Lost data during DropBox migration old PC to new

[marcdides]

I used DropBox to transfer data from my old HP Windows 10 laptop to my new HP Windows 11 laptop today.

DropBox was recommended by HP as a good method to seemlessly copy the data over.

During reading of the required folders, there was an estimated 38Gb of data to copy. Once the process finished after a few hours,only about 11Gb of data had been created in my Dropbox account. I requested upload of all the recommended folders. One of these was the folder "documents"  that had a number of associated subfolders. These subfolders were not copied and contained a lot of data and to make things worse, the original data and subfolders were deleted from the old PC!! I am trying to run an MS programme on the old machine and it says the startup data no longer exists, nor does the folder its looking for! I have lost so much data!

Can you please help me identify where that data has gone, and why delete the data from the origin machine?

A smoothless transition has now been ruined by using DropBox! I wish i had used memory sticks instead.

[Nancy]

I’m sorry to hear this, @marcdides. 

How exactly did you move your files over from the old device to the new one? Can you walk me through the steps that you took?

Also, please visit this page, and check if you can see the data from your “Documents” folder there.

Let me know what you find!

[marcdides]

I followed the method outlined for copying data from an old PC to a new one.

It was created correctly on the new device as there is a new folder called:

"My Dropbox move"

It contains the following folders:

Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos

These were the folders that I requested for backup. However as mentioned subfolders a few layers down within my old PC's Documents were completely missed!

Not sure how much more info I can give.

I did not authorise my original data to be deleted either from my old PC, and it wouldn't have been so bad if they were just missed!

I am still in shock and now blame myself for naively believing that Dropbox was fit for purpose.

I'm astounded quite frankly with such a fundamental flaw in the software design.

I'm still in shock, and blame myself for believing that Drop Box would provide a seamless transition.

Regards,

Marc

I'm sure the response from DropBox will also be that my data was lost on their cloud server and irretrevieable.

[marcdides]

PS

There was nothing in the backup folder.

[Jay]

Hi @marcdides, are you able to locate any of the deleted files on your account?

[marcdides]

Yes, as described, some of the deleted files were present in the new move folder that was created in Drpbox. But the subfolders below about 4 layers down were deleted without having been copied across into the Dropbox move folder.

[Walter]

Hey @marcdides, sorry to jump in, but do you see any signs of your missing files in your events page perhaps?