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Philip_Smith's avatar
Philip_Smith
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago
Solved

Mass deletion happened today - Says it was me, it wasn't - Need help please

I have dropbox for our team. We have (usually) group folders that I created and shared from the Content Manager page...
Well, today I went to open an Excel file that I use most days and Excel said the file was not in its expected location.

  • I opened windows explorer to find all the group folders empty (that's 119,120 files missing)
  • My personal folders deleting in front of my eyes
  • I checked my email and Dropbox had just sent me an email alerting of the Mass Deletion
  • Group folders all gone at this point
  • I opened my browser (from the dropbox desktop app) and logged in
    • I have not been able to "Unwind", "Restore" or the like

Has anyone else got this problem at the moment?

 

Strange thing also (as if all our files being trashed wasn't bad enough) I try to view "Deleted Files" and it's like the folders and files never existed.

  • The only place I get to see the deleted folders is when viewing the "Alert"
  • I don't know how many times I've clicked the blue "Restore" button (top right) but the files don't appear to be available
  • Clicking restore opens an "Activity Log"
    • Some of the items have "Restore" on the ellipsis
    • Message I get: "Can't Restore. Can only restore items in the team space."

Does anyone know where the "Team Space" is located?

I've been on this for three hours now and going in dropbox circles.

 

Thanks for reading/listening.

restore
  • Philip_Smith's avatar
    Philip_Smith
    3 years ago

    So, I just found out as an admin I can delete a file "permanently". It would be a good thing to have known this was even possible - I guess I never tried to delete a file permanently before. It was news to everyone on our team.

     

    Please DropBox - Why is "Dropbox Rewind" not always available? Crazy stuff!

     

    I thought for sure we would recover our files because we are on a paid DropBox, you know, you have 180 days to get them back. Not the case for us, we have lost the lot.

     

    Now for the task of compiling what data we have on other devices. We won't be solely trusting DropBox with our data from now on.

     

    Lesson learned the hard way.

17 Replies

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  • bonn88's avatar
    bonn88
    Explorer | Level 4
    3 years ago

    Hello, I have sent two separate emails requesting help with my missing files but I have not received a ticket ID. Please help!

    Thank you.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    As you're not receiving the email via the site, in order to look into this matter in more detail, would it be possible for us to reach out to the email associated with your forum profile?

  • bonn88's avatar
    bonn88
    Explorer | Level 4
    3 years ago

    Yes, please contact me at that email address.

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hey bonn88, I just sent you an email, so we can continue from there.

     

    Thanks!

  • Graham's avatar
    Graham
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    3 years ago

    Hi bonn88,

     

    Thank you for visiting us here on the Dropbox Community. I hope you are well. I noticed you were having some issues with deleted files earlier this month and I just wanted to follow up with you here as I know exactly how frustrating it can be to unexpectedly lose some files. I see that your conversation moved to email so I was wondering if you had managed to recover the files you were looking for? If you're still experiencing difficulties in locating them, please let us know and we'll do whatever we can to help.

     

    Thanks again, and have a great day!

     

    Graham

  • Toonbox's avatar
    Toonbox
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    I have the same case. The problem is that I can see the event in the list, but I have no links connected to this case or any other way to undo this action. Just the list of actions. 

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