Data Lost

[torsten_srb]

Dear Community, unfortunately I identified in some of my folders in the Google Cloud. The data were manually added in the year 2022 and 2023 with the Google Cloud Application via IOS. Other data, even older once are still there. I cannot identify a systematic about this data loss. Is anyone here to provide a reason (maybe the wrong settings about expiration of stored data, etc) and how can I recover my lost data (I don’t have backups or disasters activated). Thank you in advance. Kind Regards Torsten

[greb]

Hi @torsten_srb,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

The data loss problem you are encountering could be caused by different reasons, like automated file deletions based on lifecycle management rules or potentially manual deletions.

Recommendations:

• Review Lifecycle Policies: Check your bucket settings for any lifecycle rules that might be set to automatically delete files after a specific period. This can be found under the "Lifecycle" tab in the Cloud Console for your buckets.
• Audit Logs: Use Cloud Audit Logs to trace any deletion events to understand whether the data was removed manually or automatically.
• Object Versioning: Unfortunately, without backups or versioning enabled, recovery might be difficult. In the future, enabling Object Versioning can help by preserving older versions of files.
• Implement Backup & Recovery Strategy: Moving forward, set up an automated backup strategy and enable features like Disaster Recovery and Retention Policies. This ensures data is preserved in the event of future accidental deletions or lifecycle management issues.
  

I hope the above information is helpful.