We Want to Hear From You! What Do You Want to See on the Community? Tell us here!

Forum Discussion

eam3666's avatar
eam3666
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago

Zero bytes files - can I restore them somehow?

Is there a chance to recover files downloaded from Dropbox to a local computer six months ago that show as zero bytes? In the past, when I finished teaching a class, I removed the class materials and stored them on an external hard drive for the following year. I didn't realize that the folder with the class materials I had on dropbox was "online only," when I transferred the folder, all files were listed as size zero bytes. It has been six months since I moved the files, so I cannot recover them from my dropbox. Is there any way to still recover them?

 

Thanks!

4 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi eam3666, sorry to hear about this.

     

    When you say you removed the materials, can you let us know how exactly?Al

     

    Apart from that, what's stopping you from restoring them from Dropbox? Can you please clarify if you're able to find those files on your account online, be it in the deleted files page or the events page

     

    Also, what plan are you on at the moment?  

     

    Let us know and we'll take it from there. 

  • eam3666's avatar
    eam3666
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    Walter,

        I'm sorry that I was not clear in my posting. Last year, I downloaded the folder with all my lecture files from my Dropbox space and stored it on an external hard disk. I then erased the folder from Dropbox. As I'm saying this, I realize that I will probably be unable to recover these files, as it has been about six months since I did this. I've had a dropbox account for several years, and I have done this download when I finish a semester. I realize that Dropbox has changed how it stores files, but I didn't realize that I could lose all my files.

     

    Thanks!

     

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

    Hi eam3666, it does sound like it wouldn't be possible to recover those files since they were deleted so long ago from the Dropbox site. 

     

    In the future, we'd recommend downloading the files to another internal drive location, ensure that they have the correct size to them, and then move them to an external drive afterwards.

     

    I'm sorry I can't be more helpful on this matter.

  • eam3666's avatar
    eam3666
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    Thank you, Jay. I figured I could not do much, but I just wanted to be sure. I wish Dropbox had a warning to check the files' size when doing something like that.

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.

Need More Support

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 or Facebook.

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!