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Forum Discussion
I deleted my Dropbox account, and now my Documents, Desktop and Download are unavailable.
Hi,
Until recently I had a dropbox account, with dropbox backup (windows 11).
I deleted the account, and uninstalled the app, a few months ago.
The Dropbox folder in the file system was still there, though I had been making sure to not save anything in that folder, ie. I would save to c: users/me/documents
Anyway, I just deleted the drobox folder, and now my Documents, Desktop and Download folders are empty, and an error message says that they are unavailable. Can anyone help?
Hi anonymous
So, when you set up Dropbox backup it actually moves all of the folders and directories to the Dropbox folder. It then places hidden links in original locations that replicate what you do. So if you delete them all it does actually delete them (and as you said - permanently as they are too large). There isn't a way to recover apart from Windows recycle bin.
To restore the folders back to original locations etc. (but minus data) you will need to reinstall Dropbox and then tell the software to remove Backup.
9 Replies
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- Mark
Super User II
Have you tried restoring from your recycle bin?
If you haven't got the files in there you wont be able to recover from Dropbox I'm afraid as you removed the account 😞
- Hi Mark,
Thanks for the reply.
No, I know that all the data I had on Dropbox is long gone.
There was too much to recycle, it was all permanently deleted.
I'm starting to think that my folders were not deleted. The error message says that they are not accessible, but still show up in all the lists.
After a restart, the Dropbox folder, with the PC folder in it is restored, as though it is ready to make a new backup. Maybe when I uninstalled the desktop app, some traces if Dropbox backup remained and deleting the folder somehow broke the path to the folders?
Stan - Mark
Hi anonymous
So, when you set up Dropbox backup it actually moves all of the folders and directories to the Dropbox folder. It then places hidden links in original locations that replicate what you do. So if you delete them all it does actually delete them (and as you said - permanently as they are too large). There isn't a way to recover apart from Windows recycle bin.
To restore the folders back to original locations etc. (but minus data) you will need to reinstall Dropbox and then tell the software to remove Backup.
- Hi Mark,
Hmmm, so even after uninstalling the desktop app, backup was still storing everything in the Dropbox folder? Even when I thought I was saving directly in my Documents folder?
I compard the folders to the contents in the Dropbox folder and they weren't the same.
Anyway, i am in the middle of a windows system recovery At least i will get my file systm back.
Thanks again for the info.
Stan - Rich
anonymous wrote:
so even after uninstalling the desktop app, backup was still storing everything in the Dropbox folder?If you didn't disable the backup feature prior to uninstalling, then yes, your Desktop, Documents, etc., folders would still be located in the Dropbox folder. If you then delete the Dropbox folder, you're deleting those folders as well.
Even when I thought I was saving directly in my Documents folder?You were saving directly in your Documents folder. It's just that the Documents folder was located in your Dropbox folder.
- Hi ,
I have re installed the Dropbox desktop app, and opened the backup window, but am not able to get the Dropboxfder to delete. Backups does not seem to recognize that the Dropbox folder already exists, so is trying to set it up, but can't, and isasking me to move the folders back to their original location. Which I cannot do, an error message says they are in use by another program.
Any ideas?
The help article says to open the desktop app and click the synch tab and unlink my pc.
When I click on the Dropbox icon, I don't get any app, just the Dropbox folder open in file explorer - Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
This is quite a sticky situation, I'm afraid, anonymous.
When you reinstalled the Dropbox app, did you sign in to a different Dropbox account, since your original was deleted?
I had exactly the same issue but on a mac. Thought I was deleting an empty dropbox folder and instead deleted 8 years work as my desktop, documents and downloads folders all were deleted. Lots of stuff I can never get back. I had no idea dropbox could have such a devastating impact.
