Half of my desktop files are missing !!!

[elirassy]

Hi everyone, 

I just installed the app on my pc, and i accidentally chose its location to be my own desktop, sure enough dropbox started syncing my whole desktop. 

I was alerted to this and tried to solve it quickly with selective sync, ticked off desktop which did not work and it continued syncing everything that was on there. 

I deleted the whole synced desktop for the dropbox website, which left my own local files intact and in place, restarted dropbox, which then after started moving all my local files from my desktop to the box, ticked off the pc backup option and the app restored only HALF of my files. The rest are nowhere to be found, not locally, not on the box, and not in the deleted files folder in the box. 

What can i do?? please help !!!

[Jay]

Hi @elirassy, thanks for messaging today!

I understand your concern over the missing files on your computer.

When you disabled the automatic computer backup feature in the Dropbox desktop application, did you get an option to move the folders and files back to their previous locations?

If the missing files aren't showing up on the deleted files page online, then it wouldn’t be possible to recover them from the site. 

However, it might be possible to recover the files from the local machine from the recycle bin, or using a third party app or service to do so.

Keep me updated with any progress!

[elirassy]

Hello @Jay, and thank you for the reply. Since it can't be found in my recycle bin nor on dropbox, i am trying third party apps to recover the files. I have tried contacting support about the issue with no luck (apparently technical support by phone is only available if you have a paid subscription) \, and in the activity menu on dropbox does not even show a record of the files.

I think it bugged out when i switched off the backup option, returned just half of the files(im estimating, my desktop was full now i have only about half of it). It was really bad watching my desktop getting deleted in 2 secs and being able to do nothing about it. And i'm highly regretting downloading the app which i did just a couple of hours ago. 

[elirassy]

And i forgot to answer your question, no it did not give me an option concerning the location of the files. 

[Jay]

In this instance, it sounds like the missing files weren't synced to the site, which is why you can't recover them from there.

It's possible they might still be on the file system on the computer, so third party apps might help in recovering the data.

[elirassy]

It's impossible that they did not sync, the files did disappear from my desktop right in front of my eyes, and just unchecking the backup option they started returning. Third party apps did not restore anything (even tried raw file recovery), and i'm still waiting for the technical support to reply to my email.

I simply can't comprehend who's idea was it to make the app sync the whole desktop when we only get 2 gbs in the free account, probably to sell more subscriptions i'm gonna guess.