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Forum Discussion
sarah copland
4 months agoHelpful | Level 5
I'm trying to gain access to my deceased father's Dropbox account
Hi there,
This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for some time now.
I am trying to gain access to my deceased Dads Dropbox account.
Previously these tickets were raised with Dropbox S...
- 3 months ago
Hi from me too sarah copland - may I ask if you're seeing the same if you navigate to the home tab instead of the photos tab? Are you able to navigate the account in question through a web browser to see if you can preview the files there?
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
4 months agoHi sarah copland, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
I'm sorry for your loss and the situation you're experiencing at this time.
As these are requirements by our security team to allow full access to another Dropbox account, currently, there isn't another method or documentation that can be used to gain access to the Dropbox account.
The only remaining possibility left to you would be if an existing device of theirs was still logged in to their account, thus giving you access to the account directly in order for you to download or copy the data elsewhere.
I hope the details I provided above were helpful, and if you have any further questions, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
sarah copland
4 months agoHelpful | Level 5
Hi Jay
Some progress on this, we have managed to access his account via one of his old devices, and as you suggested it was still logged in! There appears to be hundreds of photos there, however most of the images are greyed out and the message states "This file cant be previewed, to view this file open it on your computer". Have you any suggestions/thoughts as to what the problem could be please? As I said, the images are there just not showing (only a handful are).
Many thanks in advance!
Sarah
- Hannah4 months ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey sarah copland, I'm glad to see that you managed to access the account.
Are you getting this error message when trying to view the files on the Dropbox website?
Do the files that give you this error have their extensions at the end of the name? For example, file name.jpg, file name.png, etc.?
If not, rename them to add the extension and the preview should work.
Let us know if that's not the problem.
- sarah copland4 months agoHelpful | Level 5
Hi Hannah!
Thanks for coming back to me.
Yes, I am getting the error messages in the Dropbox App (on an I-pad) when trying to view the files. I will try your solution this evening and let you know if it works.
Thanks again, Sarah
- Hannah4 months ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Got it, thanks, Sarah!
If what I mentioned is not the issue in your case, please also send me a screenshot of the error, so that we can investigate further.
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