Last week, Microsoft began rolling out the Windows 10 October Update only to hit a wall. Some unfortunate users installed the update only to find that some of their files had been wiped out during the upgrade. This obviously caused a stir, as Microsoft can’t seem to get its quality assurance in check. Now, Microsoft has paused the Windows 10 1809 rollout and we know how this bug slipped through the cracks.

Just before the weekend, Microsoft updated its Windows 10 support page with the following message: “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”.

So the issue is being investigated, but how did Microsoft miss it in the first place? Windows 10 1809 went through months of testing via the Windows Insider program. However, the number of users that experienced this bug was too low for it to register on Microsoft’s radar.

Sampling of Feedback Hub reports of data deletion from as early as 3 months ago pic.twitter.com/xlfsuEbh1d

— Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) 6 October 2018

Rafael Rivera took to Twitter to post some screenshots from the Windows feedback hub. There were reports of data deletion as far back as three months ago. However, these reports didn’t generate many upvotes and ended up getting buried by more widespread issues.

So the information was out there but due to the low sample size, not enough people faced the data deletion problem for it to reach critical status. When the update started rolling out worldwide, suddenly the issue spread much further than it did during Insider testing.

KitGuru Says: While I can understand how this issue went amiss during Insider testing, this does point out the flaws in Microsoft’s current feedback system. The company needs to be digging deeper as deleting user files is a pretty huge problem, even if it only happens to a small number of people.

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