Experienced this same issue now in 2025 with most up to date Unity version. It literally deleted the entire folder and all sub-folders which had multiple Unity projects and game assets, not to mention the main game I've been working on. Completely gone without a trace, nothing in the trash or anywhere on the entire system, and to top it off, not even an iOS build. Putting months of work into a project and then losing it in an instant is bad enough but If I had put the file to my desktop I would have lost everything, not just my Unity work.

Pretty insane that this is happening and there's nothing we can do about it. This needs to be addressed immediately as it is obviously not fixed

Did this ever get fixed?

Same situation here I am on Unity 2023.3.4511 had no backup and I have not yet found a solution anywhere. Should I just accept the fact that my files are lost forever?

This just happened to me on 2022.3.4f1 and wiped out almost my entire home folder. Lost everything in Download and Documents. WORST BUG EVER!

I have Unity version 2021.3.24f1 and just lost the complete content of my documents folder on Mac due to iOS build. I just can't believe it.
@Unity is there any chance to get all these files back? And before anyone asks: now, I dont have a backup of these files!!

I lost 2 years of files in my Downloads folder. I use it as my scratchpad and log of things worked on. Did not expect simply choosing the wrong folder when building an iOS app wreak such havoc in my work life.

This is a horrible bug. It is inexcusable for an application to casually *DELETE* 50+ gigs of data with no warning, and not following the basic guidelines of moving this data to the Trash instead of permanently deleting.

I have Unity version 2021.3.6f. It deleted my all data in documents and download folders completely. This is worst bug ever i faced. I lost all data because of Unity, and this is not OK from you. shame on you guys.

I just built an iOS project to my Downloads folder in 2021.3.4, and it has deleted 20GB of my data.

Client work, personal projects, family photos, everything. No recent backup as I've been away on holiday. Absolutely devastating.

This is maybe the worst bug I have ever experienced, you must fix this asap.

Hello,

I just lost my entire desktop on macOS using v2020.3.24f1, a very bad result, I'm really sad with all this situation, personal data and projects, client projects, I'm still trying to get into the new reality, plus I had no backup.

Sebastião

I have Unity version 2020.3.27f1 (in which this is supposedly fixed) and I lost everything. EVERYTHING ON MY DESKTOP! Can I stress how devastating this is? Photos of my daughter. Personal documents. EVERYTHING! What are you going to do for me to rectify this? C'mon Unity? I lost memories because of this. Not OK.