How do I restore a folder that's been corrupted by ransomware?

[Dr-PC]

A bad program renamed all my files in a folder and its subfolders.  It appears to be OK in the cloud and I have turned off updating.  How do I download the good folder in the cloud to replace the corrupted one on my main drive?

[Hannah]

Hi and sorry to see you're having this issue, @Dr-PC.

If your Dropbox files have been corrupted by some kind of ransomware, you'll need to follow the steps in this article.

That should allow you to safely restore the folder back to your Dropbox.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Dr-PC]

I did what you said.  But, rather than deleting the folder from my Dropbox on my computer, I renamed it.  I expected that, after rebooting and making sure that Dropbox started again, the OK folder would download back to my computer.  It didn't and does not show up anywhere in Dropbox!

BTW, it was not ransomware that renamed all those files.

So, where is my folder now?

John

[Jay]

Hi @Dr-PC, is it possible that you enabled selective sync for that folder to not appear on your machine?

What OS are you running on your computer, and does the folder name have any invalid characters in it?

[Dr-PC]

It was not ransomware that renumbered the file names.

The file was not deselected in selective sync.  It should always appear in my "master" computer.

Looking at the web site, I can't find that folder at all anymore.  I have identified that there are some new files in there I need.  What is the procedure for finding the missing folder and restoring it to my main computer?

[Dr-PC]

The foldername starts with a symbol - #, not defined as a special character in your documentation.

[Hannah]

Hey @Dr-PC, are you able to see the folder in question in your events page?

[Dr-PC]

I see the thousands of files that were renamed (adds and deletes) on 2/25 starting at 10:13 am.  How can I use this (not manually) to restore all the deleted files?  I can worry about deleting the numbered ones later.

[Megan]

Hi @Dr-PC, you should be able to click on an event page that you want to restore, and then see the restore button on the top, right part of the page. 

Can you give this one a go?

[Dr-PC]

Yes, but not for the page, just if I click first on a particular file.  There could be 1,000 or more files involved...  Is there an automated way of doing this?

I copied the history file which contains information about each filename and the new file number.  I am thinking of writing a program to inspect that file and rename the numbered files in my computer.  The newly renamed files will migrate into the cloud and I can erase the old numbered files.

By the way, I forget how to view the Events pages, other than using your link.  Can you refresh my memory?

Thanks for the help!

John