Will Dropbox delete my files?

[billg4]

My computer recently crashed (bad hard drive). After reinstalling Dropbox (which I didn't need for backups, this time), I saw an option to automatically backup my documents. So I clicked it.

I was expecting to be able to choose which stuff to back up and which stuff not to. Instead, it started backing up everything. So I stopped that. After all, I've only got the free amount of space in Dropbox, and since the instructions say that they'll delete the files on my computer if they're removed from Dropbox, I don't want any more than that!

Now, I get an email from Dropbox that, since I deleted 15,964 files from Dropbox, I only have a limited amount of time before they'll be gone forever. Is Dropbox going to delete 15,964 files from my computer?

Of course, they have no tech support, so I can't ask anyone at the company. I suppose I should uninstall Dropbox, just to be safe, huh? Windows has something called "OneDrive." That's basically the same thing, isn't it?

I'm still putting my computer back together, still trying to find files that should have been backed up in at least two different places (not counting Dropbox, since I just used that as a third backup for a few files). I don't actually have backups going right now, because I need to make sure I've got everything restored first.

So the last thing I want is for Dropbox to delete the files I've actually got restored! Please tell me that this isn't going to happen. Should I just uninstall Dropbox? Would that be safest?

Thanks!

PS. Nothing about Dropbox impresses me, so far.

[Jay]

Hi @billg4, thanks for messaging the Community!

I understand your frustration over this matter, it sounds like you enabled the computer backup feature. Did you disable it through the Dropbox desktop application, or did you quit the app completely?

The email you received means that the files were already deleted according to the Dropbox site, which can recovered from this page if need be.

It would help me to assist further if I know how you stopped the app from syncing your files. Thanks!

[billg4]

Thanks for the reply. To be honest, I don't remember how I stopped it. I stopped it before it had finished, so I think I just closed the box or something. I mean, I would have clicked "cancel" if that had been an option. I don't remember that it was, though. Sorry. It was last week, and I didn't think anything of it before I got this email.

[billg4]

Any ideas?  I did try to follow the instructions here to turn off computer backup: https/help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/computer-backup

But that's no help, because there is no "Manage backups" in the Backup tab. It only gives me the option to set up computer backups (since I successfully stopped that, apparently, it's not set to backup anything right now).

But I'm still worried that DropBox might delete fifteen thousand files on my computer! Perhaps I shouldn't be. Those files have already been "deleted" in DropBox, apparently, and they're still on my computer. So maybe I'm worrying about nothing?

But if I'm wrong, I don't want to discover that after I lose all of my files! After all, I'm just putting things back together after my last crash. So I have no other backups (no current ones, at least).

[Jay · Accepted solution]

If it has been disabled, then there shouldn't be an issue. As the files were officially deleted on the site, they should have either been deleted from the local Dropbox folder, or if the computer backup was disabled, the files were moved out of the folder.

Can you check to see if the Dropbox desktop application is showing as up to date, or syncing?

[billg4]

Well, I never touched the files online. I didn't even delete them out of the DropBox folder on my computer. DropBox did that. So, if they were going to delete the files on my computer that correspond to those, I suppose they would have done it already?

I probably don't have anything to worry about, then. It's just that, when software warns me that it's going to delete fifteen thousand files, I tend to pay attention! 

I'm not sure how to tell if DropBox is working, but it says it's up to date. And it gives me the option to pause syncing, which must mean that it is syncing.

Thanks for the reply! I guess I won't worry about it.