Does 'delete everywhere' mean that if I delete a file, it will get deleted for other people too?

[Sharon4470]

Still getting use to using Dropbox, so hopefully not to much of a silly question. When I go to delete a "on-line file only" to save hard drive space, it states 'delete everywhere' does this mean the file can no longer be opened/viewed to the person I have previously sent it to? I've been using Dropbox for about 2.5 years, but I have to keep my files for a minimum of 5 years. So if I delete everywhere does this mean no-one can view that file again?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

@Sharon4470 wrote:

When I go to delete a "on-line file only" to save hard drive space, it states 'delete everywhere' does this mean the file can no longer be opened/viewed to the person I have previously sent it to?

It just means that if you delete the file from your Dropbox, it will be deleted from your account and from any other device your account syncs to. It won't delete it for anyone you've sent it to, but it will delete it for other people if you're deleting it from a shared folder that has other members.

[Sharon4470]

Thanks soo much for reply. You have solved my issue.

[tambourineman]

Nope,  """" delete everywhere"""  does not do that.  At most it deletes it on the device where the file or folder ios deleted and then other devices repopulate Dropbox with the deleted tiems.  Very annoying as well as simply just wrong.

[Rich]

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@tambourineman wrote:

Nope,  """" delete everywhere"""  does not do that.  At most it deletes it on the device where the file or folder ios deleted and then other devices repopulate Dropbox with the deleted tiems.  Very annoying as well as simply just wrong.

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No, that's not correct. Dropbox is a sync service. If you delete a file on one device it's deleted on all devices linked to that account, and it's deleted for all members of a share if deleted from a shared folder.

If you're deleting a file and it's coming back on its own, it's because some device was unable to delete the file when told to do so (it was open or otherwise locked). Dropbox thinks the file is re-added and syncs it again. The problem is with the device that was unable to delete the file; not Dropbox. Use the file's version history to determine which machine keeps adding it back, then look for a problem on that device.