John Greenewald's Black Vault Files Deleted From Server Then Restored from Backups

R

Rick Robson

Active Member
Rick Robson said:
Well. you know according to John the exemption code that the accountable agencies base upon for not releasing the requested UFO records is enough proof that FOIA will never work for that matter.
Would a sort of "glitch in the matrix" accidentally leak some of it through FOIA? Let us wait and see, anyway John's persistence is more than meritable, he's brilliant on that requisite, to say the least.
Click to expand...

Sorry but I'm in a hurry (as usual!) and at first glance didn't find any proof/confirmation that this news just posted on X is real fact, can anyone find official report on it?

https://www.wionews.com/trending/fi...s-order-deletion-not-corruption-1771922604653

External Quote:

"The Black Vault UFO archive wiped:

After Donald Trump ordered the release of all UFO-related files, an archive containing declassified US government files on the matter disappeared overnight. Black Vault is the place where the general public can access everything that has been released about alien discoveries and conspiracy theories over the last 80 years. Researcher and ufologist John Greenewald Jr, who runs it, was shocked to see that nearly 3.8 million files were removed on February 20. The data on the server spanned not only aliens and UFOs, but also included CIA projects, military reports, and even information linked to the assassination of JFK. Greenewald shared the discovery online and said that permissions to edit or access certain server directories and file ownership logs had been changed. The timing of the deletion has raised questions about whether it was deliberate or an accident.
Black Vault contains government material obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests over the years. Documents on previously undisclosed programmes and incidents linked to aliens, such as rumours that extraterrestrial spacecraft were recovered and studied by the US government, were organised on the website. Greenewald had gathered all this data through more than 11,000 FOIA requests made over nearly 30 years. The public could scan through information such as military base reports and witness testimonies on aliens. It even contained CIA directives from the 1940s and 50s as well. All this information was unsealed without widespread noise over the years. Greenewald also listed instances when the CIA and FBI rejected his FOIA requests.
What is most shocking is the fact that this happened merely hours after President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to disclose anything related to "alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)." Greenewald said, "[They] had no idea what
happened, and on their side, they said it was a deletion, not corruption,' the researcher posted on Saturday."
Also strange labeling John as "ufologist", just the fact he digged into his FOIA releases, and posted about his inquiries and YT interviews on the subject doesn't mean he's also ufologist. If am wrong please correct me.
 
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Ravi said:
Was it (Black Vault) never backed up? I would find that a littlebit crazy (=stupid and careless).
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The original post detailing the issue also informed the server was up and running again. No files were permanently lost:

1771947134071.png

Source: https://twitter.com/theblackvault/status/2024900829564883194

1771947080394.png

Source: https://twitter.com/theblackvault/status/2025284894084260324


External Quote:

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. In addition, numerous server-side directories had permissions changed, and file ownership changed. It is unclear why, and I've never seen this in the history running web servers for The Black Vault.

I am not sure when exactly this happened, but I discovered it yesterday. I have server monitors up, but never got notified of anything down. The server was just throwing "Forbidden" errors which is why it technically didn't show as down, so I never got a notification.

Let me be clear, I do not fully suspect foul play, but the main web hosting provider for that server (I run 4) had no idea what happened, and on their side, they said it was a deletion, not corruption.

In my honest opinion, I feel it was a very oddly timed server maintenance done by the hosting provider, that went awry. They didn't catch it, and when I did, they didn't take blame and there was no way to fully prove what happened, and by whom. Could I be wrong? Yes. Could it have been foul play? I can't rule it out.

Yes, I have numerous backups, and yes, it appears I got everything restored already (as of early evening yesterday). But, please let me know if you find any errors when downloading documents (or anything, for that matter).

I remain the sole person who runs The Black Vault, and this will be the start of my 30th year running the website, come this September. I began hand typing documents in high school to a 5 megabyte free space server back in 1996 (Primenet!). I have now grown to nearly 4 MILLION pages of records online, running 4 dedicated servers just for the site, and no data deletion, accidental or otherwise, will ever keep me down for good.

But it is a stark reminder to us all, me included. Keep backups. Keep them in multiple places. And never be intimidated by anything that comes our way, no matter what we expect may have happened.

Stay the course. I am. And I'm not going anywhere.

Last edited 7:02 PM · Feb 21, 2026
 
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john.phil said:
The original post detailing the issue also informed the server was up and running again. No files were permanently lost:


External Quote:

...

I remain the sole person who runs The Black Vault, and this will be the start of my 30th year running the website, come this September. I began hand typing documents in high school to a 5 megabyte free space server back in 1996 (Primenet!). I have now grown to nearly 4 MILLION pages of records online, running 4 dedicated servers just for the site, and no data deletion, accidental or otherwise, will ever keep me down for good.

But it is a stark reminder to us all, me included. Keep backups. Keep them in multiple places. And never be intimidated by anything that comes our way, no matter what we expect may have happened.

Stay the course. I am. And I'm not going anywhere.

Last edited 7:02 PM · Feb 21, 2026
Click to expand...
As some who works with an I.T. team, it would be surprising if this guy didn't crash his website every so often.
 
john.phil said:
"Dog whistling" is a reference to coded message that seems unremarkable to the general public but has a specific meaning for a targeted audience. Similar to the expression "Entendedores entenderão".
Click to expand...

I'd already heard that jargon, I'm rather still wondering to whom would it apply on that John's sentence. Whether there's a sort of "threatening act" suspicion implied there or not, I find obvious it can't be completely ruled out by the general public (or at least by those with a.basic level of awareness on these kind of incidents.
 
Rick Robson said:
I'm rather still wondering to whom would it apply
Click to expand...
Greenewald's target audience is a coalition of the suspicious, or as they might see themselves: the "David vs Goliath" people, where Goliath is the US government or a branch of the government. That would include deep state conspiracists, intelligence watchdogs, transparency hardliners, OSINT partisans, the UFO community...His remark was exactly what his community would feed on: fear of Goliath coming for them.
 
john.phil said:
Greenewald's target audience is a coalition of the suspicious, or as they might see themselves: the "David vs Goliath" people, where Goliath is the US government or a branch of the government. That would include deep state conspiracists, intelligence watchdogs, transparency hardliners, OSINT partisans, the UFO community...His remark was exactly what his community would feed on: fear of Goliath coming for them.
Click to expand...

Let me get this straight? What John Greenewald Jr.'s "community" are you talking about? Please would you expand also on your claim about a "coalition of the suspicious"? Because all of this is news to me, AFAIK he's only known as being today one of the most experts on the procedures involving FOIA requests.
 
Rick Robson said:
Thanks but I don't need it, since I can realise that your choice of words "sometimes but not often" is not applicable to John's only incident, as reported by himself.
Click to expand...
1) You did not research your claim very well. For example:
Screenshot_20260225-010705.png


Source: https://www.facebook.com/thegovernmentsecrets/posts/after-a-long-day-of-an-outage-i-am-now-officially-i-hope-back-online-againi-hope/3316685535218376/


2)
External Quote:
Conditional Sentence Type 2
→ It is possible but very unlikely, that the condition will be fulfilled.

Form: if + Simple Past, Conditional I (= would + Infinitive)

Example: If I found her address, I would send her an invitation.
https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/conditional-sentences

@jdog's use of grammar indicates that he thinks it's likely that Greenewald's website crashes now and again. That was a statement of opinion, not a statement of fact.

As an ESL speaker, I'm in a learning mindset when I examine a native speaker's use of language.
 
Mendel said:
1) You did not research your claim very well. For example:
View attachment 88654

Source: https://www.facebook.com/thegovernmentsecrets/posts/after-a-long-day-of-an-outage-i-am-now-officially-i-hope-back-online-againi-hope/3316685535218376/


.
Click to expand...


Well then, had that instance not been only the issue with his site -- shutdown during that day, you would have identified contradictions in this John's statement: "It is unclear why, and I've never seen this in the history running web servers for The Black Vault."

Now would you please spare me of your Conditional Sentence explanations? They are completely irrelevant and unnecessary to this discussion. Thank you.
 
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Rick Robson said:
Well then you identified contradictions in this John's statement: "It is unclear why, and I've never seen this in the history running web servers for The Black Vault."
Click to expand...
There is no contradiction.

John says he hasn't seen this type of failure before, but @jdog referred to a less specific "crash his website". The older outage was presumably of a different kind than the new outage.

I think nitpicking someone's choice of words in public is "completely irrelevant and unnecessary to this discussion", too, but here we are.
 
Rick Robson said:
I find interesting -- and would like to know precisely why -- many people (if not most of the commenters about this issue) don't address/reference John Greenewald Jr.'s X (twitter) message to the Secretary of War about the tons of highly classified UFO records withheld from the American people to this day. Oh well...


Source: https://x.com/theblackvault/status/2024672469156843616
Click to expand...


This curiosity has just sprung to mind again ha ha! , yea it also remains unaddressed.
 
Rick Robson said:
Let me get this straight? What John Greenewald Jr.'s "community" are you talking about? Please would you expand also on your claim about a "coalition of the suspicious"? Because all of this is news to me, AFAIK he's only known as being today one of the most experts on the procedures involving FOIA requests.
Click to expand...
His community can be found on Reddit, X, Facebook, Discord, YouTube, Instagram and other platforms. "Coalition of the suspicious" is a reference to how his community, albeit heterogeneous, is united against a common phantom enemy.

For instance, they just created a funding group for the Black Vault and for its independent preservation, after the website outage was blamed on government institutions and bad actors -> https://x.com/i/communities/2026435827820044641

Here is a small snapshot:

1772045394358.png

1772044524457.png



About him just being a neutral FOIA expert, if you visit https://www.youtube.com/@TheBlackVaultOriginals , you can check what kind of videos he publishes, and then if you read the comments section, you can also see a sample of his target audience there. He also holds live Q&A sessions on YouTube, where you can see from the questions his audience asks, which group they represent, the donations they are making, and the conversations and comments in the chat window.

For instance, in one of his latest videos, he opens the video by addressing his audience in the following way, about how a document was written:

External Quote:
(00:00 - 00:16) The problem, however, is what's in it and how it's written. It's almost, in my opinion, here's the conspiracy side of me, and some of you may hate me for it. It's almost like it's written to fail.
source: "The UAP Disclosure Act: The Problem With Eminent Domain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HgiR9kawcY

From that statement, he acknowledges he's aware that part of his audience does not appreciate him veering towards conspiracies, whilst the other part has him as one of them.

Here are snapshots of the latest videos on his youtube channel, check the video titles:

1771980486665.png


1771980724642.png


1771981432327.png


In this post, he teases his UFO audience by implying the Navy must have something else to hide beyond the usual weapons capabilities classification, hinting at "UAP footage might reveal alien visitation" conspiracy:

1771981913179.png


1771983082876.png


On Facebook, the very description of the discussion group tells you already which audience is in there, and hints at what the comments section looks like. "The Black Vault - UFOs, Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Controversies" https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBlackVault/

1771985033542.png

Check some of the material the community shares below:

1771986499816.png


On Discord, you can see the list of channels associated with the server, among which there are the usual content his community engages with: #ufo-chat, #conspiracy and #forteana. discord.com/invite/2RM4D7A2B3

1771985737319.png
 
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john.phil said:
His community can be found on Reddit, X, Facebook, Discord, YouTube, Instagram and other platforms. "Coalition of the suspicious" is a reference to how his community, albeit heterogeneous, is united against a common phantom enemy.

For instance, they just created a funding group for the Black Vault and for its independent preservation, after the website outage was blamed on government institutions and bad actors -> https://x.com/i/communities/2026435827820044641

Here is a small snapshot:

View attachment 88680
View attachment 88679


About him just being a neutral FOIA expert, if you visit https://www.youtube.com/@TheBlackVaultOriginals , you can check what kind of videos he publishes, and then if you read the comments section, you can also see a sample of his target audience there. He also holds live Q&A sessions on YouTube, where you can see from the questions his audience asks, which group they represent, the donations they are making, and the conversations and comments in the chat window.

For instance, in one of his latest videos, he opens the video by addressing his audience in the following way, about how a document was written:

External Quote:
(00:00 - 00:16) The problem, however, is what's in it and how it's written. It's almost, in my opinion, here's the conspiracy side of me, and some of you may hate me for it. It's almost like it's written to fail.
source: "The UAP Disclosure Act: The Problem With Eminent Domain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HgiR9kawcY

From that statement, he acknowledges he's aware that part of his audience does not appreciate him veering towards conspiracies, whilst the other part has him as one of them.

Here are snapshots of the latest videos on his youtube channel, check the video titles:

View attachment 88655

View attachment 88656

View attachment 88657

In this post, he teases his UFO audience by implying the Navy must have something else to hide beyond the usual weapons capabilities classification, hinting at "UAP footage might reveal alien visitation" conspiracy:

View attachment 88659

View attachment 88661

On Facebook, the very description of the discussion group tells you already which audience is in there, and hints at what the comments section looks like. "The Black Vault - UFOs, Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Controversies" https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBlackVault/

View attachment 88663
Check some of the material the community shares below:

View attachment 88665

On Discord, you can see the list of channels associated with the server, among which there are the usual content his community engages with: #ufo-chat, #conspiracy and #forteana. discord.com/invite/2RM4D7A2B3

View attachment 88664
Click to expand...

As I expected, your supposed evidences here don't support your allegations about John Greenewald Jr., et all, therefore I quote you again as a last opportunity to clarify what you really meant by those allegations of yours that I previously highlighted in quotation marks.

I see that I would have spared you from the job of describing his platforms with links and all that, as you should know I'm an old subscriber to his YT podcast and know quite a lot of his brilliant contribution and support on the submission of FOIA requests.
 
Rick Robson said:
As I expected, your supposed evidences here don't support your allegations about John Greenewald Jr., et all, therefore I quote you again as a last opportunity to clarify what you really meant by those allegations of yours that I previously highlighted in quotation marks.

I see that I would have spared you from the job of describing his platforms with links and all that, as you should know I'm an old subscriber to his YT podcast and know quite a lot of his brilliant contribution and support on the submission of FOIA requests.
Click to expand...
When you say "As I expected", you're signalling that your conclusion was set before examining any evidence that could challenge your established perception of him.

In posts #47 and #69, he provides the relevant evidence himself. However, if it does not qualify as evidence in your view, then the issue becomes the standard you're applying, not the absence of material. The posts exist for anyone following this thread who might find them useful.

Just because a person is perceived to possess certain qualities, does not automatically exclude them from also contributing to negative outcomes.
 
Rick Robson said:
As I expected, your supposed evidences here don't support your allegations about John Greenewald Jr.,
Click to expand...
that's because Metabunk is a "coalition of the suspicious", so hear dog whistles where they might not exist.

Mendel said:
John says he hasn't seen this type of failure before, but @jdog referred to a less specific "crash his website".
Click to expand...
i'm not fully understanding Rick's esl use of english myself (ie what this argument is about), but the type of failure John has not seen before is the permissions and ownership being changed on files. Not that the data disappeared/ site crashed.
 
john.phil said:
When you say "As I expected", you're signalling that your conclusion was set before examining any evidence that could challenge your established perception of him.
Click to expand...
No, he's signalling that he had a hypothesis, which he then confirmed to be correct through the use of evidence.
An expectation is not a conclusion.
Now, someone who rejects evidence as 'irrelevant' might rather be thought of as working from prematurely set conclusions.
Edit: got confused, sorry
Rick Robson said:
Also strange labeling John as "ufologist", just the fact he digged into his FOIA releases, and posted about his inquiries and YT interviews on the subject doesn't mean he's also ufologist. If am wrong please correct me.
Click to expand...
You've been following John Greenewald since at least 2022. You must have noticed that a lot of his FOIA inquiries are about UFOs and related fields?
 
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Rick Robson said:
Let me get this straight? What John Greenewald Jr.'s "community" are you talking about? Please would you expand also on your claim about a "coalition of the suspicious"? Because all of this is news to me, AFAIK he's only known as being today one of the most experts on the procedures involving FOIA requests.
Click to expand...
Sealioning.

Compare:
Rick Robson said:
an old subscriber to his YT podcast and know quite a lot of his brilliant contribution and support on the submission of FOIA requests.
Click to expand...

Rick Robson said:
I think that the only way for us general public to vindicate our right to know the truth on this still stigmatised and infamous UFO subject still is through FOIA requests, even with its heavily redacted releases and the government's increasing hindrances for that matter. I agree that private scientific endeavours are welcome -- like that by Garry Nolan and others -- but I bet that depending only on their efforts we won't ever get even half the picture of what actually has happened is happening now about this subject on the last 70 years or so.
Click to expand...
Rick himself is a) one of Greenewald's followers aka part of his community, b) suspicious that the government holds a truth that they're not releasing.
 
WOW!
I'm really admiring your endeavours to find something suspicious about my (apparently hidden in plain sight ha haha ha!) questioning posture towards governments actions/stances/behaviour (obviously American government included) when it comes to matters I have the right to know and be fully aware of.
And thanks for reminding me of my message praising an actually GREAT citizen that is John Greenewald Jr. :cool:
 
Rick Robson said:
Now would you please spare me of your Conditional Sentence explanations? They are completely irrelevant and unnecessary to this discussion. Thank you.
Click to expand...
You have been asking for clarification on other points. We have no way of knowing what you understand and what you don't. If you don't need clarification, don't read it; it's that simple. There's no need to be rude.
 
Ann K said:
You have been asking for clarification on other points. We have no way of knowing what you understand and what you don't. If you don't need clarification, don't read it; it's that simple. There's no need to be rude.
Click to expand...
No, that's on me. I should have clarified more than I did. I tend to expect that people ask when an explanation is too short for them (the "learning mindset"), but some people won't; and I don't have to care.
You can lead a horse...
 
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