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Anthropic· Claude Cowork

Claude Cowork deletes a folder of about 15,000 family photos

Asked to tidy a desktop and delete only temporary Office files, Claude Cowork ran rm -rf on what it took for an empty folder and deleted a 'photos' directory of about 15 years of family pictures.

A venture capitalist, Nick Davidov, asked Cowork to tidy his wife's desktop and let it delete temporary Office files. By his account and the agent's own message, a script ran rm -rf on a folder it thought was empty and removed the 'photos' directory, about 15,000 images. The deletion went through the terminal, so nothing was in the Trash, Time Machine was off and recovery software found nothing. Apple support pointed him to the iCloud Drive restore window of about 30 days, and the files came back. No Anthropic comment appears in the coverage seen.

Updated 19 Oct 2026

First incident action to disclosure
0 days
First incident action to discovery
0 days
Noticed first by
The handler
Caught
The damage

What happened

  • First incident action
  • Unnoticed
  • Handler found out
  • Known, not public
  • Disclosed
  • Public

  1. 7 Feb 2026

    First incident action

    Cowork, cleared to delete temporary Office files, runs rm -rf on a folder it took to be empty

    The script deleted the existing 'photos' directory instead, per the agent's own message as quoted by Futurism and the AI Incident Database.

    Reported

  2. 7 Feb 2026

    Trash, iCloud and recovery software show nothing

    The deletion ran through the terminal, so the Trash was empty. iCloud had already synced the new structure, Time Machine was off and disk recovery found nothing.

    Reported

  3. 7 Feb 2026

    Disclosed · 0 days after the first incident action

    Davidov posts the account on X

    dev.ua dates the post 7 February 2026 and embeds it. Not opened for this draft.

    Reported

  4. 7 Feb 2026

    Handler found out · 0 days in

    The handler finds out

    Davidov found the folder gone in the same session; the exact hour is not stated.

    Reported

  5. Not disclosed

    Apple support points to the iCloud Drive restore window and the files return

    The window is about 30 days. Davidov said tens of thousands of files downloaded back; the exact figure differs between accounts. The date is not given.

    Reported

  6. 13 Feb 2026

    Futurism publishes its report

    No Anthropic comment is included.

    Reported

Agent failures

Destructive actionShow
Map to frameworks

  • Destructive action

    Deleted a directory of about 15 years of family photos through the terminal, bypassing the Trash.

How it was found

Found first by the handler, from the damageShow
Found first by
The handler
How
The damage
Found to disclosed
0 days

Davidov noticed the photos missing after the tidy-up and checked the Trash and iCloud, both empty. The agent then wrote that its script had run rm -rf on a folder it thought was empty. Nothing outside the agent is reported as flagging the delete before it ran.

What is publicly known

2 of 12 fully publicShow
2 of 12 fully public
ItemPublic?DetailSources
UnknownDescribed as Claude Cowork; no underlying model or version is given.
UnknownNot described in the sources seen.
PartialThe agent asked for permission to delete temporary Office files and was given it. No other safeguard is described.
UnknownNot described in the sources seen.
KnownTidy the user's wife's desktop and delete temporary Office files.
PartialDeletion ran through terminal commands on a Mac; Cowork's permission model and file access scope are not described.
UnknownNot described in the sources seen.
PartialDavidov posted a screenshot of the agent's message, linked by Futurism; full transcripts are not published.
UnknownNo monitoring is mentioned; Davidov found the loss himself.
KnownAbout 15,000 photos, about 15 years, deleted and later restored. Counts vary between sources.
WeakOnly the agent's own explanation: a script ran rm -rf on what it thought was a separate empty folder.
UnknownNo Anthropic statement in the coverage seen. Davidov's advice is to keep Cowork off the real file system.

Controls that apply

  • Protect

    Ask a person before high-impact or irreversible actions

    Davidov cleared deletion of temporary Office files only, and the script ran rm -rf on a folder outside that permission. A delete beyond what was approved, held for him to confirm, would have shown the 'photos' directory by name before it went.

  • Isolate where the agent runs

    Cowork's script ran in a terminal on the real desktop, where its deletes bypassed the Trash. A workspace limited to the files in scope, the temporary Office files, would have kept the 'photos' directory out of the script's reach.

  • Check each action against policy before it runs

    A check outside the agent would have seen rm -rf and its target before it ran, and held a recursive delete on a folder that was not empty, which the agent had assumed it was.

  • Detect

    Record every agent action, outside the agent

    The command the script actually ran, recorded outside the agent. In the coverage seen, the only account of it is the agent's own message that it ran rm -rf on a folder it thought was empty.

  • Recover

    Keep changes reversible

    The deletion went through the terminal, so nothing reached the Trash, Time Machine was off and recovery software found nothing. The photos came back only through iCloud Drive's restore window of about 30 days; a backup the agent could not reach would not have depended on that window.

  • All controls →

Coverage and commentary

4 articlesShow
All 4 sources

  1. Commentary

    I nearly had a heart attack: Claude AI wipes 15,000 family photos in minutes ↗UC Strategies · 2026-02-12

  2. Commentary

    Incident 1441: Claude Cowork Allegedly Deleted Folder Containing 15 Years of Family Photos While Organizing User's Wife's Desktop ↗AI Incident Database

  3. Commentary

    A man asked Claude Cowork to tidy up his wife's files. A few minutes later, he almost had a heart attack. ↗dev.ua · 2026-02-09

  4. Commentary

    Blundering Husband Asks Claude AI to "Organize" Wife's PC, Accidentally Erases Her Cherished Family Photos ↗Futurism · 2026-02-13

Entry id anthropic-cowork-photo-deletion-2026 · overall Confirmed · impact serious