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My Dropbox account went over-quota, while syncing, and my folders are now empty.
Hi,
I transferred multiple folders and files to my basic account, and everything appeared to sync correctly. However, once my storage limit was reached, I stopped seeing the files — the folders looked empty on my computer.
Although I deleted a significant number of files to free up space, the folders still appear empty. Even when I select "Make available offline" and see the green checkmark, the contents don't show up locally.
I'm not sure if the files are stuck in the cloud or if there's a sync issue preventing them from appearing on my computer.
Can someone please advise?
Thanks,
Natali
If the account was over quota, then it means that any new files, or edits to files, wouldn't sync these changes to the Dropbox site, meaning that there would be no history for Dropbox to recover the files from.
Since there doesn't appear to be any history in the system, likewise there wouldn't be any history for our team to recover files on our end.
17 Replies
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- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Okay, so it has been almost 30 days since the last upload, which would be the version history for a Dropbox Basic plan.
As you're not seeing the missing files on the events or deleted files page, then there's a few possibilities as to why this might be the case:
- The files are on another Dropbox account
- The files were deleted outside of the 30 day period
- The files were permanently deleted
Are any of the above options a possibility for these files?
- No, I am sure this is the correct account.
- I did not delete anything at any stage.Is there truly nothing I can do? 😞
Usually, when I'm over quota, is there anything happening in the background that isn’t visible to me?- Jay
If the account was over quota, then it means that any new files, or edits to files, wouldn't sync these changes to the Dropbox site, meaning that there would be no history for Dropbox to recover the files from.
Since there doesn't appear to be any history in the system, likewise there wouldn't be any history for our team to recover files on our end.
The issue is that I did not receive any notifications about being over quota until several days later. At the time, everything looked normal and all the files appeared to be there, so I had no idea anything was wrong.
Is there any way to see exactly when the account went over quota?
- Jay
Currently, there isn't a method to see what date your account went overquota, even on our end.
Is it possible that the files were deleted from another computer entirely, while connected to your account, outside of the version history?
Do you have any apps or services that could automatically move or delete files from the Dropbox folder?
At this point, since the files don't appear to be on the Dropbox site, I'd recommend looking into some third party recovery software to locate and attempt to restore the files deleted from your computer.
I had to return my work computer, so I backed up my personal files to Dropbox. After that, I signed out and deleted the Dropbox app from the computer. Then the computer was formatted. If the Dropbox folder was deleted along with the files in it, I would have expected everything to be removed from my Dropbox account. But I still see some files there, and while most of the folders remain, they’re empty.
- Mark
Super User II
If the Dropbox folder was deleted along with the files in it, I would have expected everything to be removed from my Dropbox account
That would only happen if the folder was actively deleted while logged in and the software was running. If it was simply handed device in and formatted as Dropbox isnt running it wouldnt delete them - as Dropbox doesnt even know its been deleted.
