My files were deleted, but not everything is coming back, in order to restore them. Why?

[Flipperchick]

Just logged into Dropbox and all my files are deleted. Have most definitely not deleted them myself. I have 2FA on. No sign in notifications received on date that files appear to have been deleted. Subscription all paid up. I have been restoring from Deleted Files folder but not everything is coming back. Has this happened to anyone else?

[Stevecaplan]

Just happened to me as well. Just a few and was able to recover them, but I definitely did not delete them

[Mark]

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@Stevecaplan wrote:
Just happened to me as well. Just a few and was able to recover them, but I definitely did not delete them

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Something connected to your device did - Dropbox cannot do it on its own. 

One thing to check is to go to one of the restored items and click on 'restore previous versions'. Then look where the deletion was initiated from. That device is the one that did it - so is that one using an external drive as an example

[Jay]

Hi @Stevecaplan, there are many potential reasons for file deletion. This thread can give you some pointers as to where to look, after following the information @Mark provided.

[1950bassguy]

Hi,  This exact thing just occurred to me...  I am on the free Basic account though.  I use Dropbox to stage music between my computer and iPad and to back up OnSong on my iPad.   I have not been in Dropbox for about 2 weeks.  Signed in today to move some files... and everything was gone, zero storage in use... None of the errors listed by others have occurred to me.. files are just gone.    I am in the process of restoring what I can. 

[Hannah]

Hey @1950bassguy, sorry to hear about this.

As a first thing, can you please make sure that you've signed in to the correct Dropbox account?

If you did, what do you see in your events page about this?

[teedubzone]

I'm gonna jump in here cause the same thing has happened to me four times now. When I go on the Events page, I see the 30,000 or so files that my external hard drive (connected to my macbook pro) have deleted. I open that list and hit restore and then wait for about 40 minutes. I can solve the problem but it is such an intense time waster and hassle when I sit down to get some work done. And I find it hard to believe that this "just happens when the external drive gets disconnected" (said earlier in this thread by another Dropbox employee). My friend has no problem disconnecting his external hard drive with dropbox stored on it. His files don't delete.

[teedubzone]

And then after that part, I have to wait an additional 4 hours for Dropbox to finish indexing the files.

[Rich]

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@teedubzone wrote:

And I find it hard to believe that this "just happens when the external drive gets disconnected" (said earlier in this thread by another Dropbox employee).

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That is a very real possibility and the main reason why its suggested that you NOT store your Dropbox folder on an external, removable or networked drive. If the drive becomes disconnected while Dropbox is running, or if Dropbox is started before the drive is connected, Dropbox can see that as a mass deletion which it will sync to your account online.