files and folder in Windows Quick Access but not in dropbox

[timbitsandbytes]

I've been using dropbox the last several months, in the pic you'll see I circled the folder in quick access called "2020". In the Recent Files - the path is clear, it should be C:\Users\<user>\Dropbox\KEYW\expenses\2020. 

But in the Dropbox app you can also see "KEYW" doesn't have any subfolders. 

I've checked:

• searched for all pdf' s. I don't have many recent to search.
• the deleted files for my account. 
• the "events" for my account.
• the .dropbox.cache

None of the above turned up anything. What else can I do?

[Vicker]

Hi @timbitsandbytes ,

I would suggest you check out whether Dropbox is running correctly first by checking the Dropbox icon in the system tray.

Check the status of file sync and uploads

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/sync-time

Cheers

Vicker

[timbitsandbytes]

Sorry, I wasn't clear about that. I checked the sync queue, it's up to date, there are no sync issues listed. 

[Vicker]

How about if you go to dropbox.com in a web browser? Can you see the sub folders there?

[timbitsandbytes]

I have looked on Dropbox.com and verified the files and folders aren’t there. When I mentioned earlier that I looked deleted files and events and searched, all of that was via a browser.

[Vicker]

May I ask if you tried to check the file properties of the folder "KEYW" under Dropbox? I am not a Windows user, but it should be available by right-clicking "KEYW" followed by "Properties".

[Jay]

Hi @timbitsandbytes, since quick access is a Windows feature, it might not reflect the current location of a folder as it appears elsewhere. If you click on the 2020 shortcut, where does it lead you? Do you get an error, or a specific location in the URL?

Depending on your plan, your version history and events page might not show all events since your account began, so the changes to the file structure and folders might have occurred before the period you can view on the site.

Are you able to locate the folder itself in the search bar, or on the events page?

[timbitsandbytes]

To answer your question, when I click on the shortcuts to these files I get the error that it's missing and or moved:

Previously I've done a search through my entire Windows drive for these files, thinking that I might've moved them around. But the only files that show up are the ones in 2 different "recent" locations. The shortcuts for these files in "C:\Users\tmckernan\Recent" and "C:\Users\tmckernan\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent" both point to this missing dropbox folder. See the pic for the list of Recent shortcuts to missing file locations.

Regarding the events page and search bar on dropbox.com - no, I cannot locate the files in the search bar or in the events. 

OK, I have the basic plan and I see that my dropbox file history goes back 30 days. These files were last modified in April, 2020, so there's too much time for me to that history, nor do I remember enough to say definitively what I did or didn't do.

Thanks for your help, everyone. I'll just chalk this up to a combination of not having enough history to restore, plus PEBKAC since I can't remember what I did.