Reorganizing Files on Laptop - Dropbox Paper Files now Deleted

[CMM27]

Hi - pretty urgent issue here so I'll try to be thorough:

Today I spent some time reorganizing the files on my macbook, and as I planned to start using Dropbox for specific file/media types, I started by dragging all the contents of my synced "Dropbox" folder to my macbook's local desktop folder. This seemed to go as expected.

I then remembered that I had paused Dropbox's auto-sync and thus the files would still exist in my account, so I used the web app to delete them from Dropbox itself. I wanted to be sure my account was empty before I began selectively re-adding files and turning auto-sync back on.

Here's where we get to the issue.

The files which were drag and dropped into my desktop folder included 15-20 Dropbox Paper files. The .paper files still appear in those folders which were moved, but when I click them and the browser opens, Dropbox returns a 404. If I open the locally installed Paper app, they all appear in the side bar, but when i click one the screen prompts me to ask permission to access it.

I've tried searching Deleted Files for them on the website, but they're not showing up. A search query of type:paper only shows a single document - one that was shared with me by someone else.

How can I recover these Paper files? Many of them include important work notes that don't exist anywhere else.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: If it's helpful/necessary I could also send over the files' URLs or their IDs (e.g. dropbox.com/cloud_docs/view/{id}) so someone can have a look.

[Jay]

Hi @CMM27, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Paper files don't have any local content, as those files in Finder are only shortcuts to the Dropbox site where the Paper file would exist, so it isn't possible to recover them from the computer.

You then mentioned that you already deleted the files from the site. Did you permanently delete them using these steps?

This will help me to assist further!

[CMM27]

Hi Jay,

Yes I was able to gather that by opening them in VSCode, which showed the URL/access token for each file.

I did not permanently delete anything - I just marked the checkbox for each folder appearing in the Dropobox GUI and pressed 'delete'.

Every other file is in my Deleted Files folder but I can't find any of the Paper documents.

Thanks

[Hannah]

Hey @CMM27, can you also take a look in your events page?

Are you able to locate the deletion event(s) for those Paper docs?

[CMM27]

Tens of thousands of individual documents were deleted so unfortunately scrolling til the end of the earth looking for it isn't really an option. And the search bar just goes back to searching existing files.

What do you suggest?

Edit: And for the record, I did successfully open more than one of these documents earlier in the day/week, so I know for certain that the deletion happened yesterday and not >30 days ago where they'd no longer appear in Deleted Files.

[Nancy]

@CMM27, if you go back to your Events page and click on the “All events” dropdown menu (on the right side of your screen), you can type in “paper” and select the relevant deletion events, so that you can restore your Paper docs without scrolling all the way down the list.

Let me know if that helps at all.

[CMM27]

Clicking the dropdown doesn't expose a text field. It only displays the 'all events' option and nothing else – screenshot attached

[Nancy]

Even in this case, you can start typing, right after clicking on the “All events” option, and you should see the search results change according to what you’ve typed. I know it can be a bit confusing, as there’s no text field indeed.

[CMM27]

I did try that earlier, and again now, and I can confirm that does not work.

When the button is clicked, the dropdown appears. I start typing and nothing happens. There is no feedback in the GUI, the list of events does not filter or change at all, etc.

[Jay]

Were these Paper files owned by you, or were they created by other users? Were they in private or shared folders?