In an eerie twist, millions of UFO files have disappeared from the internet – We Got This Covered
Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.
UAP footage via US Department of Defense
UAP footage via US Department of Defense

In an eerie twist, millions of UFO files have disappeared from the internet

The site's back, but the timing's suspicious.

Millions of pages of declassified records briefly vanished from the internet after a mysterious server issue wiped out the main document archive of The Black Vault, one of the largest privately run repositories of government files on unidentified aerial (UAP) phenomena.

Recommended Videos

According to the Daily Mail, the disruption affected the core document server behind the long-running website known for publishing records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

“No files. Nothing.”

The site’s founder, John Greenewald Jr., said he discovered that the entirety of his main document server had been erased.

“Yesterday, I discovered that 100% of my main document server… was just gone. No files. Nothing. This was HUNDREDS of gigs of data in thousands of directories, and it just vanished,” Greenewald wrote in a post on X.

He added that “numerous server-side directories had permissions changed, and file ownership changed.” Greenewald Jr. called the technical circumstances unlike anything he had experienced in decades of running the site.

Adding to the suspicious timing, Trump recently wrote on Truth Social about UAP disclosures, promising increased transparency regarding government-held records.

Over nearly 30 years, Greenewald, who founded the site while still in high school, has filed thousands of public records requests with agencies including the Pentagon, CIA, and FBI. Since then, he’s amassed what he says is nearly 4 million pages of material hosted across multiple dedicated servers.

Greenewald said he was unsure exactly when the deletion occurred. “I am not sure when exactly this happened, but I discovered it yesterday,” he wrote, explaining that server monitoring tools never flagged an outage because the system was returning “Forbidden” errors rather than going offline entirely.

No foul play suspected

While some online speculated about sabotage, Greenewald struck a cautious tone. “Let me be clear, I do not fully suspect foul play,” he wrote, noting that the hosting provider told him the incident appeared to be a deletion rather than data corruption.

In a separate post, he reiterated, “Bottom line, I truly don’t suspect foul play, but the timing is truly bizarre, and so is what happened from a technical standpoint.”

Greenewald Jr. added, “In my honest opinion, I feel it was a very oddly timed server maintenance done by the hosting provider, that went awry,” he wrote, adding that the company did not accept responsibility and there was no clear way to determine exactly what happened. “Could I be wrong? Yes.,” he wrote. “Could it have been foul play? I can’t rule it out.”

Despite the scare, Greenewald said the damage was not permanent. “Yes, I have numerous backups, and yes, it appears I got everything restored already (as of early evening yesterday),” he wrote, while asking users to report any lingering download errors.

“I remain the sole person who runs The Black Vault,” he wrote, reflecting on how he began by hand-typing documents to a 5-megabyte server in 1996. Now operating four dedicated servers, he said no deletion — accidental or otherwise — would shut him down.

“But it is a stark reminder to us all,” he concluded. “Keep backups. Keep them in multiple places… Stay the course. I am. And I’m not going anywhere.”


We Got This Covered is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of William Kennedy
William Kennedy
William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com. He also writes about live music for the Eugene Weekly, where his beat also includes arts and culture, food, and current events. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats who all politely accommodate his obsession with Doctor Who and The New Yorker.