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Re: Randomly deleted files and folders

Randomly deleted files and folders

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
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Anyone else experiencing files and folders being deleted from Dropbox without human intervention?

 

I know that I'm going to get the stock Dropbox answer here that it can't happen, but I can explicitly tell you it does.

 

What I saw was random deletions of over 10,000 files/folders in the space of less than 33 seconds. Even with the best will in the world - not to mention the fastest fingers - this just isn't possible. Especially considering that some complete folders, and in some cases just files within folders, disappeared at 13:30 BST yesterday, all within 33 seconds (according to the event log). 

 

The kicker is that the only person who has access to these files/folders is me - and I know for sure that I didn't delete them.

 

I guess there may be 2 explanations:

 

1) I entered a fugue state and decided to delete all my work on a number of cases

2) Something is happening with the Dropbox software that either Dropbox don't know about or can't fix

 

Been trying to get Dropbox support to assist, but got the usual default customer service answer of "it's not us it's you". Well, I know it's not me - so by extension it must be the software!

 

Next step is to request a refund of my yearly plan as I cannot have something that intervenes in my workflow like this and then wastes half a day (and counting) trying to figure out what's missing. I guess the only silver lining is that I have a Dropbox business account, so files are kept forever. Small benefit, but a good one at this stage.

 

So, after my long winded moan above, anyone have a resolution to stop Dropbox from deleting things from my folders? Or is it just time to move on to another provider?

 

Finally, don't let anyone from Dropbox tell you differently (especially the "Super Users") as I can categorically say it happens. They'll tell you it can't, but I know for a fact that it can.

 

Best of luck and hoping you don't fall foul of the same problems I've had.

60 Replies 60

Cmk77
Explorer | Level 4
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I wonder if these guys know their own architecture and that if their competitors... Knowing it happens on sugarsync as well - also with no help by user maybe someone copied someone's bad code -
I spent hours on the phone and one of my files magically reappred during the call - just so happened to have all the windows open showing that particular folder in the cloud and on my hard drive - and the help desk did not restore it nor did I - yet we both watched it appear in the cloud and then in the local directory - and I was really starting to believe I was making this stuff up - thank you for replying so fast - if you do get any info or figure out something that is causing it I would be very thankful if you shared. Are you on Mac or pc? I am on Mac... Cheers m

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
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The folks at Dropbox really don't want to admit why, or may frankly don't know, this happens. If you're on a Mac, I'm on PC, so it's not even operating system agnostic. Maybe a Linux user doesn't have the issue?

 

I'm not a computer tech, so trying to find some process in the whole scheme of things is outside my expertise. All I've tried to look at is what happened at the same time as the huge cull in my folders. Not identified anything yet, but will give it another go and see.

 

Really don't have the time to spend hours on the phone to them to be told that what I know happened "cannot" happen. Just better to get a more stable and secure system and be done with Dropbox. 

 

Will keep looking and update ASAP, as it's pretty business critical for us.

 

Cheers

Cmk77
Explorer | Level 4
Go to solution

So this is what i got from sugarsync this morning - sounds like a totally reasonable task... bahahaha. i have hundreds of folder and sub folder... so let's pick a task that is not rational to perform and call the case closed... - how goes it at the dropbox end??? Apparantly we are ANOTHER PART OF THE WORLD... soon to be seperated by a wall I suppose... but really... had a good chuckle and thought I would share.

 

Thank you for contacting SugarSync Technical Support. I'm sorry to hear you have been having difficulty, but I'm happy to help.

That error is experienced by customers that are located in other parts of the world where there are special characters in their alphabet. The reason the error crops up is because when SugarSync experiences any of those special characters that it is not coded to recognize, it throws that log error, which essentially means "I don't understand what this means". It is not an error in the sense that it will stop SugarSync from running properly, it may just take time for SugarSync to realize that the special character it is seeing somewhere is valid and works.

Unfortunately the logs will just continue to process that information because at this current time SugarSync is not fully supported in every language and area of the world.

We suggest you can try to set the language to American English to see that changes anything. One thing we can think of is the date format is different for America as opposed to Canada. America uses MM/DD/YYYY as opposed to Canada uses DD/MM/YYYY.

If you have any further questions, please let us know. Thank you for using SugarSync!

Ann B.17
New member | Level 2
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I just upgraded to pro and while deleting one small file several large FOLDERS were deleted (about 2-3 hours ago). I certainly did not have them checked to delete and some had personal business files/folders that I had set up a couple of years ago for security. Now the files are gone forever I am afraid. Just last night and today I had spent hours on a multiple folder collection containing pictures from a special event. These were important and do not even show up in the deleted folder so I can't reinstall them. The reinstall is working as I checked it by reinstalling another folder that was uninstalled previously.

So, I just had the same thing happen in a matter of seconds as you did. Any answers so far?

 

Yes, they were random also.                         Date: 1-17-2017

 

Watts H.
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

I'm getting weird things going on as well:  folders/files appearing in my dropbox root directory without me doing anything -- because I have thousands of subdirectories and 10's of thousands of files, I don't know if these files got moved from lower directories or are old things I deleted.

 

By looking at the creation dates of these "new" folders and files in my MAC I can see this all appeared at the same time, 1 am some morning, when the only device I have that can access/change files had been powered down for hours.

 

I've sent more than 6 message to drobox "support" in the last week and have yet to have a coherent response.

 

And, it gets better, now all those files folders that appeared before, have magically disspeared, with no record of any of this occuring on the dropbox website "events" log (I have tested to see if all folder/file creations/deletions/moves that I initiate appear on same and they do...)

 

Dropbox is of no help -- I am going to quick mirror my drive and discontinue this service.

 

 

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

@CMK77

 

I love that a software says it's because of the date structure! The whole world, except the USA, uses DD/MM/YY as the format - so what they are saying is that if you're not in the US, you shouldn't use their software?

 

Sounds like they have the same bug in their software - which clearly is your fault for using a standard naming structure 🙂

 

So it's not just Dropbox that is doing this...

 

It's a real problem - but obviously one these companies don't want to admit exists.

 

Haven't had any of the "Super Users" from these forums back on - guess they don't have a cut and paste answer to give when someone challenges their assertions.

 

Will keep trying to find what does this but not optimistic. As I've said before, I'm not a computer tech. Will have a look at other solutions to see if they are encountering the same problems and report back when I've had a chance to look through. Going to be very, very, very careful around reading all the comments for each company to see if users have experienced the same problems. Should have vetted Dropbox more thoroughly before I signed up - a mistake I won't make again!

 

Cheers

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

@Ann B.17

 

Unfortunately no answer for you yet. And don't hold out hope that Dropbox support will help either. 

 

The only thing I can suggest is to get a list of the events and ask Dropbox support to do the reinstall. It puts everything back where it was at that time, which hopefully will give you back the files/folders you lost.

 

I'm using Dropbox for Business, but assume Pro will have a similar structure:

 

dropbox folders.PNG

Let me know how you get on - hopefully everything comes back for you.

 

Cheers

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

@Watts H

 

I'd love to be able to answer with "why" this happens but frankly I've got no idea.

 

There are lots of threads on this, but as you have probably seen from the Dropbox "support" (quotation marks intentional), you get the whole answer that "Dropbox cannot delete files. It must have been you, while sleepwalking, that powered your computer up, deleted some random files/folders, powered it down, then went back to bed"

 

Because clearly that's what happened. There can't be any other reason, right? Nothing to do with the software obviously.

 

Don't blame you for moving on to another software - I'm in the process of trying to find one that does what I need it to do, without deleting files then saying that in my fugue state, I did it all. No offer of looking into it obviously, just a sure fire answer of "it's not us - it's you!"

 

Best of luck

MichaelF
New member | Level 2
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I have had a similar incident of thousands of files and directories being deleted. I believe I was attacked by a computer somehow logging on from the US since a Mac user shows as being logged on. There doesn't seem to be ANY way of getting through to some sort of real person at Dropbox to help, just a computerized virtual person with platitudes.

 

currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

@MichaelF

 

That sounds to me like a hack, but not being a computer tech, I'd be hesitant to confirm it. Usual advice that I've received is to change the passwords, which I know doesn't help right now but could do in the future.

 

With regards to getting the files restored, hopefully you're able to do so via the console but if not, then ask on the support site to have the whole events restored. Be aware that it will take them ages to reply and to action, but this is really the only way.

 

Best of luck!

 

K.

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