ALL MY FILES ARE MISSING!

[FLHowe]

I have not deleted anything, and every, single one of my file folders is empty. I had a LOT of important graphic design work in those folders and it is ALL GONE. How do I get it back? I did NOT delete any of it. I have not changed my subscription, or anything else. The files have just disappeared. 

Please help! 

[FLHowe1]

I did that yesterday. Submitted a support ticket. Hopefully they can help me. 

[Mark]

Dropbox cannot delete your files. It doesnt have the code or capability to do so.

Sometimes 'events' doesnt show up large events. Or, it groups them with other events so it isnt obvious.

In terms of your ticket you can track at http://dropbox.zendesk.com

[FLHowe]

Well, not sure what happened then. There is no way I bulk deleted more than 100 files all at once. They are simply gone. All of my file folders are empty. 

[Jane]

Hey @FLHowe & @BenTan, 

I'm here to follow-up on the matter and your open support requests. 

Please keep in mind that deletion events can sometimes happen when someone reorganizes files in a new location or moves them to their desktop. Since the files are no longer in the Dropbox folder, those changes are synced to both the website and other connected devices.

Secondly, please keep in mind that deletions may occur if the Dropbox folder is placed on an external drive and it gets disconnected accidentally without being unlinked, since this is perceived by Dropbox as moving files to a different location. 

If you've already written in to us on the case, I’d be glad to follow-up on your open tickets and make sure that a colleague gets on them soon. Please let me know your a ticket number in your reply here. It's a 7 digit number, which you can find on the email heading that you receive soon after you submit your support request. 

Will be awaiting your messages here, 

JaneA

[FLHowe1]

So you are saying, that if I uploaded all of these files to my DropBox account, which my understanding it is a file storage solution, like Google Drive, but then deleted them off of my hard drive on my laptop, that somehow DropBox knows I deleted them off of my hard drive and automatically deletes them from my DropBox account without any notification? 

If this is true, than I really regret using DropBox. I put these files there to store for a reason, because my laptop was too full. Because yes, I did delete them off of my hard drive, in order to make room. Hence why I used what I thought to be an external storage place. 

I submitted a ticket a few days ago, and have received no response. 

[Mark]

Yes - because THAT is the whole point of Dropbox. Dropbox is NOT an external storage provider. So when you put them inside the Dropbox folder you only moved the folder they were in on your hard drive. Dropbox is a syncing tool. It is designed so that everything is on every device at all times..... see how easy it is then to 'bulk delete more than 100 files at once' 🙂

As an aside. Once things have uploaded you could of course use Selective Sync to remove them locally, but, leave them on the cloud only: www.dropbox.com/help/175

[FLHowe1]

Well that is just awesome. I have lost all my files then. Just awesome. 

[Mark]

Two things.... if you waited until a green tick they will be recoverable from within Dropbox (moving them in to the Dropbox folder does not upload them - that takes time after that). So they may be recoverable.... possibly unlikely though if nothing appears on Events etc. as it sounds like you simply havent given it time.

Seconde thing - when you delete from your computer they go to the Trash/Recycle bin, so, just restore from there 🙂

[FLHowe1]

These are files that have been stored there for many months. I removed these files from my Mac six months ago. So no, It's not a matter of "waiting a tick." According to DropBox, deleted files are stored for 30 days. This is not a new problem where I "just" deleted the files from my hard drive. 

As I stated, I deleted them off my hard drive of my laptop to make room. Which means I also emptied my recycle bin on my MAC so no, they aren't there. 

I didn't have them stored any place else, because I thought DropBox was actually making a copy of them so I had them in another spot. "Upload file" makes it sound like they are actually saving the files. It doesn't say "Sync files" 

When I went through the Events tab, there is no record of me deleting the files. None. The file folders are all there, all the content is gone. 

I guess it's my mistake for not understanding what the hell DropBox is for. Now I know, and I won't be using it ever again. I lost three year's worth of work and the logo I designed for my six year-old son, who is a cancer survivor.  

[Mark]

Ouch 😞

Lesson learnt the hard way - always check what you are doing (and dont assume) and have secondary backups.