Microsoft yesterday announced that the bugs associated with Windows 10 October 2018 Update have been addressed and the update is ready for another round of testing with Insiders. Microsoft has made the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, also known as version 1809 available to Insiders ahead of the public rollout.
Microsoft’s investigation revealed that the number of customers who got broken Windows 10 October 2018 Update was very limited as only “one one-hundredth of one per cent of version 1809 installs” suffered data loss. Nevertheless, the data loss was a serious issue and Microsoft pulled the October update immediately.
Microsoft says that the new Windows 10 release is available to Windows Insiders and it will be rolled out to more users soon.
The bug was not widespread
Only a small number of users who manually checked for updates received Windows 10 October 2018 Update and the number of customers who lost the content after the installation was extremely limited.
“While the reports of actual data loss are few (one one-hundredth of one percent of version 1809 installs), any data loss is serious,” Microsoft explains.
Why the update deleted some users content
Microsoft explains that the update deleted the files on certain PCs due to a bug that resides in Known Folder Redirection feature. The Folder Redirection feature is basically supposed to redirect the folders such as Desktop, Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Screenshots, and Camera Roll to a new location on your PC.
The bug resulted in a weird issue where the files remained in the old location instead of being moved/ redirected to the new location.
Microsoft received a feedback from users on Windows 10 April 2018 Update that Known Folder Redirection feature creates an empty folder on devices. Microsoft acknowledged this feedback and implemented a change in Windows 10 October 2018 Update to prevent this from happening.
“That change, combined with another change to the update construction sequence, resulted in the deletion of the original “old” folder locations and their content, leaving only the new “active” folder intact,” writes John Cable, Director of Program Management, Windows Servicing and Delivery at Microsoft.
Microsoft says it has identified and fixed issues in Windows 10 October 2018 Update and you should no longer encounter the issue. Only a small number of systems suffered data loss and Microsoft is helping those users in the recovery of lost data.
Feedback Hub gets an important update
Microsoft says that the Feedback Hub in Windows 10 is receiving a new update that would allow users to provide an indication of the severity of the issue. It’s a good change and it’s likely to help Microsoft deal with such critical issues in future.
Microsoft believes that this change in the Feedback Hub will allow the company to discover the critical issues even when the number of reports is lower than other feedback.
If you’re a non-Insider, you will receive Windows 10 October 2018 Update soon and Microsoft will issue another statement prior to re-releasing the update to the public.
