Missing image files from Google Drive

[nkarkare]

I had created an inventory app for my schools using Appsheet in April 2022. I had taken more than 500 pictures and uploaded them using the app sheet form. This was being shown in the app too. 

Now, I cannot see the images at all! In fact, I see that the folder has been created on June 13 again, and there are hardly any files in the folder! 😞

On the app, I see this:

Can someone please help?

[Marc_Dillon]

What have you done between now and then?

Did you move any folders or files or anything?

What are the actual values in the data, which should be relative file paths to the images?

[nkarkare]

Hi Marc,

I haven't moved any files or folders at all. I completely relied on Appsheets and Google Drive to take care of the file management.

Here is a sample of the image path present in the Google sheet: Items_Images/eca4792c.Image.082820.jpg. When I search for this image on Google Drive, I see no result. Do you want me to share the sheet and the app with you? If yes, do let me know the procedure to do the same. Thanks.

[Steve]

I doubt this has anything to do with AppSheet. Have you checked your Trash folder in Google Drive?

[nkarkare · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the tip. I checked the Trash folder, and found that it had a folder named "appsheet" in it. I restored that, and found that it had an Items_Images folder in it. Now what is interesting is that the appsheet folder was in a different folder structure from where I expected it to be. The Items_Images folder was in the Main Google Drive folder when I had seen it last. It was this folder which I saw again, when I found the image files to be missing.

To be frank, I don't remember specifying the location for the Items_images folder. Appsheet probably decides on its own, right? I haven't touched the code at all for some time, and don't have an idea as to why the Items_images folder got moved, deleted, and newly created again.

Any light on the matter would be great, as it will help me prevent such surprises.

[Steve]

Again, I don't think AppSheet played any role in creating this problem. I've never heard of AppSheet deleting any files or directories of its own initiative (i.e., not unless you've specifically configured it to do so), nor can I think of any time it even would. I'd have to guess that someone or something else with access to your Google Drive deleted the old folder. If the appsheet folder doesn't exist, AppSheet will recreate it, which appears to be what happened.

[nkarkare]

Thanks Steve. Will check the folder activity.

Regards,
Nikhil.

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[gaixixon]

The "default" folder structure for appsheet on Google drive is as below:

/root_dir_of_google_drive/appsheet/data/{name of your app}-{your appsheet account id; which is a string of 6 digits}/{Your images/files folder; with structure like: tablename_Images}

So, example, you have an app named "nkakare"; and your appsheet id is: 123456; and your app have a table name "Items" to store images, then the structure of your folder should be:

/google_root_dir/appsheet/data/nkakare-123456/Items_images

P/s: Restore the accidentally-deleted dir should make your app function again; if not, you should go to app "data" section to point the data table to correct location.

[nkarkare]

Okay. I had seen the Items_images in my google root directory first. The one I restored from the trash was in /google_root_dir/appsheet/data/nkakare-123456/Items_images. Now that I copied all the images to the root_dir/Items_images, I can see the image files again.