Windows 10 Has Another File-Deleting Bug: Zip File Copy Problem

Windows 10 Is Hit by Another File Deletion Bug

It is not Halloween yet but Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809, is already starting to be full of horror stories from some users. And the update may become a scary anecdote in the history of Microsoft again soon.

Earlier this month, users reported that Windows 10 V1809 update was wiping off their documents. Microsoft stopped the update and released a fix version. However, recently, users complained that the update was again riddled with a frightening error: Windows 10 another file-deleting bug – zip file problem.

Multiple reports suggest that users who have installed the latest update say that a new bug is affecting Windows 10 zip file operations. This bug is first reported on Reddit where a number of complaints that point to not receiving warnings during unzip operations.

Zip File Loss Issue in Windows 10 Version 1809

According to a user from Reddit, “Do you want to replace these files” dialog never shows up when he moves something out of a zip. And he has reinstalled Windows but it still does it. This is only on the October Update. This is a quite nasty bug since users probably accidentally overwrite a file and don’t have a way to get it back.

Normally, when unzipping files into a folder, if there are already other copies of those files in that folder, Windows would ask the user’s permission before overwriting the existing file. However, Windows 10 version 1809 doesn’t tell users what it is doing and it will automatically overwrite those files without informing users.

Seriously, sometimes the file operation never succeeds and Windows won’t inform you. When moving the file from a compressed archive, this operation would silently fail, and even won’t write the file. However, this will delete the file from the archive and from all existence.

It seems that Windows 10 another file-deleting bug only impact the unzip capability in File Explorer, not the function of third-party apps. In other words, if users use a tool like WinZip or WinRAR, Windows 10 zip file copy problem won’t appear.

What to Do Next When Windows 10 Another File-deleting Bug Occurs

As to this file deletion bug, Microsoft has responded it. And this company says users won’t get “Do you want to replace these files” prompt when copying or moving files from a zip file (without extracting the contents firstly) into a new destination folder that has duplicate file names or is write-protected.

It looks like the files are overwritten, but in fact, the copy operation of these files is not done and the files haven’t been overwritten.

What should be done to get the deleted files back? If the deleted files are detected, users can try to restore them from Recycle Bin or temporary file directory.

Meanwhile, Microsoft recommends users to extract .zip folder contents first before copying them to a new folder. And it also warns users not to use the Cut and Paste operation with Zip archives in Windows 10 1809 since this may cause unintentional item deletion that is possible to be unrecoverable.

Microsoft is trying to fix this issue and the fix version is estimated to be available “in early November.”

Final Words

Windows 10 version 1809 is fast becoming the worst update since Windows 10 first launch. For now, we strongly encourage Windows 10 users to delay updates by any necessary means.

If users are eager to update to the latest version, they had better use the professional PC backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to create a system image backup for the Windows OS or important files so as to avoid this Windows 10 file-deleting bug.