According to a global survey of knowledge workers and IT professionals by IDC showed that document challenges account for 21.3% of productivity loss. These challenges end up costing organizations a significant amount of money as companies spend $20 in labor to file a document, $120 in labor to find a misfiled document, and an additional $220 in labor to recreate a lost document.
Additionally, 15% of all paper documents are misplaced, 7.5% of all documents get lost at some point and 3% of the remainder gets misfiled.
According to Forbes, a recent Microsoft Windows update has caused a tremendous amount of confusion and chaos, as personal data files have been lost.
“We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.
Everything from personal computers to organizational networks have experienced some form of data loss.
“[The] Windows 1809 update wiped my documents,” added a disgruntled Reddit Microsoft user. “So after updating, I discovered that my documents, pictures, music, [and] videos are gone.”
Windows Insiders have been warning Microsoft about these potential document challenges for months, though the majority of reports were either ignored or lost. Currently, there is no information on how or why the actual data loss occurred.
“Last night I updated to 1809 and it went smoothly, but then I find that all my files in Documents are DELETED,” wrote an anonymous source on Microsoft’s support page. “Gone. Poof. This included many crucial documents and financial info.”
Because document challenges like this happen all the time, some, though, larger than others, it’s imperative for every business and individual to update all important pieces of information. Copying and uploading essential documents to the cloud can help ensure that they are protected and stored for decades.
Microsoft has yet to provide any timeframe as to when the newest update will resume.