By Natalie Di Maggio ‘26
Background: Defining lost media
Some media disappears from the internet—and sometimes, it comes back in the most unexpected ways. From forgotten corporate training videos to unreleased songs and rare Disney animations, lost media has taken on the role of a digital treasure hunt for fans across Reddit, YouTube, and various other dedicated forums.
Lost media refers to any form of content that was once publicly available but has since vanished from the internet or other documentation regarding its release. Old video games, music, TV shows, movies, commercials, audio recordings, photos, or even obscure books have the potential to disappear and be dubbed as “lost media.” Sometimes the content is deliberately removed, in some cases to avoid lawsuits. Other times the content simply disappears into hard drives, tapes, or the depths of forgotten websites.
Recovering lost media often takes detective work. Enthusiasts dig through the Wayback Machine, a digital archive of past website snapshots, search abandoned forums, contact original creators, or sift through personal collections of old tapes, disks, or hard drives. Occasionally, a user who had stored a forgotten file decides to upload it online, sparking excitement among fan communities.
Recently recovered lost media
On May 22, Lost Media Wiki forum user chi casually announced, “Me and a couple others found this 2 weeks ago, surprised it was not posted here.” The video in question? A corporate McDonald’s training tape on how to operate its milkshake machine. The training tape from 1989 provided McDonald’s employees with in-depth instruction on how to use the “Taylor 480/481 milkshake machine.”
The entirety of the tape, spanning just over an hour in length, was uploaded to YouTube by Ziggy, one of the other users who was involved in the retrieval of the tape. Originally meant for employees, it resurfaced decades later as both an internet oddity and a slice of fast-food history.
Also in May, Redditor u/TheoJJV made a post, linking a Google Drive file containing the audio file from alt-rock band Get Scared’s unreleased demo, titled “Madhouse.” The link to the song’s lyrics on the Genius website was also provided in the post. The only prior mention of the song demo was from when the track was played on a livestream hosted by Nicholas Matthews, the band’s frontman, and his close friend Stephen Krypel of the band World War Me.
For a while, fans searched for the audio file, asking around in forums and hoping that someone had been recording the livestream. The demo eventually surfaced on YouTube through the user MJayMusic, the video description reading, “Demo for an unreleased Get Scared Track.” For fans, it was a rare glimpse at material that never made the band’s 2013 album Everyone’s Out to Get Me.
A few months later, on Aug. 23, forum user VoxelizedBits shared a deep dive into Roblox’s “Infinite Worlds” book series by J.D. Pierce. Their post contains a detailed summary of the history of the books and how they were found. “These were lost books produced from 2014 to 2015 in official collaboration with Roblox. The first two were scanned within the past year, but the others, which were more rare, were lost,” VoxelizedBits wrote in their post, documenting how the obscure tie-in books were tracked down and verified.
“They have been uncovered, scanned, and sent to me by anonymous individuals who don’t want to be credited. Some of the books only had about ten copies left,” they continued, providing links to documents of the scanned book pages and corresponding photos so the books can be accessed again. The rediscovery illustrates how even corporate tie-ins can develop a devoted following long after disappearing.
On Aug. 29, Lost Media Wiki forum user zeczigzag shared another significant find: a lost audio clip of Michael Jackson casually referencing Marilyn Monroe. “Well, after further searching and asking some fellow MJ fans over on the r/MichaellJackson Reddit page, the audio has finally been found!” zeczigzag wrote, sharing how the Michael Jackson Reddit community confirmed the clip’s authenticity.
In the same post, they linked “Michael Jackson’s Private Tape Recordings: 2000-2001,” a YouTube video uploaded by user GMJHD, instructing anyone seeking the clip to jump to 16:29 in the video for the mentioned quote.
Finally, on Sept. 9, Lost Media Wiki user SurrealKangeroo reported the recovery of “Swabbies,” a never-released Mickey Mouse animatic. “The animatic for a Mickey Mouse short called Swabbies has been found,” they posted. “I had no idea it got far along enough to have a complete animatic with the real voice actors.” The same post continued.
“Swabbies,” the Disney featurette from 1985, is about 25 minutes long and involves the iconic Disney characters Mickey, Donald, and Goofy enlisting in the Navy after losing their jobs. The plot escalates when Donald makes a mistake that gets the trio caught up in a climactic battle with a submarine. The find quickly spread after being uploaded to YouTube, along with the speculation that the animation was obtained through a private auction.
Summary: The ongoing hunt
Recent lost media discoveries highlight the fragile memory of the internet. Dedicated communities like Lost Media Wiki and r/lostmedia thrive on digital detective work, bringing users exactly what media they’re requesting. Thanks to archival tools aiming to preserve the internet, like the Wayback Machine, lost media can be retrieved and future loss can be prevented. Of course, there will forever be individuals who unknowingly “sat on” VHS tapes, hard drives, or CDs for years, not thinking much about their value and demand, or about the fans from niche fandoms seeking the “lost” content.
And for fans, the thrill isn’t just in what’s found—it’s in the chase itself. There’s always a chance another tape, audio file, or animatic is waiting somewhere, ready to surface online.
Post Sources (In Order): McDonald’s Training Tape, Roblox Book, Get Scared – “Madhouse” Demo, Michael Jackson Audio, Swabbies – Disney Short
Other Sources: Article on Lost Media, r/lostmedia, The Lost Media Wiki, The Wayback Machine, McDonald’s Milkshake Machine – YouTube Upload, “Madhouse” – Get Scared – YouTube Upload