Problem after HDD failure

[iveta4677]

Hi, I hope someone can help me please!

I had a Dropbox Plus account for which I paid the subscription on 12 October 2020.

My hard disk crashed in mid November and I lost a lot of data.

I fitted a new hard disk and then could not find my account details.

So for my own peace of mind I opened a new Dropbox Basic account and backed up a small amount of files.

Now I have found the original account details but when I try to log in I can’t.

Can anyone help please?

Tkanks in advance

Chris

[Jay]

Hi @iveta4677, thanks for contacting us!

Could you clarify what error you're getting when attempting to login to your Dropbox Plus account? Are you able to reset the password for the Dropbox account?

Any other info or screenshots would be helpful!

[iveta4677]

Thanks for response, Jay.

After my hard disc crash and fresh setup, I set up my ‘new’ Dropbox account using the same email address (doh!) and I wonder if that is the problem?

When I log in using the correct email address and try the ‘old’ password I get the message as on the left. Using the 'new' password results in the account opening but I have only 2GB of storage.

If I change the password I still won’t be able to log in as I have two accounts with same log in but different passwords and logging in to change it will just log me in to the 2GB account.

If I change the login (even if that's possible) I still won't be able to get in to the old account as the password isn't recognised.

I still have the elsewhere backed up original data copies and really all I want is to reinstate my Dropbox Plus status I paid for in October 2020.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Chris

[Jay]

If you were able to login into your account using a different email, and no files or earned quota in it, then it sounds like you created a new account, and the previous one was deleted or deactivated. 

Have you tried to locate the paid account using the card lookup tool, in case it was under another email you're not aware of?

[iveta4677]

Hi Jay, you were right all along about my email address!

Thanks for suggesting the card lookup tool ! With this, I have found most of the answer and have almost solved my problem!

By using the tool I found which email address I had used and, just as you suggested, I HAD used a different one! Doh! again!

I have opened the 'old' account and lo and behold, it's all there. Phew!

I just need a bit more advice, please. What I want to do now is set up so that the 'old' account is the one I want to use.

Can you advise on that please?

Thanks so, so much for you help.

Cheers

Chris

[Jay]

Glad to hear you found the old account, @iveta4677!

If you're referring to linking your old account to the Dropbox desktop application, you first need to unlink the current account from the Accounts tab in Preferences.

Once that's done, the app will now show no files and ask you to sign in, which you can do with the correct email address and password for the old account.

Afterwards, allow time for the files to sync down to your machine from the site, and thne you can begin to work on thme.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

[iveta4677]

Hi again Jay,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I have logged into my 'new' account but I cannot find an 'Unlink' tab in Preferences/Accounts.

I can find a delete account tab and I am considering doing that and then logging in to my 'old' 2GB account and checking which is latest file.

(Meanwhile I have backed up 'new' Dropbox files locally!)

I am wondering if there is no Unlink tab because I have only ONE acccount under that email login?

Regards

Chris

[Jay]

Are you viewing this in the Dropbox desktop application in the system tray/menu bar, or via the website? The delete account option is only available from the site, so I wouldn't recommend clicking that.

You should only have the option to sign out when viewing the desktop app.