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Level 3

Question

2025 Tax Return Disappeared

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
March 12, 2026
74 replies
596 views

I completed my Federal and Illinois tax returns for 2025. All of a sudden those completed tax returns completely disappeared and I could no longer find them on my computer. This disappearance happened after saving both tax returns many, many, many, many times. I had to recreate my tax returns from scratch spending a great deal of time to do that recreation. A friend of mine had the exact same thing happen to him. This is not how a product like this should function.

S. Kimel

Northfield, IL

Vanessa A

Level 15

Are you using a MAC or a PC? If you saved the returns, they are saved to your hard drive and they should not disappear unless you delete them. You can do a search or a .tax file and it should appear.

Also, you can choose open tax return on the PC and it should give you the option or on the MAC you can use Open Recent and it will list the new returns.

One thing you CAN do, is before you close out of TurboTax go to your My Documents TurboTax folder and you should see them BEFORE you close out of the program after you hit save.

**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post. **Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

skimelAuthor

Level 3

As I previously said, to the best of my knowledge I did not delete my 2025 tax return. I saved the tax return many, many, many times during the prep process. I tried looking everywhere that I knew to find it with no luck. A friend of mine had the same disappearing of his Turbo Tax 2025 tax return. So, my issue seems not to be an isolated issue. I had to do a total reinput of my tax return into the Turbo Tax software which took quite a bit of time to do.

user17694464374

Level 2

Same thing has happened to me and some other users and Turbo Tax does not have any answers. I am still trying to figure it out.

SteamTrain

Level 15

It may not be the issue for you, but for some folks, they have backups to a cloud drive (like Windows OneDrive), and after a certain amount of time (user-settable I think), the file gets transferred to the cloud. Maybe it got moved there and just needed to be restored to the proper TurboTax directory on your local drive.

....or something else strange is going on, as this doesn't happen to the vast majority of other desktop users.

____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*

user17694464374

Level 2

I have seen other posts were all their tax returns have disappeared, but nobody has posted a solution yet. It is very strange.

DonFS

Level 2

The same just happened to me. I just completed my taxes using the desktop version, and all of a sudden the tax file is gone. I did a file search on the whole disk, no luck. I tried a system restore, which didn't work. I used a recovery program looking for deleted files with no luck. I did a chkdsk which found no errors. I looked at the Windows logs but nothing showed errors about that time.

skimelAuthor

Level 3

I do not use cloud storage; so, it did not get moved there regarding my disappearance issue.

S. Kimel

Northfield, IL

user17694464374

Level 2

I do not use the cloud storage thank you for the suggestion.

djfoxalicious

Level 2

Same exact thing happened to me. Using Turbotax Premier 2025 locally on PC. Updated today. Last time I worked on our tax return was about a week and a half ago. Now there is absolutely nothing!- Gone!, Zero, Zilch!!! I spent multiple days working on this already! It was saved locally to my computer. The Turboxtax folder where it should be saved shows nothing. A search of my whole computer and all hard drives shows nothing for any tax file. This means it has deleted my 2024 return as well! I just opened Turbotax 2024 and sure enough, there is no return to open for it either. This is absolutely ridiculous for such a large company to mismanage and delete tax returns that include so much important fiduciary and personal information. Intuit should be held accountable for this!!! Every year the software has gotten worse but has still been just barely manageable. Now, it is the final straw! When you go and delete our previous returns, this creates a giant problem moving forward!!!

ddunlap

Level 3

This is the answer I just received from an "employee tax expert"

Hello ddunlap

MarilynG1 (Employee Tax Expert) mentioned you in a post! Join the conversation below:

Re: Prior Year tax returns not showing on my turbo tax desktop file

TurboTax cannot delete returns prepared and stored on your computer. Search your computer for .tax2024 files. The default location is Documents > TurboTax. You may find a back-up copy of your 2024 return there, with a 'tilde' sign in front.

If you have the 2024 program, you could open it and re-save your 2024 return to your desktop, then transfer it into the 2025 program.

@ddunlap

Turbo Tax is totally responsible for this disappearance of all the tax returns saved on my Mac computer. I have searched and searched, but are not there. So frustrating after using turbo Tax for over 20 years!

jr202468

Level 2

Same here too, last worked on it week ago. Opened TT today and it forced an update, then when I tried to locate the files, they were gone! Doesn't show as being a recent file either, looks like it is a clean slate.

Went back to my nightly backups, and it shows that it was there yesterday and was backed up, but it was deleted today apparently. I think it was that update program that does it. At least I was able to restore mine from the backup. Not a happy camper!

mesquitebean

Level 15

@ jr202468 wrote:
Same here too, last worked on it week ago. Opened TT today and it forced an update, then when I tried to locate the files, they were gone! Doesn't show as being a recent file either, looks like it is a clean slate.
Went back to my nightly backups, and it shows that it was there yesterday and was backed up, but it was deleted today apparently. I think it was that update program that does it. At least I was able to restore mine from the backup. Not a happy camper!

Also look in the Recycle Bin. Sometimes it ends up there. After seeing these kinds of reports over the years, I save an extra copy of my data file to a flash drive after every work session--just in case. It seems like it is more common this year.

SteamTrain

Level 15

Still...it would be great if TTX assigned some tech person to investigate each of these instances...to find out what exactly is causing it.

That might take personal visits to some of these folks to see how their computers are set up.

Yeah, the users would have to agree, and it would take a fair amount of travelling, but this happens often enough that TTX really needs to deal with it.

I have Windows 11 (Home) on an HP All-in-one, with Desktop Premier. This problem has never happened to me in 20+ years of desktop TTX software use ....knock on wood...(updated yesterday as I was away for a week).

____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*

user17750715997

Level 2

The same thing happened to me today. I've been using the same Turbo Tax Standard Desktop version for over 10 years and this never happened. I have searched all the hard drive and OneDrive files. I also looked in the recycle bin and no traces of them. I even made PDF copies and those are also gone. I have windows 11 and the only place I see a trace of them is in the start menu Recommended section. I see the full path but when I click the file it says it has moved or been removed. The whole folder I created in the application has disappeared. Something strange is going on with this version. Was it the first time you opened the application that this happened? I'm starting to think it may have something to do with Windows ransomware protection?

mesquitebean

Level 15

I've asked a Moderator to see what they can find out from TurboTax Tech to see if they are even aware and working on this.

lseymour2011

Level 2

I also completed my 2025 Federal taxes, filed them, it was accepted, and received tax refund.

a week later I received a late 1099-R from retirement and wanted to amend my return / file a 1040X.

I also saved it multiple times. I, too do not use the cloud and there are no recent .tax files. under my account, I can only see a 2024 tax file I inputted manually.

Turbo Tax wants me to redo the whole thing. It isn't funny.

There is obviously an issue,

lseymour2011

Level 2

Forgot to add,. I am now a senior. My whole life since 1979, I have held IT-=related positions, including 20 years in Aerospace IT and engineering, so if the file existed, I would be able to find it.

DB991

Level 2

I just got the 2025 update and likewise found my completed tax form has disappeared. I run file history to an external flash drive (PC Win11) regularly so the .tax2025 file was there. I'll probably rename a copy to .tax2025bs before I open TT again. Because this is total bs.

Sraine

Level 2

The same thing just happened to me. I've saved and saved using the desktop version and now I have to start over!

malexjones

Level 2

Yeap. Happened to me as well. Will re-enter instead of wasting more time searching for the lost .tax2025 file...

Unbelievable. This is the last year I'll use TurboTax.

Dmwilliams2nd

Level 2

Should have checked before Tax day..... Just happened to me as well. All other years are still on my computer; 2025 has been completely erased. I've been a long time user but this will be my last year. It's one thing to have a problem/glitch and own up to it; it's another to keep posting the same "TurboTax can't delete your file" when there is evidence from multiple users in the community who are competent and and can indentify when something is not working as it should.