The account appears to have been deleted without a warning.

chlojito wrote:

I'm just thinking, surely they have backups, right?

If an account is removed due to inactivity, or, files are deleted and not recovered within the recovery window (30 days for free users) there is no recovery possible. The files are removed - you are warned this repeatedly on the emails sent. 

Dropbox removes data for inactivity, or, being over quota - that was something which came in awhile ago but would have been in different emails to your downgrade one. 

I have just upgraded again to the 2TB paid option and the photos have appeared back. It seems I can only access them when paying.

Hi Megan,

I don't recall the last time I accessed my account; I have it linked to the app on my phone so the camera uploads happen automatically—does that count?

I tried to log in using my usual email/password combination, and it appears to be a brand new account now, with no files at all. No signs of anything in the events page; as in, there are zero events, it's a blank slate. 

I'm so frightened I've lost everything; I've already started grieving all those lost memories. Please, can you let me know if there's any way we can roll things back? Surely they're all still on a server somewhere? I used to pay for the account, and I've had it for many years, maybe there's a backup somewhere?

I can't have lost everything. I don't know what I'll do. Please let me know?

HI chlojito, when you say you had it connected to your phone, do you mean prior to the recent login?

From what you've described, it sounds like the account has been deleted, meaning that it wouldn't be possible to recover the account or the files within. 

Do you have any other devices that could've been connected to your account prior to now, in order to try to recover any local data from there?

I have, but that email address like I said, created a new account unfortunately. 

that would be great as I still have hope this can be recovered! 🥹

Hey Sivmo, you can actually contact our support team yourself, by following these steps:

1. Open a private browsing/incognito window on your browser
2. Without logging in to your Dropbox account, go to this page
3. Fill out the form and submit your request

When you have your ticket number, please send it along to us as well.

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies. I’ve been too depressed to log in here in fear of there being no solution.

i didn’t receive any emails,Megan​. Please, is there anyway? I’d pay any amount of money to recover those photos… so many of my grandparents that I now longer have, and they’ve since passed away. I was uploading them here to keep them safe; I thought I was being smart. I don’t think I’ll handle it well if they’re lost forever. My husband has suggested perhaps there are back-ups somewhere (not that he’s an expert, obviously—just trying to give me hope, I think).

please do let me know?

Best,

Chloé

chlojito wrote:

My husband has suggested perhaps there are back-ups somewhere (not that he’s an expert, obviously—just trying to give me hope, I think).

There arent I'm afraid. Once an account is removed its permanent. Can you imagine the legal complaints and ramifications if they say they have deleted all data permanently and then it transpires they havent? 

There could have been a slim chance maybe a day or so after removal, but, after 5 months thats not happening I'm afraid. Even paid accounts (i.e ones paying at the time) only get a 6 month recovery window and unfortunately you've waited 5 months to follow up the thread. 

HI chlojito, as Mark said, by now it wouldn't be possible to recover any files from a Dropbox account, let alone one that was deactivated or deleted.

The only possibility remaining for you is if you had a device that was once connected to your account, which hasn't yet synced to Dropbox. The device should still have those files on the hard drive.