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awilson576's avatar
awilson576
Helpful | Level 6
10 months ago

I deleted my dropbox and it deleted my desktop and documents folders. How can i restore them?

Hi everyone, 

 

I downgraded my Dropbox account, and because it had been syncing my desktop and documents folders, I was over the storage limit for the free account. 

 

I tried to follow the help centre instructions to remove the backups, but i didnt have the same options on my laptop as were shown on the screenshots. 

 

So, i removed the dropbox app. Still no joy. So i deleted my dropbox account. 

 

Now my Desktop and Documents folders are missing, along with all their contents. WTF?

 

Any help greatly appreciated. 

 

 

Delete
Desktop
Dropbox Backup
Restore
  • awilson576's avatar
    awilson576
    10 months ago

    nevermind, i did a force quit of Finder and it fixed the Desktop issue

     

  • awilson576's avatar
    awilson576
    Helpful | Level 6
    10 months ago

    I re-created my dropbox account with the same email in order to be able to post in this chat, but the files aren't there. 

    There's also nothing in the Bin folder of my mac

    Tried creating new folders to act as Desktop and Documents and added alias folders but no use. 

     

     

    • Walter's avatar
      Walter
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      10 months ago

      Hi there awilson576 -I'm sorry to hear about this.

       

      Since you've deleted your Dropbox account as well, apart from uninstalling the app, I'm afraid we won't be able to help much with restoring any files you had stored there.

       

      Have you tried looking for them locally on your computer, be it in their original locations or the recycle bin/trash can? 

       

      As for your computer's OS folders, have you tried resetting their folder paths?  

       

      Keep us posted with any updates!

      • awilson576's avatar
        awilson576
        Helpful | Level 6
        10 months ago

        Thanks for your reply Walter. 

        The rubbish bin folder on my mac only contains files that I had deleted prior to deleting the dropbox account. 

        The 'original locations' eg the Desktop and Documents folders are missing. 

        How do I reset the folder paths?

        I've tried creating new folders, 'DesktopNew' and 'Docs' 

         

         

        Dropbox needs much clearer warnings about the possibility of this happening when you delete your account, plus much clearer information about how to stop sync and reduce dropbox storage when you downgrade - please pass that on. 

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