Where Do They Go?

[PowerBattery]

WIN 10: Sometimes, after I finish creating a document in Word, I will save it to DOCUMENTS. When I try to retrieve it, the document is gone. Disappeared from DOCUMENTS in My Computer. When I go to look for it, the document is gone. SOMETIMES when I type into the search box "DOCUMENTS" I am given a choice of searching on the internet. WTH is that?

Sometimes, when I look for the document in DOCUMENTS, it reappears!

I have been saving documents to my desktop in separate folders so I don't have to go through the annoyance of going through this craziness.

Where are the documents going?

 

[wegmand]

Just taking a stab at this: Could the save operation be saving the file to a OneDrive documents folder by default? Or maybe another cloud storage location? It might explain why you get a choice of searching the Internet for the file.

 

[PowerBattery]

I don't even know how to access One Drive, and I don't use any cloud services.

When I use the search box and use the term "My Computer" it gives me online choices as well. If I type in the name of the document, I get online search choices as well.

It's crazy.

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into your suggestions.

 

[Skeezix]

You could download and try the "Everything" app. It is basically a file lister and it takes only a couple of minute to use. With it you can see every file on your drive in a matter of seconds, or you can configure it to see only files that you want (such as just those on the C: or D: drives, or all files that have an extension that you specify, etc. I use it all the time. There are so many options for listing files it would take a booklet to describe them all. Takes only seconds to install, has its own user forum, and best of all, its small and... FREE!
Just google "everything.exe" and you'll find where to download it.

 

[PowerBattery]

Thanks! I'll take a look.

 

[Kevin N]

When you look in DOCUMENTS for the file and it appears to be gone, try tapping F5 on your keyboard to refresh the display.

 

[Brian Bermingham]

Don't know what Word system you are using but I use the free OpenOffice (not Microsoft Office) and have never had your problem.
After you save a document I presume you also have closed it or is it still open on your screen ? If mine is still open and I try to open
something else, the opened file shows the word "lock" in front of the file name so it can't be opened until I close it.
I also have automatic backup's created to a USB drive so I never loose a file. That's done in the Tools/Options area.

 

[spjr]

When you look in DOCUMENTS for the file and it appears to be gone, try tapping F5 on your keyboard to refresh the display.

I noticed newly created files not showing in Windows 11. I do not remember seeing it in Windows 10.
At first, I would change folders then back again. Then I pressed F5 to refresh and my new file would show up.
Then I noticed the new file would be at the bottom of the list of files.
Microsoft needs to learn the saying.
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Kevin N]

I noticed newly created files not showing in Windows 11. I do not remember seeing it in Windows 10.
At first, I would change folders then back again. Then I pressed F5 to refresh and my new file would show up.
Then I noticed the new file would be at the bottom of the list of files.
Microsoft needs to learn the saying.
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm seeing this behavior in Win 10 as well. There seems to be a lot of users researching this anomaly.
One consensus is that if you have Network Location(s) set up and they are not accessible (network location machine is not turned on) the machine that is searching for (and not finding) the Network Location(s) experiences the anomaly.
It has been my experience, that in most cases, just waiting for a minute or so, allows the missing files to automatically appear.
But yes, somewhere, somehow, MS broke it.

 

[PowerBattery]

I save document's changes then save it to documents. Poof! Gone. I have one computer on the network. One document that I haven't seen in months reappeared on my desktop!