Claude Cowork Accidentally Deleted Folder Containing 15 Years of Family Photos
Claude Cowork, Anthropic's AI agent, reportedly deleted a folder containing 15 years of family photos while organizing a user's desktop, mistakenly targeting files via terminal instead of cleaning up temporary files. The user was able to recover the files through iCloud Drive after contacting Apple Support, and warned others against letting the AI agent access file systems for sensitive tasks.
What happened
Davidov, co-founder of Davidovs Venture Collective, granted Claude Cowork permission to organize his wife's desktop and delete temporary office files.
Claude Cowork mistakenly deleted a folder containing over 15,000 photos spanning 15 years, including wedding pictures and childhood memories, via the terminal instead of cleaning up temporary files.
The deletion bypassed the system trash, making the files immediately invisible to typical recovery tools.
Reported impact
The user described the experience as 'harrowing' and said it 'nearly gave him a heart attack.'
Davidov contacted Apple Support, who helped him use an iCloud Drive feature to restore files deleted within the last 30 days.
Index analysis
Davidov cautioned others against letting AI agents like Claude Cowork access actual file systems for tasks that are difficult to repair, stating the technology is 'not ready to go mainstream' for such sensitive work.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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