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Dropbox started deleting files after linking an older computer to my account
I removed dropbox syncing from an older laptop a while back because the laptop couldn't handle the file size. Today I reinstalled dropbox on that machine hoping to set it to online only so it wouldn'...
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHi heidiraquel, and thanks for posting this on the forum.
Have you checked your Deleted files and Events page online, but it’s still not possible to locate and even restore your missing files?
Also, do you remember how you removed the Dropbox app from your old device the previous time? Was the app up to date when you stopped its syncing? Did you delete your old Dropbox folder after that?
I’m wondering whether there were still unsynced files/updates there, which overwrote your current Dropbox files, as soon as the desktop app was relinked to your account.
Let me know and we’ll take it from there.
Thank you for this! It's been a while so I don't entirely remember. I know I was worried about files getting deleted permanently if I deleted them from my laptop. I know I stopped syncing and tested deleting one file and it remained on my main computer and dropbox so I figured it was safe. I eventually deleted all the folders from my Dropbox folder on my laptop, but couldn't figure out how to get dropbox off my machine. I just ended up removing it from my applications folder, but the empty dropbox folder remained in my favorites (I'm on a Mac).
Today, I reinstalled dropbox on my laptop and it started syncing immediately, to what I don't know. I chose online only view from the dropdown menu so the files all had the cloud next to them rather than the checkmark. Still thought it was ok until I checked my phone and saw those all now matched my laptop. My desktop appeared to be ok so I paused syncing for now and copied all the folders to my desktop hard drive in case.
I see only a few files in the trash on dropbox online from recent deletes. And again, there was nothing in the dropbox folder on my laptop to even sync from.
Can I at least move all my saved files from my desktop to dropbox to get it back the way it was? And should I uninstall dropbox from my laptop before I do that? I wanted to just have aliases on my laptop until I can get a new one that can handle the volume. Every time I opened a file on the online version I couldn't get it to open properly or sync and so it seemed worthless to open them from there. I'm traveling soon and just wanted to be able to access them easier than online.
- Megan
Hey heidiraquel, thanks for the details, and for walking me through the steps that you followed!
I was about to suggest the same thing that you did.
Here is what I would do: I suggest that you copy the valuable content that you have on your desktop to either an external hard drive, or somewhere else in your hard drive.
You can then resume syncing of the app, and let it sync any files. Once the app is up-to-date, you can then copy any files into your Dropbox folder, and let it update any changes.
Then, once some of the files/folders are synced, you can change their status to online-only if you wish.
How does that sound?
- Thanks. I’ll try that. Will it try to duplicate all the similar files or will it recognize they are duplicates and only copy what’s missing?
