 84.0.4.0. Another user said his partner had the same issue, but was able to restore his files after two days by uninstalling Google Drive and reinstalling an older version. Some users have speculated that the loss of files may be related to the impending deletion of inactive accounts by Google. Starting Friday, a major security update will remove millions of Gmail accounts that haven't logged in for at least two years.

How can I save my Gmail account?

Logging into your account isn’t enough to save it – you need to use it.

Google suggests taking one of the following actions:

• Reading or sending an email
• Using Google Drive
• Watching a YouTube video
• Sharing a photo
• Downloading an app
• Using Google Search
• Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service

It adds that activity is demonstrated by account, not device, meaning it doesn’t matter where you generate activity in your account, as long as you use it.

This also means if you have more than one account on a single device, you must make sure both are active.