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Why did all of my files disappear?

Why did all of my files disappear?

Mark H.2
New member | Level 1
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A folder that is owned by me and shared with two others is now empty. What happened to all of my image files? How do I get them back?

2 Accepted Solutions

Accepted Solutions

Rich
Super User II
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As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?

That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.

 

 

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Rich
Super User II
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@rjothvas wrote:

... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...


How long is a while? If an account remains idle for more than a year, Dropbox will remove it, which also removes all files from the system.

 


... and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use Installer

Is it possible that you started a new account, instead of signing into your old one? If the old one had been removed and you installed with the same email address, you would have started a new, empty account.

 


are my files now all gone?  If not, where are they?

If you're signing in with the same email address and the account is empty, then it's likely as I described above. Otherwise you can try checking the Events page and Deleted Files to see if the files are there, or see if it lists what happened. If both pages are empty (aside from anything new you've done), then you're in a new account.

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104 Replies 104

Robert D.2
New member | Level 1
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I had the same problem and submitted a help ticket. They responded with wrote answer thinking it's user error but I have seen several other reporting similar issue. They also had a file deletion bug last October 2014 (see link below). Yesterday thousands of files in a shared folder were deleted from Dropbox account for all shared users. It shows it was done from my computer when I look at the deleted files but I was using my computer at the timestamp and not deleting thousands of files. When I go to the Events page on Dropbox it does not show this deletion event. Something happened on Dropbox's end. I have submitted a help ticket and I hope they own up to this and fix it.

http://www.cnet.com/news/dropbox-fixes-file-deletion-bug-offers-year-of-free-service/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/13/dropbox-selective-sync-bug/

http://betanews.com/2014/10/13/cloud-burst-dropbox-confirms-bug-deleted-user-files/

http://www.fastcompany.com/3037055/elasticity/dropbox-bug-deletes-user-files

Megan K.1
New member | Level 1
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I'm having the same problem. Will you please post what DropBox responds to your ticket?

Mark H.2
New member | Level 1
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I do not know how the subfolders and files were deleted. Maybe one of the shared users with "edit" privilege could have unwittingly deleted the contents of the entire main folder. I scoured the Dropbox help pages and found a solution after I submitted a trouble ticket.

Go to the empty folder and click on the trash can icon. It will most likely show all deleted files. Right click on the folder or file and you will see an option to "restore".

Robert D.2
New member | Level 1
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This is how I restored all of my deleted files and folders too. However, it's highly unlikely that several people all simultaneously with shared folders had their files mysteriously deleted on the same day by each having someone with access doing it. It also doesn't explain when I look at the Events tab on the right-hand side of the screen why every other file that I knowingly deleted or added shows in the history but these mysteriously deleted files don't show in the Event history. Clearly this was some bug that happened on Dropbox's side and they haven't taken responsibility for it yet, likely won't if not enough outcry is made and they hear from enough of us to force them to do the right and ethical thing by taking responsibility and making sure it doesn't happen again.

Mark H.2
New member | Level 1
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Robert,
I agree your assessment of mysteriously deleted files is plausible. I solved my problem by viewing the events log that clearly stated one of the individuals with access deleted the folders and files. Fortunately, I was able to completely restore them. However, I have not spoken to this individual and I do not believe she deleted these file intentionally but I do know she was copying (downloading) these files and that's when these files were (most likely) inexplicably deleted.

MDLZ Photo S.
New member | Level 1
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I am missing a massive amount of files. All my folders are still in place but they are ALL empty and my Dropbox folder on my Mac is empty as well because they are synced. 

I am soon screwed! I really need these files and thought Dropbox was a great way to have files on my hard drive and in "the cloud" and now I have NOTHING and can't seem to get connected to anyone at DB. 

I will obviously need a different solution moving forward but that doesn't help me find the 2TB of files I lost!

Mark
Super User II
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https://help.dropbox.com/security/missing-reappearing-corrupted-files

https://help.dropbox.com/security/recover-deleted-files-folders

 

And remember, Dropbox is NOT a replacement for a back up system - no cloud storage ever is. You should ALWAYS have more than one!


 


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Lonna A.
New member | Level 1
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So suddenly folders were missing that I owned, but other people had access to them and show me as a member.  I tried to recover the folder and I recovered it but there was nothing in in!  Event history tells me there are only 4 moments of history and that I joined and left the folder on September 9, 2015 --this folder has been active for over 3 years!  This is happening with multiple folders, what can I do?

Lonna A.
New member | Level 1
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@Mark Mc --yeah, there are no files any more they've just vanished, no history, nothing.  Unbelievable.  Yeah, the cloud is supposed to be my primary back-up!

 

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