Deleted files due to external drive getting disconnected

Agreed - this is an insane weakness in the otherwise strong Dropbox solution.   

It should simply not be possible for this to occur.   No excuses on limitations.  Think differently about this.

Add to this the limitations of expanding internal storage in a Macbook and this is becoming virtually an unusable (or at the very least - dangerous) -  solution in Mac based studios......(I work with a Landscape design studio - this has happened once to us so far.)

It flies in the face of all the efforts Dropbox are making to support team operations.......

Our incident was an accident - but I could describe another scenario where someone with an understanding of this limitation could willfully trash a company's  Team Dropbox content by a single action of unplugging an external drive before walking out the door.

Yep, this is a big issue for us as well. 

We didn't even disconnect a drive, just when a machine rebooted apparently it didn't connect fast enough and dropbox deleted it. 

Same problem with a 3.5TB dropbox and running on Mac's where you can't upgrade the storage. 

Has anyone got recommendations for alternatives that work well with external drives?

I have a 17TB dropbox that I hold on an external drive via the Dropbox app. I'm on macOS 13.4.

I have my computer (a mac mini) set so that when I load my computer Dropbox opens automatically.

Sometimes I turn off my computer and the external drive (generally when I leave my desktop for several days) and then turn it back on later. 

Now here's the important part:

If I turn my computer on without having turned on the external drive, i.e. it does not mount upon startup, Dropbox comes with a popup saying "we can't find your dropbox" and then asks me "do you want to resync your dropbox? or quit?". I simply choose "quit". Dropbox closes. I turn my drive on. It mounts. I open up the dropbox app. 

Everything works fine.

Not sure what's happening on your side?

If you want a bit of fun, keep your drive mounted and using as normal.

Now trip over the cable and pull the cable out from your Mac mini.

Hey presto "All your work will be deleted" It's a right giggle, try it.

Yeah, I think that's what used to happen, which was totally fine and workable. 

Unfortunately we've got a new Mac Mini that doesn't do that. Twice when we've restarted the machine it's just deleted everything. 

As a work around in the short term we've removed drop box from the start up items and we'll see how that goes. 

Hi ScottMOz, we don't have any current news on this.

We will make sure to update any relevant threads if and once we do. Thank you!

I just came in to be a drop in the bucket. This is the most infuriating weakness and has been like this for at least a year. Please fix this, it makes me so so anxious and angry when it happens. Make it unsyc or something, please don't delete a TB that I need that night for a gig you absolute monsters.

This problem should be solved.

It has happened to me a couple of times in two years and the result is that the whole team lost a day's work because of the resynchronization time.

I try to explain why the Dropbox team should take this problem seriously:

1. Due to the limited size of internal HDDs, it is not possible to save "offline" all Dropbox folders.
2. Having the ability to keep files "online only" is just wonderful, but it is critical in terms of security: If the Internet goes down or Dropbox's servers get hacked or need maintenance, all files suddenly become inaccessible. It is a good practice for any digital archive to have at least one copy in the cloud and one locally. To this end, saving to external drives is essential.
3. If I try to delete a large number of files, dropbox asks me to confirm before doing so. Why does this not happen in this specific scenario?
4. I am a photographer and send my team files to edit overnight when I am abroad for a photo shoot. Having a computer that is always connected and has the entire Dropbox folder offline allows them to have the files ready to use when they arrive at the studio in the morning.
5. The policy of setting Dropbox folders "online only" by default (this is done when the app is first set up) is great because it allows for a lot of free disk space. At the same time, the fact that an accidental disconnection of a drive can cause all files to be deleted effectively rules out the option of saving all our files "offline" (see point 1).
6. I suggest simply adding a logical operation to your software: IF the size of the files to be deleted is = the size of the sum of all Dropbox folders AND IF the Dropbox folder is on an external volume THEN show a confirmation prompt before performing the operation.