Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

LabelsRus's avatar
LabelsRus
New member | Level 2
7 years ago
Solved

Searching within deleted files

How do I search by file name in deleted files? When I use the search bar it searches not-deleted files, and as far as I can tell all I can do is sort deleted files by date range. I have no clue what ...
desktop
File access
Organize
restore
sort
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    7 years ago
    Hi there, depending on your plan you could have recovery periods from 30 days to 120 days, and potentially longer if you purchased Extended Version History before the new plans came out.
     
    If you use the search bar, the deleted files will appear at the bottom of the list in grey, so you can check those grey files for the one you’re looking for.
     
    Hope this info helps!
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
7 years ago

Hi Dan_, it's still possible to do so.

While on the files page, you can click 'Show deleted files' on the right to show any deleted files, while still viewing your file structure.

If you just want to see deleted files, then you click the link on the left.

Hope this helps!

Dan_'s avatar
Dan_
Helpful | Level 5
7 years ago

Thanks Jay, that is very helpful.  Appreciate the speedy reply!

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

    No worries, glad to have helped out!

    • arigoldfilms's avatar
      arigoldfilms
      Collaborator | Level 10
      7 years ago

      Hi folks, I'm also really baffled how to do this. I've tried clicking "show deleted files" and I get thousands of files.... I try to search for one file called "piano" which I deleted yesterday, and it toggles me back to all my files. I've been going round and round for two hours. I don't understand why I can't search among Deleted Files for a file called "Piano". Can someone please help? I've tried the instructions here. Thanks!

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

        Hi arigoldfilms, sorry to hear about this. 

        If you search for a file using the normal search bar, it will first locate all files that already exist on your account.

        If you scroll down, you'll get to the 'grey' files, which are deleted files. You should be able to locate the file from there, unless it was possibly on a shared folder that you no longer have access to.

        Let me know how it goes and if you can locate the file!

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!