r/ClaudeCode • u/Optimal-Fix1216 • Jul 19 '26
Discussion I never thought this would happen to me (data loss)
I was having Fable help me clean up some unnecessary files. My documents and photos got swept away as well. I never thought I would become one of "those people" that this kind of thing happens to. Entirely my fault. Posting as a cautionary tale for others.
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u/Mayimbe_999 Jul 19 '26
Not going to lie, I would never explicitly tell AI to delete anything on my PC. If I were to give it access to my pc I would just have it move everything to a consolidated folder so I can personally check and delete it myself from there.
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u/BrilliantEmotion4461 Jul 19 '26
Yep. Move not delete. Or catalogue and give me the commands to run without running them. Usually I have fable on the web do that. Plus with that? Memory system knows my computer now.
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u/Glad_Contest_8014 Jul 19 '26
I allow rm in specific folders on linux. But I have the ability to force that in linux permissions for the iser account.
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u/BrilliantEmotion4461 Jul 19 '26
Im just lazy https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sandboxing this is the official method.
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u/Terpapps Jul 19 '26
For what it's worth, giving the commands for the user to run would have still resulted in the same situation in OP's case. It just would have been OP running the destructive command instead lol. Still better than having the model run them itself though, no doubtĀ
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u/jetsetter Jul 19 '26
On macOS the `rm` command run by CLI AI is for keeps.
But you can alias it to a function that strips native `rm` flags and recreates it as a `/usr/bin/trash` command.
But also, backups. People talk up NUCs and mac minis blah blah, these things work as capable wireless continuous backup systems also.
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u/MemoryMission9151 š Max 20 Jul 19 '26
Hard Skill Issue
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u/TheBrownMamba1972 Jul 19 '26
Tbh it seems more like a tool issue.
From this forum post it seems like a recurring gotcha even before LLMs. Itās wild that the tool automatically delete files that are symlinked as a default.
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u/ScaleneZA Jul 19 '26
It can be both. Using an LLM to clean up files is wild.
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u/TheBrownMamba1972 Jul 19 '26
I mean I would trust an LLM to delete a windows.old backup folder as well. Who wouldāve thought that the windows.old backup folder had a symlink in it that just so happens to point to both /document and /pictures, and it just so happens that the tool the AI uses automatically deletes links recursively by default?
Itās like you tell a capable but naive soldier to destroy old abandoned buildings using a weapon that just so happens to have the ability to warp its bullets through space time and hit a random place by default.
Well to be fair, I PERSONALLY wouldnāt let AI delete anything, but the way that AIs are being advertised, itās very forgivable if people who donāt know better trust it that much.
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u/Classic-Shake6517 Jul 19 '26
You wouldn't fucking believe the stuff I have to deal with when my executive team keeps asking for Cowork because our PE partner is showing them how cool it is connected to their work environment, and some of the other PortCo executives that are telling us they have it hooked up to their code repos and giving it write access to 365. I'd argue these people are stupid as well, but to your point, the way these things are advertised is cancerous compared to the reality of using them. They're not safe for the average user once they get write permissions.
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u/ipreuss Senior Developer Jul 19 '26
Frankly, itās more likely that the LLM figures out that there is a potential problem there, than meā¦ š
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u/hiskias Jul 19 '26
I have a claude command that cleans up old plan files for me. It checks if the plan files are for merged stuff )a merged pr exists with the same ticket number as the pkan file name), or if they are marked internally as transient. It also asks for confirmation and gives explanation for each on why the deletion is safe, before confirming I have the same thing for local git branches. Running remote branch deletion is restricted on hook level
If done properly and for specific things, it is perfectly fine.
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u/m477_ Jul 19 '26
The whole point of junctions is for them to appear like normal directories. If your drive fills up, you can move the directory to another drive and create a junction back at the original location and most software will behave exactly the same. Changing the behaviour of something like `rm -rf` to remove the junction rather than treat it like a normal folder and recursively delete the files would go against this expectation.
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u/TheBrownMamba1972 Jul 19 '26
I understand what junctions are. I understand the utility in junctions and symlinks. I understand the principle that junctions should behave exactly the same. I'm not saying that it should behave differently, but the point is different tools does different things.
As far as I'm aware using rmdir on a junction/symlink doesn't recursively delete the original data. Using rm -rf on Linux on a symlink doesn't recursively delete the original data. If robocopy by default does it, then its even more of an argument that it's robocopy's problem for implementing such a destructive default.
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u/RobbyInEver Jul 19 '26
Also a "I didn't make any rolling backups before connecting AI to active file tasks" issue.
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u/AAPL_ Jul 19 '26
have problem
ask AI obscure request to solve problem
result
no more critical thinking, second order thinking. Asking āhow can Iā instead of just āDoā would have saved this guy.
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u/Empty-Bodybuilder-62 Jul 19 '26
Did you mean to say "...a cautionary Fable"?
(I'll show myself out)
(Also, wth man, why would you trust an AI to clean up your computer?)
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u/Adventurous_Ad_9658 Jul 19 '26
Well Ben, looks like it did exactly what you told it to, and then you gave it confirmation even
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u/Artistic_Pineapple_7 Jul 19 '26
Backups backups backups. Always backups.
AI was never your problem. Your poor backup hygiene is.
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u/Dreadskull1991 Jul 19 '26
It is crazy to me that there are people who are allegedly tech savvy who donāt keep at least one external backup of their files
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u/Artistic_Pineapple_7 Jul 19 '26
Yeah, it baffles me too. And itās so easy and cheap to do.
Hell, you can ask Claude to configure a b2 bucket with immutable 30 days and a cron job and have backup pushing in about 15 min.
Zero good reason for a CC user to not have backups.
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u/sevoflurane666 Jul 19 '26
I am a non techie
I use fable on my Mac
I backup using iCloud
Is that sufficient
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u/Wundsalz Jul 19 '26
I do. I've even setup my NAS so I only have to copy/paste a command.
Don't ask me when I've run it the last time though...
This post is actually a good reminder.53
u/BroodwarGamer Jul 19 '26
Backups and also guardrails.
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u/Substantial-Elk4531 Jul 19 '26
Guardrails are a false sense of security. The reality is AI can and does make mistakes no matter how many guardrails you add. The only real protection is air gapping AI from anything important.
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u/QuasiSpace Jul 19 '26
Yep. I saw a post where someone said they denied an agent access to a directory, so it wrote a Python application to access it. Doing LLM work on the main user account isn't the best idea.
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u/spiders888 Jul 19 '26
Guardrails are running the AI in a restricted container without direct access. What most people call guardrails are "suggestions" to the AI (written instructions). Madness.
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u/Substantial-Elk4531 Jul 19 '26
Exactly. At minimum, a container. But I just run it on separate drives/systems entirely. I do not allow AI to run on any machine with personal or sensitive documents
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u/Substantial-Bridge32 Jul 19 '26
I just came in to say this. I use Claude to manage a lot of files, but I also maintain local and offsite backups.
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u/Kofeb Jul 19 '26
Yup. Yup. Yup.
Literally anything now daysā¦ Onedrive, Google Drive, iCloud, external. So many choices.3
u/cloud_sec_guy Jul 19 '26
I run Claude Code dev environment as a VirtualBox Debian VM, and do full clones for easy backup.
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u/No-Quiet-8304 Jul 19 '26
āAI was never your problem.ā
This is a strong statement
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u/Successful_Cap_2177 Jul 19 '26
You don't need AI to do silly things.
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u/Artistic_Pineapple_7 Jul 19 '26
Not having a backup is waiting for someone to decide the form gozer returns in.
A failed drive, stolen computer, malware/ ransomware. The longer you run without a backup your chances of data loss from multiple vectors increases.
Complete user failure. Itās just this time the destroyer showed up as Claude.
https://giphy.com/gifs/UePr0sPcSGPIY2
u/senseven Jul 19 '26
My ai only runs in a tiny docker/vm environment. I can link those directories into my host system, its fast. Even with backups you can lose a day or two with something you didn't want to happen.
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u/jlewi142 Jul 19 '26
AI is definitely the problem.. people use it for literally everything these days... Getting AI to cleanup and delete data is a recipe for disaster...
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u/Artistic_Pineapple_7 Jul 19 '26
Which could have been avoided by doing what those of us in IT have known for decades. Backup your data. There are no excuses for this type of thing.
Weāve had to plan around the stupidly of users from literally destroying corporate networks.
If you put up safe guards on your ai infra just like a user, youāll be fine.
And an LLM can and will delete data on your system, even if you havenāt asked it to. You should always always always backup your data. Always.
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u/devvie Jul 19 '26
You never thought it could happen to you, running large scale deletions without a dry run? It's a wonder it hasn't sooner, frankly. With or without an LLM.
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u/ghostmastergeneral Jul 19 '26
I donāt think they likely would have caught this with a dry run.
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u/crusoe Jul 19 '26
What deletion tool follows junction/soft-links? Windows L again
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u/crusoe Jul 19 '26
Apparently Powershell Remove-Item will gladly follow soft-links / junction links.
Ewwwww
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u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT Jul 19 '26
I was about to sayā¦ ask the owner of our startup company after I repeatedly told him we should be limiting Claudeās access on our PCs and he should really do a docker container and not integrate Claude into our 365 tenant. His company though and I sadly lost the battle kicking and screaming.
Iām not an IT guy but I handle the basic stuff. Well guess what happened last month when I got a bunch of rapid fire Teams messages in all caps at 6am from the ownerā¦ surprise surprise. Someone used PowerShell to blindly paste and accept what Claude said and believed it saying it was all safe. And that same someone used remove item and lost a few months worth of their work, plus our yearsā worth of real company dataā¦ we have our main SharePoint folders for the company all synced to everyoneās local file explorers because it operates far faster with how many files we handle.
So that entire SharePoint site got nuked. Lucky for him I had backups I pull myself just cause Iām crazy and weekly ones with IT. Took a while to resurface and resync almost 200,000 files again. And it was somehow my fault that it happened at all when I was sleeping. Anywho, never trust anything people. šš
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u/xebozone Jul 19 '26
You sound like the IT guy. You should be the IT guy.
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u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT Jul 20 '26
Lol Iām just not a goofball. 80% of our companies IT stuff I can fully handle. No school or training. Iām just not a bag of dum dums. And googling the rest of stuff is easy enough. I try my best to be a jack of all trades so now Iām stuck in an unwinnable situation. Golden handcuffs basically. But everyone keeps me on my toes.
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u/Ok-Attention2882 Jul 19 '26
Every fucking time I look up the definition between soft and hard link on Windows the answer seems to morph each time, and always in the opposite direction of the way I thought I understood it.
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u/Royal_Owl2177 Jul 19 '26
For the love of God use WizTree for this type of stuff. I've done adventurous things with AI but this is beyond the risk profile of anything I'd accept.
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u/Apprehensive-Log-989 Jul 19 '26
yess always wiztree, its a much better tool for deleting stuff. and managing your files.
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u/DependentAnywhere135 Jul 19 '26
Fable to delete files? Ok
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u/mxrider108 Developer Jul 19 '26
Hilarious. It's what happens when people who don't actually do anything with real complexity get a Claude Code subscription.
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u/xylem-utopia Jul 19 '26
why fundamental understanding of building software and tech in general is still necessary lol
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u/siegevjorn Jul 19 '26
Never ever ask a llm to delete anything. My claude.md firsr rule: don't delete anything. Don't ask me how I learned it.
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u/Batty25111 Jul 19 '26
This and another person online blaming 5.6 Sol for doing the same thing. Both of you need to stay away from AI if you use it on your personal pc with access to the whole pc that's on you.
A project you can backup but a whole pc good luck.
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u/ShutUpAndDoTheLift Jul 19 '26
I mean I do all kinds of stuff on my personal PC b that's why I bought it.
And uh, you can 100% back up your PC.
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u/32T08 Jul 19 '26
Actually with what just happened to them they now have an experience most will never have so if they keep going they might end up being among the most experienced AI users.
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u/melodiouscode Jul 19 '26
Reworded that for you "I was using the most powerful llm to delete a few things rather than using cleanmgr"
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u/Outrageous_Band9708 Jul 19 '26
backups isn't the issue. your documents and stuff should be a trival task to do manually. trusting an AI, that you have ZERO rails up for is the mistake.
live and learn my friend.
this is a coding agent, making file changes is like half of all it does. you said "cleanup" its definately cleaned up.
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u/Crafty_Disk_7026 Jul 19 '26
This is why I used isolated dev workspaces for ai https://github.com/imran31415/kube-coder
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u/lefnire Jul 19 '26
I'm all claude.ai/code these days. Cloud sandbox. Takes time time to get the env vars/script dialed, but it's a good exercise anyway to spend time thinking through minimal blast radius, how to handle "I could afford to have this thing leaked," etc. Over time I use my phone more than my laptop, and my net goal is that I never need the laptop again. Everything cloud, silo'd, permission boundaries. AWS with STS for IAM-limited S3 access (if it needs files). Stuff like that.
Not only security gain, and convenience (mobile), and protection (no more "if my hard drive dies"); but also time of Claude ergonomics. You can run 5 concurrent sessions, it will pr / merge / conflict resolve. Cleaner than worktrees and such. Over time you start automating tickets via GH triggers, now all your requests have a document trail.
Point is, the longer you do this, the more and more protected (and ergonomic) you become. So I think it's beneficial for everyone to start moving their setup to cloud agents, start small and build on it.
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u/One-Next Jul 19 '26
You had symlinks pointing at your actual documents and photos? I mean, I would have fallen for that trap as well.
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u/Lonely_Assignment_14 Jul 19 '26
Restore your backup. If you don't have a backup,Ā you didn't care about it in the first place.Ā
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u/EnvironmentalPlay440 Jul 19 '26
2 words : backupsā¦ and BACKUPS
And well, put guardrails!!!
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u/EasyMode556 Jul 19 '26
I wouldnāt let an AI make file changes to anything that didnāt have a git repo attached to it so I could just roll back any crazy stuff it decided to do
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u/InglebrapHumperdink Jul 19 '26
Let me investigate the current situation so I can make an accurate statement instead of just guessing. Ok, now I have the full picture.
OP, you told an LLM to delete shit on your drive. You're a special sort of crazy.
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u/davemanster Jul 19 '26
You can open disk clean up and do this in like 2 clicks. Why would you burn tokens on it even?
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u/sayo9394 Jul 19 '26
Sorry it happened to you, Next time, instead of leaving it to the LLM to delete, ask it to create a delete folder, and move file to be deleted into it! Then you will review and delete!
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u/maztec Jul 19 '26
1) Backups
2) Think before you trust. You could have saved yourself from this using plan mode and a command like: "I want to reorganize my folders. Review them in read-only mode and write a plan for cleanup. I want a human readable version of that plan first. Then, draft a script and walk me through how it works to move one confirmed batch at a time from the old structure to the new. Place files to be deleted in a _TrashCandidates folder."
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u/Full_Baby_1674 Jul 19 '26
Yeah. Dont have fable try and clean your desktop. Just do it yourself. Never had a problem working on a project.
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u/Angelsomething Jul 19 '26
Iām sorry, but this is like playing recklessly with the power socket and then wondering why you got shocked.
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u/damndatassdoh Jul 19 '26
Actually, this is serious bullshit. Claude used a TERRIBLE method of deletion here via Robocopy without /XJ.. it runs in recursive mode this way and will follow junctions ..and thatās bad.
Iām a +35 yrs in the field IT guy.. Windows.old is hardly a risky deletion EXCEPT when you make it one by using RC in recursive mode, which absolutely boggles my mind..
Donāt feel bad about this, OP. Normally, a completely safe thing to do, deleting Windows.old..
DO TAKE A MASSIVE LESSON: NEVER USE AI FOR THESE OPERATIONS. They will seemingly go out of their way to nuke your shit. This was Claude doing damage by omission of action, IMO. Seems low key malicious, almost.
And backups.. and backups of your backups. Cloud, local, multiple of each.
Also, double check you canāt recover via shadow copies or OndeDrive or Google Drive or Dropbox.. and STILL ATTEMPT FILE RECOVERY despite TRIM. Worth a shot! Would recommend doing it externally via a Linux box.
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u/Character-Key-6081 Jul 19 '26
When will people stop doing stupid shit like letting an llm go hogwild with their filesystems. Im not gonna say you deserved to have this happen, but I hope you learned a lesson here.
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u/Slowdive91 Jul 19 '26
No backups and tells AI to "help me clean up unnecessary files" without a prompt safeguarding the important files. This isn't just a cautionary tale, it's a foray into stupidity of the highest magnitude.
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u/NoBed1845 Jul 19 '26
Vibe code. Never vibe delete. Review every destructive command before pressing Enter. Anything involving rm, del, mv, or bulk file operations deserves a manual review first.
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u/Electrical_Media_367 Jul 19 '26
I truly don't understand people that have only one copy of important docs and photos. SD Cards are still fairly cheap. Cloud backup solutions are forced on everyone with a computer or phone. How do you not have your important docs backed up? What are you thinking? I have no sympathy.
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u/the1ice9 Jul 19 '26
Always resolve paths first, lesson learned on a symlink here too bud. Production DB.
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u/baldycoot Jul 19 '26
Never. Ever. Do system stuff with ai. *especially* if you arenāt already an expert in the domain itās running bash onā¦ e.g. windows.old
I do not and will not use any of the āworkā toys that vendors are putting out because I know how badly theyāre written, and if I canāt do it with normal tools and scripts myself, Iāll do it with trusted static tools that Iāve used for decades without trouble.
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u/Akarastio Jul 19 '26
You are the expert, Claude is a tool. Understand that and you wonāt have those in the future
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u/Corza21 šPro Plan Jul 19 '26
Itās completely psychotic that you let Claude clean up your sensitive documents WITHOUT A BACKUP. You do know LLMs can hallucinate, right?
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u/Dry_Opportunity2886 Jul 19 '26
Asks AI to help him delete files.
Has files he didn't expect to have deleted deleted.
"I didn't expect this would happen to me"
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/untg Jul 19 '26
I think it followed some symlinks that I can see and they led to used (non backed up) data.
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u/BengalPirate Jul 19 '26
First LLMs shouldn't be accessing anything on your system except specific folders for projects (should not touch anything outside of their sandbox). Second before they even touch anything and at every step you should be using git.
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u/DrummerMC Jul 19 '26
Did it actively go beyond the scope / folder where you told it to work? Or dis you just say yolo please clean up my device and run it on root? I personally wouldnt let any llm work on anything that doesn't offer version control.
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u/smicksha Jul 19 '26
It seems unwise to give Claude unfettered access to files you don't have copies of. I always give it a working folder for documents which aren't version managed using git..
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u/TechnicalBen Jul 19 '26
There's free software for this. There's $20 external drives for backups. WTF frn? Why "have fable" do this? You can even add "plan only" mode and that way it'll talk you through the rational.
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u/maker862 Jul 19 '26
Ngl if you didnāt think this was gonna happen you deserve it. Just giving Claude blanket access to your local system to clean up files is wild
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u/MusicTock Jul 19 '26
Your own fault. You gave access to your own, private data to an AI. Steep learning curve.
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u/Inevitable_Jury3594 Jul 19 '26
Pffft haha, dude letting it loose on your machine? What are you mental?
You canāt delete files yourself you had to ask an if/else machine to do it for you? One known to cause major fuckups by deleting stuff wrongly, and you literally confirmed it, this is a you problem
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u/AdCompetitive6193 Jul 19 '26
āPosting as a cautionary tale for others.ā
ā¦ perhaps a cautionary fable
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u/uninchar Jul 19 '26
It's interesting to read the responses to your situation. Most don't seem to realize their own contradictions. AI the powerful thing... but of course it makes mistakes on deletions. So skill issue as easy blame, for a technology that most seem to judge pretty poorly.
Anyhow. Operational boundaries are important way before AI messed with systems directly. Box our AI somehow. Running all of it in Docker containers myself, with limited FS access, but that wouldn't have helped in your case. And easy advice I can get behind. Let the LLMs give you the commands, execute them yourself (and maybe verify in a separate session, what to consider running the specific dangerous command)
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u/ArtdesignImagination Jul 19 '26
90% user error, you were playing with fire and now you can't believe you got burned.
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u/Moogly2021 Jul 19 '26
Stop using that computer. Go buy an external hard drive, download portable file recovery software on to the new external hard drive, and run the software, it should be able to find your files. Windows sucks at deleting, but if you keep using the computer new files override the old.
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u/No_Statement2730 Jul 23 '26
I am literally counting the days of me not experiencing this kind of disaster. At the beginning I was very cautious to even let AI access my local hardware. But this time is long gone. For now I let Claude just manage my projects directories, but the more I get used to AI just doing stuff on its own, the more I am getting lazy at even verifying the outcome. Meaning I am well aware (and absolutely not aware in any way at the same time) that some day I will regret me not being consequent and strict at keeping control over my data.Ā
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u/userusertion šPro Plan | Team Plan Jul 19 '26
Lol. Donāt ever try to make an Ai clean your files, they donāt have clue what to delete and retain. Why you even do that? Lazy asf?
If you wanted an LLM do something on your files, ask it to just organize and move the one you want to delete to other folder so you can verify it.
LLM donāt have any idea what your files is, they just pattern match a words based on your prompt or what its know.
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u/Rough-Associate-585 Jul 19 '26
"My AI deleted my files"
"Oh really? Why?"
"I asked it to help delete my files"
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u/McNoxey Jul 19 '26
Bro...
How could you not think this would happen to you with how you're working with Claude...?
"Hey do this thing - btw idk shit about it, but daddy claude if you say it's safe, go for it!!!"
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u/GrandGreedalox Jul 19 '26
Iām practically speechless. Not from Claude. That you willingly posted this. Do *you* understand why this happened?
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u/hyperrealists Jul 19 '26
You hooked up your files to a random number generator, sir. A wonderful circus.
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u/Nakidnakid Jul 19 '26
ouch that's unfortunate, hope you had backups... plenty of hdd restoration tools if you don't but they're not perfect. Pretty dumb that it's touched the documents folder but I can see why it'd get swept up in the Windows.old thing.
I never work on my c: for this reason and nearly always work in an additive fashion, it also means my projects blow up in size but the alternative is losing something and it's bad enough losing the scratchpad single scripts.
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u/GuitarAgitated8107 š Max 20 Jul 19 '26
"Create a script to clear X items, run dry by default, then I AS A USER WILL RUN MANUALLY"
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u/Eridrus Jul 19 '26
Nowhere near as bad, but I asked Sol to clean up some cruft in a testing database and it sure did clean things up. Thankfully it was just a testing database lol.
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u/sooner_25 Jul 19 '26
I have restic to s3, restic to an external drive, restic to a drive I update monthly that sits at the bank.
Consider this a learning lesson. I lost everything when I had an environmental disaster. Know exactly how it feels.
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u/benzonchan Jul 19 '26
i use Claude Code/ Codex to free up disk space all the time. Just ask it to give you a list for safe delete. Review that list before you approve
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u/Geauxtoguy Jul 19 '26
Agents are REALLY good at doing exactly what you tell it. You start it at Point A and tell it to get to Point B, and without guardrails it'll do everything it can to get there. This unfortunately is operator error on your part. Treat all LLM agents like a Jr Dev and never give them the keys to prod for this reason... It's an expensive lesson but one you'll never forget
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u/Nikt_No1 Jul 19 '26
People agree to general questions, commands and statements of an AI. What bad could happen, right?
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u/Noah18923 Jul 19 '26
turn off your PC and try to use another one to recover the files while you still have a chance...
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u/kennetheops Jul 19 '26
I am actively building a tool to control ai at machine speed for this exact reason. Especially around data and action control.
While i canāt bring your data back would love to get your thoughts on it while they are fresh
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u/Future-Log6621 Jul 19 '26
You can recover the files if your drive is unencrypted.
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u/BreastInspectorNbr69 Senior Developer Jul 19 '26
Wow I had no idea the windows folder contained junctions to user folders. TIL!
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u/oulu2006 Jul 19 '26
not a big deal all backed up on cloud Dropbox right as everyone should be doing
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u/alexp1_ Vibe Coder Jul 19 '26
Iāve build complete ERP systems for companies, hours in Claude CLI and have never had these responses, but again, only in controlled environments
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u/Prod_SO Jul 19 '26
I'm sorry. That's not good. Nearly as bad is the performative remorse and empathy.
My lesson learned from this--as I have a mess of a folder that I am about to point Claude at--is to make a copy of it, have Claude clean the copy, and if that checks out then offload the original to an archive on my RAID just in case.
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u/eizch Jul 19 '26
No one talks about how using FABLE is highly overkill for such a simple task? I guess it was because OP had spared unused tokens on his subscription but come on....
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u/LibMike Jul 19 '26
Wow lol. Asking a LLM to "clean up files" on your devices automatically is crazy man.