A bunch of files are missing from Desktop folders managed by OneDrive

Question

I don't use OneDrive at all, but my mom who's not tech-savvy at all has it on her laptop. Today, she suddenly notices that a bunch of files from a folder on desktop have disappeared. It seems like all of the desktop are managed by/synced with OneDrive but there's some sort of error preventing her from seeing/access those files. Please see the screenshots.

Since my 60+ years old mother is really not up-to-date with the tech, she can't tell me if she's done anything with OneDrive (she doesn't even know what it is and that she's using it), when the last update was, etc. But she is not computer illiterate enough that she would accidentally delete all these files from those folders herself.

Is there any way of getting these files back and shut off OneDrive permanently so it won't sneak back onto her laptop with the next Windows Update?

Thanks in advance!

what do these checkmarks and cloud symbols mean?Address bar shows "error"folder has become completely empty even though they had many files before

nikolinode · Answer

You’re running into a very common OneDrive + Desktop sync problem, especially on Windows 10/11 machines used by non-technical users. The good news: the files are very likely not deleted. They’re just not where Windows is currently looking.

Find the missing files (most important)

Check the REAL local Desktop