Forum Discussion
Deleted SharePoint folders keep reappearing
No - it's not a teams site. Just a plain old no-frills site used for file sharing. So there are no channels involved. The site has no plugins, apps or automation - it's just an out-of-the-box site connected to each user's OneDrive using the "Add shortcut to oneDrive" feature.
Sadly, our security policies wont allow me to screenshot our business folders - for obvious reasons.
But, using dummy names: I can explain how it looks. In our site's Documents root folder, we might have a "Folder1" and "Folder2", each with a selection of subfolders (and some have files, others not).
When we delete "Folder1", then it re-appears (complete with it's subfolders), and SharePoint's "Created By" gives the name of another member of staff. Other copies like "Folder1-Fred", "Folder1-LAPTOP1" are also in the habit of just appearing (and again: each one is being created by different staff members). The re-created directory tress are usually empty of files (just the directories get created) although in some cases a small number of the original files also reappear.
This is NOT the result of clicking "restore" in the recycle bin, by the way - the directory is still in there.
- Maybe - I'll need to check with security. What's your relationship with Microsoft?
Yes - I've had a ticket for this and related issues running for about 3 weeks now - and MS are really not being helpful.- I am honestly just a community member trying to help out 🙂
I did find this post from someone else about the same issue. I am afraid there was no real solution provided but still worth looking into:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint/deleted-files-folders-reappear-as-they-are-synced-back-online/m-p/91330/page/3Thanks - that sounds familiar and it appears there is no known answer.
But could this be related... ?
1: Use a SharePoint site connected to your OneDrive as a shortcut..
2: Using the windows file explorer to put the entire site into "Free up space" mode (right click the "Documents - MySite" entry and select "Free up space").
3: Create a three-level directory tree in the site. Eg: "Documents - MySite/Folder1/Folder2/Folder3".
4: Copy four 5mb (or larger) word documents into the second level (Folder2) and wait for the green "sync done" icon to appear.
5: Select all four documents, right click, select "Free up space" and wait for the blue cloud to appear.
6: Re-select all four, press enter to edit them. Make a minor change (eg: add a space to end of a line) in each of them and close to save them back.
7: Wait for the green "sync done" icon on all of them.
8: Move them from Folder2 to Folder3 using Control-X/Control-V and wait for the green "sync done" icon to appear.
9: Select them all, right click and select "Free up space". You would expect the blue cloud to reappear but 75% of the time a red error icon appears instead. The onedrive system tray tool says this is a failure to merge.
10: Leave it in that state and navigate back to the site's root folder (make sure none of Folder1, Folder2 or Folder3 are open).
11: USE THE WEB UI to delete the entire Folder1 tree using a single "delete" step.
12: Wait: The folders will initially vanish, but will reappear soon after along with the four documents. The previously failed docs will now have the blue cloud icon.