Your workflow is unique šŸ‘Øā€šŸ’» -  tell us how you use Dropbox here.

Forum Discussion

kevinstaake's avatar
kevinstaake
New member | Level 2
7 years ago
Solved

Didn't save, need to recover file

Hi there. I'd been working on an Excel doc on desktop Dropbox and accidentally closed the program without saving. Now I've lost 4 hours of progress and can only restore to the version I last saved at...
restore
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    Hey there (kevinstaake), sorry to hear that you couldnā€™t locate the file version you were looking for. As an initial pointer, Iā€™d suggest checking back at the Version History of the file in question on your account online (tip: itā€™s on the on the šŸ’¬ of your excel). From there, Iā€™m wondering if the version youā€™re looking for was saved back on the Recents of the app you used to modify your spreadsheet. Can you have a second look on whether this applies? 
     
    It may be worth mentioning that Dropbox is a syncing tool that mirrors ( :computer: ā–¶ļø šŸ•øļø ā–¶ļø :iphone:) any changes made to your content on your account online & across your devices Kevin, whereas the Autosave functionality pertains specifically to the third party app you used to edit your spreadsheet. 
     
    In any event, please do keep me updated here on the results youā€™re getting on your end & Iā€™ll do my best to follow-up with you. Thanks again for posting your question on our Community! 
Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago
Thanks for circling back to me on this matter gwrevare; letā€™s take it from where weā€™ve left off! 
 
It looks like weā€™re starting to connect the dots, however let me briefly clarify that each application retains its own versioning scheme. That said, if youā€™re working on a file youā€™ve stored on your Dropbox folder & you save your changes, then these should be reflected in Dropbox as well. If you canā€™t see the most Up-To-Date version of your docs in Dropbox, then this denotes that thereā€™s probably an underlying syncing issue. 
 
Unlinking & relinking your account on your desktop once can be helpful as a quick fix, since it recreates the local database. Would you mind giving it a go at your earliest convenience? When you do so, could you have a look at your overlay icons to see if your files are syncing correctly :arrows_counterclockwise:/:white_check_mark:?
 
From there, Iā€™m wondering if youā€™ve also enquired to Microsoft regarding your missing edits by any chance, as Iā€™m suspecting that this version hasnā€™t been synced to Dropbox so your best bet would be checking whether it can be retrieved within Microsoft Word. 
 
I hope that this is helpful to some extent- please let me know if you make any progress on your end or you have any follow-up questions!
gwrevare's avatar
gwrevare
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago

I unlinked then signed back into dropbox. Now none of my syncing icons are working. 

  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago

    Hmmmā€¦ šŸ¤” Interesting outcome gwrevare (& thanks for sharing); at this point Iā€™d recommend re-installing our app using the Offline installer which should eliminate similar discrepancies (& you can reference the steps outlined below to get going with that):

    Spoiler
    • Stop Dropbox (If needed) by clicking the Dropbox icon in the system tray at the bottom of your screen. >Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox".
    • Uninstall Dropbox: [Note: If Dropbox was installed by a Windows administrator in Program Files, you will need admin permissions to remove the application.]> Click on the Start button on the bottom left of your screen, and select "Control Panel" (Windows 7), or type Control Panel at the Start screen or start menu, and click on it (Windows 10, 8 ).> Click "Uninstall a Program". >Select Dropbox from the list of programs and click "Uninstall".
    • When the uninstall finishes, reboot your computer. This will make sure the uninstall is complete.  

    Nonetheless, if youā€™re still unable to see any syncing icons on your files, please let me know & Iā€™ll make sure to reach out to you directly on my end, so as to check back on the specifics I have on my tools. Thanks again for sticking with me on our discussion here!

About Delete, Edit, and Organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!