Problem with previous versions: "No previous versions available"

I (stupidly and accidentally) deleted all files in my "Downloads" folder. As in, hard deleted them - not to the recycle bin.

I right-clicked the folder and picked "Properties", "Previous versions". Lo and behold, there were several previous versions. I opened the one from today, browsed through it, and it looked good - all 300+ GB of my files were there. So I went back to "Previous versions" and clicked "Restore". It managed to restore a few files, but most files it said were "missing", or that it needed "administrator access" for them. (I am obviously admin on this computer.) So I clicked "Skip" for those, and let it carry on.

After the restore process was done, it had only successfully restored about ten files. When I now click "Previous versions" for my "Downloads" folder, to at least get a list of the files that are missing, it suddenly says there are no files available! But before I did the restore, there were several restore points there. What happened?

I realize this thread is old, but in case this helps someone else as it did me today:

The problem of "There are no previous versions available" could also be related to which link you right-click on to bring up Properties.

For example, it will find nothing if you open Windows Explorer and right click Downloads (or Desktop) when it appears under Favorites at the top left.

However, if you expand the C: drive and scroll down to your Users folder (C:\Users\[username]\) and right click on the Downloads or Desktop folder there, then it will show previous versions (assuming System Restore is properly enabled).