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I deleted my Dropbox Backup but files still are still accessible through the 'Recents' filter
Hi,
In my main account, I've deleted a Backup (proper Backup; a computer that was registered there).
Today, when exploring the "Recents" filtering on the Home page, I see the name of that compute...
Hi Megan Jay, I've fixed by doing the following:
- Unlinked all my devices
- Deleted the new backup I had created, in order to start from scratch
- At this point, the "Recents" filter was still showing that deleted data from the older backup still
- Went to dropbox.com/backups/all, refreshed the page several times and, at some point, I got a red message in a rectangle (didn't capture the screen) saying something like "There are some problems with your folders; resolve if you want to keep them or delete them" (even this message was bugged; we are not talking about "Folders" there; those are "Backups"...)
- Right then, the older deleted backup (Backup 1) in my example, appeared grayed out on the list, with the overflow menu giving me the option to delete it
- Did that; "Recents" filter had all those files and folders in that backup dissapear
As I was guessing in my previous message, something was really messed up. Even though I had no way to see that older backup, the "Recents" filter still showed those files. I don't know if both backups have somehow got mixed together or why "Backup 1" wasn't showing while I had the new one, but it was quite disconcerting.
I don't fully trust a couple of things now; first the whole Backup functionality (yeah, I know it says "Beta"), why data I though was deleted properly was still there (if I haven't gone through all this I'd have never known that my data was still recoverable - privacy issue), completely disjointed experience between all clients (web, mobile, desktop) on how it handles this (i.e. still now, the "Recents" filter show different items on web vs. mobile vs. desktop), etc. Will monitor for a while and think if I'll renew or not, but during all these things, I got the feeling that the platform wasn't as robust as the last time I used Dropbox when it started with cloud storage many years ago, so it will be difficult to trust my data to it moving forward.
I'll leave you a couple of questions, if you can answer:
- The "Recents" filter; since we can't remove items from there. How many items does it keep? Is it time-based (e.g. show the last year)? Does it depends on the amount of items there?
- Data retention; how much time, supposedly, since I permanently delete a file or even a backup, do you keep that data on your servers?
Thanks.
Hi Megan Jay, I've fixed by doing the following:
- Unlinked all my devices
- Deleted the new backup I had created, in order to start from scratch
- At this point, the "Recents" filter was still showing that deleted data from the older backup still
- Went to dropbox.com/backups/all, refreshed the page several times and, at some point, I got a red message in a rectangle (didn't capture the screen) saying something like "There are some problems with your folders; resolve if you want to keep them or delete them" (even this message was bugged; we are not talking about "Folders" there; those are "Backups"...)
- Right then, the older deleted backup (Backup 1) in my example, appeared grayed out on the list, with the overflow menu giving me the option to delete it
- Did that; "Recents" filter had all those files and folders in that backup dissapear
As I was guessing in my previous message, something was really messed up. Even though I had no way to see that older backup, the "Recents" filter still showed those files. I don't know if both backups have somehow got mixed together or why "Backup 1" wasn't showing while I had the new one, but it was quite disconcerting.
I don't fully trust a couple of things now; first the whole Backup functionality (yeah, I know it says "Beta"), why data I though was deleted properly was still there (if I haven't gone through all this I'd have never known that my data was still recoverable - privacy issue), completely disjointed experience between all clients (web, mobile, desktop) on how it handles this (i.e. still now, the "Recents" filter show different items on web vs. mobile vs. desktop), etc. Will monitor for a while and think if I'll renew or not, but during all these things, I got the feeling that the platform wasn't as robust as the last time I used Dropbox when it started with cloud storage many years ago, so it will be difficult to trust my data to it moving forward.
I'll leave you a couple of questions, if you can answer:
- The "Recents" filter; since we can't remove items from there. How many items does it keep? Is it time-based (e.g. show the last year)? Does it depends on the amount of items there?
- Data retention; how much time, supposedly, since I permanently delete a file or even a backup, do you keep that data on your servers?
Thanks.
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
I’m glad you were able to resolve this in the end, Timmy256! Thank you for taking the time to test things on your end and for sharing the solution that worked for you here.
When it comes to your second question, you can read our privacy policy here.
Now, as for the thing you asked before that, and since this behavior was quite strange and unexpected, I’d say that it’s better to reach back to us again, in case you face a similar issue in the future. If this happens again, we’ll most likely need to log a ticket for you and investigate this with our support team.
