Disappearing files

[margam]

My files were not syncing automatically. When I transferred them to Dropbox, they disappeared from my PC. I wanted Dropbox as a backup, not an alternative to my files saving on my PC. What am I doing wrong and how do I get them back on my PC?

[Walter]

Hi @margam; thanks for posting on our Community!

Can you walk me through the exact steps you took when you first set this up? 

Are you able to find your files on our website at all? 

Any additional information will be much appreciated! 

[margam]

When I first installed Dropbox in early March, everything backed up automatically. It also appeared to change the path on my computer to my documents. Yesterday I noticed none of my files on Dropbox had been updated so I transferred them from my hard drive. Rather than backing them up everything moved from my hard drive to Dropbox and was no longer on my computer. As far as I can tell, everything is now in Dropbox.

[Walter]

I see; thanks for the additional details @margam.

If you'd like to disable the computer backup feature, you can follow the steeps outlined in this Help Center article. 

Let me know how it goes!

[margam]

No. I'd like to ENABLE the automatic backup feature but not lose the files on my computer by doing so. They only backed up automatically when I installed Dropbox and when I transferred them manually, they disappeared from my computer.