My Games folder disappeared (twice)

Hey there,

I used Lutris to install Hearthstone on my machine. Installation created a folder “Games” in /home/username/ with another folder called “hearthstone”.

This worked flawlessly for one year or so. A week ago I tried to launch Heartstone via Lutris and got an error message: “Invalid Wine prefix path /home/username/Games/hearthstone, make sure to create the prefix before saving to a registry”.

Looked into that and found that the “Games” folder no longer existed. I thought that maybe I deleted the folder by mistake and re-installed Hearthstone via Lutris. Worked for a week until today - same error message, “Games” folder gone again.

What could be wrong here?

Thanks a lot!

Edit: Forgot to mention that all my installed Steam games also disappeared. These weren’t even installed in the “Games” folder and (as far as I know) not integrated to Lutris. Installed them via Steam itself.

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.2-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
  root=UUID=309797db-be17-466d-98be-174aa1629301 rw quiet apparmor=1
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=0901642f-6782-43b8-bce1-ea689d504d5c
  udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.23.3 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: plank wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1
  dm: LightDM 1.30.0, SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 7590 v: N/A serial: <filter>
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0VYV0G v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.12.0
  date: 06/10/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 81.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 81.6/97.0 Wh (84.1%)
  volts: 12.4 min: 11.4 model: SMP DELL GPM0365 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
  status: Full
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360
  serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
  status: Discharging
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: <filter>
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.24 GiB used: 3.63 GiB (23.8%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7-9750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
  arch: Kaby Lake note: check family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: A (10)
  microcode: EA cache: L2: 12 MiB bogomips: 62431
  Speed: 3650 MHz min/max: 800/4500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3650 2: 3651
  3: 3665 4: 3722 5: 3653 6: 3655 7: 3656 8: 3378 9: 3417 10: 4072 11: 4035
  12: 4067
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon art
  avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid
  cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est
  f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window
  hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm
  mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat
  pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts
  rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep sgx sgx_lc smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2
  sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt
  xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] vendor: Dell
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3e9b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q]
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nvidia v: 495.44
  alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f91
  class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  bus-ID: 1-12:5 chip-ID: 0c45:6723 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.21.1.1 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
  loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa
  display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 7040x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1862x381mm (73.3x15.0")
  s-diag: 1901mm (74.8")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6")
  diag: 395mm (15.5")
  Monitor-2: DP-1 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.2")
  diag: 685mm (27")
  Monitor-3: DP-3 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.2")
  diag: 685mm (27")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.5
  direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
  v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
  chip-ID: 8086:a348 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.2-2-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.40 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 vendor: Rivet Networks Killer™
  driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 3b:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp59s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-4:3
  chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
  rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 249.12 GiB (52.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Toshiba
  model: KXG60ZNV512G NVMe 512GB size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
  logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
  rev: 10604107 temp: 32.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 459.86 GiB size: 451.57 GiB (98.20%)
  used: 249.08 GiB (55.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  label: N/A uuid: 309797db-be17-466d-98be-174aa1629301
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
  used: 39.9 MiB (13.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  label: NO_LABEL uuid: 9434-0220
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 16.78 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: N/A
  uuid: 0901642f-6782-43b8-bce1-ea689d504d5c
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 16 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-2:2 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID
  driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
  power: 98mA chip-ID: 046d:c52b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029
  class-ID: e001
  Device-3: 1-7:4 info: Shenzhen Goodix Fingerprint Reader
  type: Abstract (modem),CDC-Data driver: N/A interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 27c6:5395 class-ID: 0a00
  serial: <filter>
  Device-4: 1-12:5 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: Video
  driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA
  chip-ID: 0c45:6723 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 3.1
  speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2424 fan-2: 2418
Info:
  Processes: 311 Uptime: 2h 30m wakeups: 65 Init: systemd v: 249
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1400 lib: 418
  flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.08

Computers are incredibly stupid and only do what they are told.

Files and folders inside your home never disappears by itself.

Syncronization of system files never ever changes files in your home.

Whether you like it or not - you have removed the files.

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Files don’t magically disappear, some process has to delete them.
Do you have any idea of applications handling files from those directories? Maybe one is either bugged or incorrectly configured. For instance, some time ago Steam used to delete the whole home folder when removing the game installation folder configuration.

Out of that, a drive failure may cause folder nodes to become corrupted in the partition table, though you would likely have more obvious symptoms…

1 Like