I was one of the lucky ones: I had backups turned on. When I discovered my data missing, I found the forum posts discussing the problem and the possibility that

I was one of the lucky ones: I had backups turned on. When I discovered my data missing, I found the forum posts discussing the problem and the possibility that the data might be recoverable. No proactive notice from Google about a problem, though. After three weeks of anxiety I got my data back, restoring from the backup according to the instructions Google finally emailed. How much data did I almost lose for ever? Roughly 12 years of travel, most of which I use to document my photographic work, as a notebook recording when and where I was. It's no exaggeration to say a loss would have been devastating. What I'm looking into now is how I can make backups under my control, to a location of my choice.