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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 the date of creation or deletion was, but I have the file name. Also, I only have one account using my dropbox, so who deleted it is useless. I would do ctrl+f, but dropbox's website only loads a few lines past the bottom of the visible page, so it's useless. And folders change, merge, and get removed over the years so searching by folder is also not helpful. I know I used to be able to search my entire deleted file history by file name a few years ago but haven't needed to recently.
Is there a limit to how far back deleted files are saved? I've been paying for the option sine opening my dropbox account, so in theory I should have access to anything I've ever deleted.
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Search does not work for deleted files for me. It also displays results incorrectly. I was able to successfully restore my file manually but see the screenshots for the results before and after restoring. Notice when I search the exact title "Chad Copher - Weather Report r5", before restoring, search results shows an incorrect name. AFTER the file was restored, the search results ask "Did you mean".
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi simplyvince, happy Tuesday!
Your feedback regarding this has been very valuable and I will endeavor to make sure your voice is heard.
I will pass on your comments to the relevant departments so we can continue to improve.
I hope this helps!
Years of user complaints about this and the best we can get is "Go post this again somewhere else and users can vote on it there!" like this entire thread (one of several on the same complaint) doesn't exist or doesn't matter to you, or an occasional "I'll pass it along and maybe someday if you're lucky and the stars align correctly and we have nothing better to do and the fancy strikes us, maybe the development team will think about implementing this essential feature!"
YOUR USERS ARE COMPLAINING. THEY HAVE BEEN FOR YEARS. WILL YOU LISTEN?
This is downright user-hostile. I need to be able to search for a deleted file by name. I can't understand why DB is so opposed to implementing something so crucial that's been missing for so long.
Meanwhile you're rolling out all kinds of complicated nonessential bells and whistles that have nothing to do with file syncing.
You advertise that we can pay for longer-term file recovery, and then, effectively, provide no practical way to actually do it, unless you have superhuman memory and can remember which of your many thousands of folders it was in and the exact date you deleted it (challenge: try, using just your memory, to recall even the month that you deleted some random file last year), or have time to scroll though a chronological-only list of, in my case, literally hundreds of thousands of deleted files, hoping to find the one needle you need in that unmanageable haystack.Deleted files aren't shown in search results at all anymore. Posts from 2019 mention them being shown in grey under the regular results, but now I get no results shown. No way to search deleted files.
Also, it's a bit silly having the search box at the top of the deleted files page, when it doesn't actually search that page.
