Windows 10 pro local account forcibly migrated by Microsoft overnight. Both programs and data lost.

Hi E ,

Thank you for sharing your experience, and I’m truly sorry for the disruption this caused. We understand how frustrating it can be when an update impacts your workflow and data visibility.

To avoid similar issues in the future, here’s an Action Plan:
If you plan to update, the safest approach is to back up your data first.Before installing any major update, make sure you:

Backup your data:

--> Copy all important files to an external drive, USB, or cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Drive).

This ensures you can restore everything after the update without risk.

Additional precautions

• Enable File History or Backup in Settings for easy recovery.
• Create a System Restore Point so you can roll back if needed.
• Use a consistent account type (Local or Microsoft) to avoid profile conflicts.

-->After the update, simply restore your backed-up data. This is the most reliable way to prevent data loss.

We appreciate your feedback—it helps improve update processes. If you need detailed steps for any of the above, let me know and I’ll provide them.

Best wishes!
Titus Bui.

Hello,

I hear how frustrating this must be — it feels like everything disappeared overnight, but in most cases your data is still there. What likely happened is that Windows created a new profile tied to a Microsoft account during an update, instead of continuing to use your original local profile. That’s why your files and apps seem missing: they’re sitting under your old profile folder, not the one you’re logged into now.

To get your data back, check C:\Users for folders with your old account name (sometimes you’ll see variations like User.000 or User.old). Copy your documents, desktop items, and downloads from there into your current profile. If a Windows.old folder exists, that’s another place to recover files after a major update. Programs, unfortunately, can’t just be copied over — they’ll need to be reinstalled since their registry entries don’t transfer.

In short: your personal files should still be recoverable from the old profile folder, but applications will need a reinstall. Going forward, you can stick with a local account by creating one manually and turning off prompts to switch, or if you prefer using a Microsoft account, make sure you keep backups so you’re protected against profile changes.

Let me know how it goes, and if this answer helps, feel free to hit “Accept Answer” so others can benefit too 😊

Domic.

Unfortunately, there is no User.000 or User.old or any similar profile name. The old profile is gone, it was done overnight when I was sleeping. I woke up to system sounds that I had previously set to none in Sound settings. There is also no windows.old folder, I turned View>hidden items in Windows Explorer. The data is gone, including many voice recordings, bookmarks, project files within program directories. I did not accept a prompt to migrate to an online account from a local one.

This is egregious behaviour on the part of Microsoft. Unbelievable that they are forcing migration to online accounts without prompting or backups first.

All that I had to do was uninstall the update and it all came back. But...and this is a big but, none of the old data was visible in backed up profiles with the update installed. This is nuts, and Microsoft is infamous for doing stupid things like this too often. It's ridiculous for this to be default functionality in an update. I can't fathom how much damage this would have done if I had not been able to get it back. Unforgivable.

@Domic Vo you should really accept my answer above and let others benefit :) It's not enjoyable to have Microsoft erase/hide all of a user's data, and it should be visible as the answer to this problem. Uninstall the heavy-handed data destroying update.