Google’s recovery instructions outline a few ways to attempt to “Recover your files.” One is via a new secret UI in the Google Drive desktop app version 85.0.13.0 or higher. If you hold shift while clicking on the Drive system tray/menu bar icon, you’ll get a special debug UI with an option to “Recover from backups.” Google says, “Once recovery is complete, you’ll see a new folder on your desktop with the unsynced files named Google Drive Recovery.” Google doesn’t explain what this does or how it works. Bugs will happen, but I would have expected Google’s response to align with normal IT downtime procedures: a status page with constant updates and a full postmortem explaining what went wrong and how Google fixed it.

Source: Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise