Dropbox has deleted ALL my computer files!!

[Cecileutk]

Dropbox has deleted all my files...

I've managed to restore some of my music files, but far away from all.

All my animation projects and photos are all gone...

What the **** is going on!?

Please help, I'm literally crying!

[Daphne]

Hi @Cecileutk, I'm sorry to hear about the situation!

Just so that I can have a better understanding of the issue here, can you let me know what actions you took before this happened?

Is it possible that you enabled the computer backup when installing the desktop app, for example?

If you can walk me through the actions you took before this happened, this will be very helpful in knowing how to assist further.

Let me know - thanks!

[Cecileutk]

Hi,

Thanks.

I don't think I did, never saw it as an option.

But can dropbox just delete everything like that?

I didn't have enough space and it just started syncing, so I stopped syncing. I deleted my desktop in Dropbox and restored whatever was synced it to the computer, and everything dissapeard else dissapeard.

All the green ticked folders have no items, just the folders but nothing in them. The folders with a blue badge with two white arrows are the only ones with items in it...

And those synced folders, are abselutely nothing compared to whats deleted.

Hope you can help..

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to me here @Cecileutk!

It sounds like you might have indeed enabled the backup, was the Desktop folder within a folder called "My PC/Mac (device name)"?

If so, then the Desktop folder will have been syncing with Dropbox which means that when you deleted the files from the Desktop folder in Dropbox, it was deleted from your actual desktop folder.

However, you should be able to restore these files from your Recycling/Trash bin on your computer.

Just to clarify, when you mentioned that you stopped syncing, did you pause sync with the steps outlined here, or use another method like uninstalling the app?

If you simply paused the sync of the app then I I would suggest to disable the backup feature with the steps outlined at the bottom of this article to prevent the folders being backed up again.

Let me know if this helps!