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paintSmart's avatar
paintSmart
New member | Level 2
2 months ago

Some of my files appear as 0 bytes and I can't open them/restore a previous version.

Hello All, Starting sometime this week, a large number of files in one of my folders are showing as "0 bytes" and I obviously cannot read them. I'm synchronising the folder with my mac, and thoug...
desktop
Mac
restore
Web
Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 months ago

Thanks for posting this on our forum, paintSmart​! 

Are your files showing as 0 bytes both on your desktop app and the Dropbox website?

Can you send me a screenshot of how these files currently show in your local Dropbox folder? I'd like to check their syncing icons and make sure they're not online-only (in which case they wouldn't be taking up space from your local device).

If you’re on a Basic/Plus plan, which offer a 30-day file version history and you haven’t used those files in months, then it most likely won’t be possible to restore a previous version of them. However, I'd like us to look into this further first to make sure there's not something else going on. 

Let me know what you find, and we'll go from there.

  • paintSmart's avatar
    paintSmart
    New member | Level 2
    2 months ago

    Hi Nancy!

    Attached is a screenshot, they just show as 0 bytes on both my mac and also on the website

    but you can see some of the files are working correctly.

    I don't think this is 30 day file issue. I think the data somehow got corrupt on dropbox. Why would going to the Version history page cause an error? (The Version History page also doesn't work for files which are working.)

    In the events page i cannot see any events to do with those files.

    Thanks again for your help

    • Nancy's avatar
      Nancy
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      2 months ago

      Thanks for the extra info! Have you tried accessing their version history via a different browser and the Dropbox website still gives you an error? If it does, please send me a screenshot of it, as well.

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