Mystery of the mostly missing files: folder and subfolders exist but contain nothing

[Windows Central Question]

My folder (and subfolder) names are where they should but they are now linked to nothing. Empty. I copied contents of Onedrive Documents to a thumbdrive, hoping the missing files might appear in the new files. No such luck. I went back to clean out the empty folders from Documents and a msg popped up that the files are too big to recycle. Empty folders. I'm hoping my missing photos and videos of grandchildren are just hiding from me. Any clues?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

My folder (and subfolder) names are where they should but they are now linked to nothing. Empty. I copied contents of Onedrive Documents to a thumbdrive, hoping the missing files might appear in the new files. No such luck. I went back to clean out the empty folders from Documents and a msg popped up that the files are too big to recycle. Empty folders. I'm hoping my missing photos and videos of grandchildren are just hiding from me. Any clues?

can you change the view options for the folders to show hidden files?
And check the size of the empty folders. Is it actually empty?

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[Skullagrimmson]

I tried changing view options to show hidden files. Still get an empty file msg with 20 or 30 bytes.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I tried changing view options to show hidden files. Still get an empty file msg with 20 or 30 bytes.

you said you copied the onedrive folder. Have you checked in onedrive using a browser?