Turning on old computer messed everything up

[mattzzzzz]

Hi,

I recently turned on a computer for the first time in a couple of years, which had dropbox on it. Before I realised what was going on, it had started syncing with my dropbox, adding loads (thousands) of old files which I had long deleted, changing folder structure etc., and I'm pretty sure also deleting some files.

1. Why did this happen? Shouldn't the dropbox be aware that I had deleted the folders/files and hence delete them off my computer's hard drive when I connected it instead of reinstating them into my dropbox?

2. Is there any way to undo this sync (with a free plan) e.g. somehow to go back to the previous state before the sync?

Many thanks for any ideas, this is a totally annoying issue as you can imagine 😄

Mat

[nataschaspeichertbilder]

Hey Mat, 

i could image that the Dropbox folder is stored on your computer's hard drive. In this context, you would need to find out wheter the Dropbox item is only stored online ord locally. Then we can see further...

[mattzzzzz]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I have a dropbox folder on the old computer which synced with and edited my dropbox folder in "the cloud".

I also have my current computer which has the same setup, a local dropbox folder which syncs with the cloud.

So my dropbox in the cloud was changed, not just locally on the old computer. Does that clear it up a bit?

[Здравко]

@mattzzzzzwrote:

...

So my dropbox in the cloud was changed, not just locally on the old computer. Does that clear it up a bit?

Hi @mattzzzzz,

That doesn't clear much! Can you clarify? Your old computer is linked to your account in Dropbox all the time and has never unlinked (logical link). Since the same machine has been offline for long time, no active network link to your Dropbox account. In same time, your account content "in the cloud was changed" and you have changed corresponding folder "locally on the old computer". Is this correct? 🧐

If so, your changes (both locally and in the cloud) gets in sync in condition of conflict. That's where the confusion comes from.

As a solution you can try "Rewind" feature. 😉

Hope this helps.

[Jay]

Hi @mattzzzzz, thanks for contacting us!

This can sometimes occur when you run an old computer with an old version of the Dropbox desktop application.

When this computer started to sync, it added files or folders that were in that computer's Dropbox folder but that were missing online as though they were new files, rather than deleting them from that computer to match the website. It could also result in the deletion of files.

You can use the deleted files page to recover any missing files, on the account, and check the events page to see a list of items that were added and or changed.

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

[mattzzzzz]

Hi, thanks @Jay, you've got the problem right, and the events page is a nice format, thanks for that.

I've checked and found the date and time when the sync happened, the problem is that I had some program files in the dropbox folder (oops) and therefore there are a load of events with 1000s of files, so pretty impossible to find exactly what changed. Would it be possible for support to roll the account back one time to a specific date?

Thanks,

Mat

[Jay]

In order to assist further, would it be possible to contact you at the email address associated with your forum profile?

[mattzzzzz]

@Jayyep that would be fine 🙂

[Jay]

Thanks, I've sent you an email, @mattzzzzz, please could you reply to it as soon as you can!