I can't see my personal, regular files. Help?

[Kib_1]

Hi, I can't see my Regular files- only my Shared ones- and I would like to delete them as they are taking up most of the space on my account. How do I first see what they are, and then how do I then delete them? Can you advise me how to do this step by step?

[Daphne]

Hi @Kib_1, thanks for reaching out to us here!

Any shared folders in your account will have a folder icon with a silhouette of 2 people on it, but you can also check the Members column to see if the files show "Only you" or "x members".

To make some space in your account first, you can check out these steps on how to remove shared folders from your account either permanently or with the option to add them back later.

Both will free up the space used in your account.

For the personal files that you're missing, can you do a search in your account for some of the file names and let me know if you can locate them this way? The results will also show any files that have been recently deleted too.

Let me know how it goes!

[yodave]

I have the same problem. 1.4Gb of 'regular files' ...but no visibility of them. All I can see is the shared files [280Mb]. I've followed the search procedure solution, but have no idea what I'm searching for ...because I can't see the 1.4Gb of regular files.

I'll keep going, and if I find a solution I'll come back here to share [assuming I can relocate this post].

[yodave]

I can't find anything. I suspect that the 1.4Gb of 'regular files' is made up of video files that I shared with a third party, and subsequently deleted the folder. At the time I got a message saying something along the lines of ...the files being deleted for me, but still being available to the third party. My hunch is that those deleted files are still being included in my 2Gb plan usage, despite being deleted last year.

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @yodave!

If you see that there are files are taking space in your account, this won't include deleted files. You should see these files in your "All files" page here.

Are you not able to see any folders with a plain icon on them there?

If you can't see any non-shared files/folders, could you send me a screenshot of what you do see from the page I linked above?

Let me know what you find!

[yodave]

Hi Daphne,

Apologies, I missed your reply, and only spotted it when I came back here.

I think the missing space is used through syncing to my PC or another device like my iPad or phone. I don't remember syncing anything, and so I don't know what's being synced ...plus I'm still unable to find/access the synced files via my Dropbox account. These are represented as a blue section, the biggest chunk of usage.

As I don't know what they are, I'd be happy to delete them, but can't see how I can do that through my account.

Thanks again.

David

[yodave]

Just to follow up on this: I've checked my PC, iPad, Android phone, and even my old iPhone and none of them appear to have Dropbox installed ...so I figure that none of them should be syncing with Dropbox.

I've looked back through my emails, and I previously received an email informing me that my Dropbox is full and it's no longer syncing. Syncing to what?

Where can I access these 1.87Gb of regular files? What are they? It's a mystery.

I'll report back here if I find a solution.

[yodave]

So the only candidate that I've found is under connected apps. I don't think I have added any apps, but I can see that Microsoft Office Online is listed.

I have Microsoft Office installed on my PC, and so I'm wondering if somehow those files are being synced to Dropbox. I still can access any 'regular files' folder to have a look and see what's using up all of the space.

[yodave]

Further update: under account/security I found an apple mobile account that has been logged on since 3rd May 2019. I looked at the IP address, and that did not match the IP address from any of my devices [iPad, old iPhone, new phone, etc].

I popped the logged in IP in the trash folder - no idea what that will do. I'd image that the files will still be there ...so how do I access them?

[yodave]

As I hadn't already, I downloaded Dropbox on to my PC. That didn't help - there's no sign of the 1.8Gb 'regular' files. Just the 200 or so Mb that I can see in folders.

I'm fed up. I've spent Saturday afternoon trying to locate these files. In terms of UX, it's a poor show.

Signing off ...I'll do this through another way. I have tons of space via my iCloud account.

Good luck to you if you're reading this. Sorry I couldn't provide an answer.