macOS Sierra v10.12.6
Finder deleted all my files from a folder when a locked pdf failed to open in Word. The trash can is empty. Then Google Drive proceeded to quit itself due to an error (forgot error number).
I need to find out why this happened and whether it will repeat itself. This is scary because my files can just poof and be gone anytime! How can I get my files back?
What version Office for Mac?
If you are going to save your Word documents to the cloud, it's best to use Microsoft's OneDrive. It's free in App Store.
Do you have a backup you can restore from?
No version of Word for the Mac can open PDF files. Only the Windows version.
As I have never lost a file, much less a folder, on my Macs over the years, including Sierra and High Sierra, the wildcard may be the version of Google Drive that you were using on Sierra that may have been out of date. It did crash, after all. I don't use it, but it has caused problems for others over time.
Was the folder that was lost stored on Google Drive, or some other cloud service, on your boot drive, or on another mountable storage medium? Are you using Time Machine for regular back ups?
mac deleted all my files from a folder when a locked pdf failed to open in Word
