Forum Discussion

davidboxer's avatar
davidboxer
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago

Dropbox overwrites new & local files with older versions and generates "conflicted files"-copy

I am a dropbox client for many years and have recommended it many many times, but now I'm a bit "irritated" to say least,... please help: for unfortunate technical reasons i could'nt sync my huge d...
desktop
restore
sync
Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago

Hi NeilDrop12, thanks for nudging us here - welcome aboard!

I'd be happy to help, so I've sent you a ticket to the email address connected to your Community profile. 

When you get the chance, check your inbox and we'll go from there. Cheers!

mevsme's avatar
mevsme
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago

I have exactly the same situation and I use updated Drpobox!

My case:

- I edit files. Then I upload them. Then I pause Dropbox.

- my friend edits files and save at 3 pm

- I edit files (and I don't have his edits, i don't care). I save mine at 7 pm.

- I start DropBox and it overwites my file with his, my newer file with his OLDER!

WTF Dropbox???

I don't even get "conflicting copy"

and there is no my file in file's history, file's hitory get truncated to his date, e.g. 3 pm

I have just lost 4 hours of work because of this dumb behaviour

and now I need to spam with file versions to not lost my edits again.

 

But I have a solution - I move to Google Drive

 

jeez

  • Henri999's avatar
    Henri999
    Explorer | Level 3
    6 years ago

    I have been terrified of this happening since starting with dropbox a decade ago and have so far protected myself using a very basic "workaround" on every machine I have used.

     

    Step A: Make sure on installation that the DROPBOX folder is not situated inside your "documents" hierarchy.

    Step B: Create a folder called "FORDROPBOX" with all your documents as sub-folders of this folder.

    Step C: Use a regular auto-run of a copying routine to copy the FORDROPBOX folder into the DROPBOX folder.

     

    Believe it or not I am still using Karen's Replicator to auto-run this daily routine. So there exists a kind of firebreak between the WEB dropbox and my own working documents. Perhaps this helps someone - it is no solution after the disaster has happened.

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