Deleted folders from PC are syncing to the cloud

[Brambor]

Hi,

I am a new to dropbox and I have just joined the company that uses it as opposed to shared drives. During the initial setup far too many folders were set to sync with my laptop and I consequently ran out of space. Ill advised (was told it is one way sync), I stopped syncing and removed all synced content from the hard drive. When I resumed syncing (this time only required content) dropbox started removing folders from the cloud.  Now syncing is paused but I am guessing the "delete" instruction is stored somewhere on my laptop and when I resume syncing dropbox will start removing content from the cloud again. Is there a way of removing this instruction so I can start syncing again?

Kind regards

[Nancy]

Hi @Brambor, and thanks for joining the Community! 

When it comes to the desktop app, I’m afraid syncing isn’t one-way, and any action you take on it will affect your web account and vice versa. So, if you’ve removed more files from the local Dropbox folder, Dropbox will also delete them from the website once syncing resumes. 

If you go to your Deleted files page here, are you seeing the content that’s already been deleted perhaps? If yes, you can restore it this way.

Besides that, did you mean in the beginning that you ran out of hard drive space, or Dropbox storage instead? If the former, you can remove any folders you don't need to sync locally with selective sync. This way, they'll only show on the website without affecting your hard drive space.

Let me know.

[Brambor]

Hi Nancy,

Thank for your reply. I have ran out of space on my local drive which is now sorted. And I already restored deleted files on the cloud. The issue I have now is I had to pause syncing to stop deleting files from the web and I am afraid if resume syncing now the app will continue deleting them. So the question is how can I stop the app form doing it?

Kind regards

[Hannah]

Hey @Brambor, I'm afraid, if you wish to continue using the app, there's no way for it to stop syncing the deletion.

You'll need to unpause it, allow the deletions to sync and then go to our website and restore the files from there.

If this is a Business team, you can do an account rollback with Dropbox Rewind, instead of restoring the files one by one.

[Brambor]

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for your reply. Would revoking my access to dropbox by administrator and removal of the app and then reinstallation of the app work?

Kind regards

[Nancy]

Hi again, @Brambor! Out of curiosity, can you find the files you removed from the desktop app in your computer’s Recycle bin/Trash? If yes, you can try moving them back to your local Dropbox folder, while the app’s syncing is still paused, and then resume syncing again and wait till they sync to your web account.

Otherwise, you can log out of the Dropbox app on your computer, delete the local copy of your Dropbox folder, restore all of your files online, and then log back in to the app and let it create a new copy of the Dropbox folder with all of your content. If you just reinstall the app, and it detects there's missing content from your Dropbox folder, these files will still be removed from your www.dropbox.com.

Hannah's suggestion above should work just as well, though. There are many ways you can go about this.

[Brambor]

Hi Nancy,

Restoring files on PC was out of scope as some were too large for a bin and deleted permanently. Allowing for the app to finish deleting was out the question too as this is a shared resource and too many users would be affected. However, removal of the app seems to work.

Thanks a lot.

[Nancy]

Glad to hear that! If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to give me a nudge.