Thought DROPBOX auto-closed for inactivity since 2018. Now find Dropbox is STILL ALWAYS ON (hidden)

[A28]

May Dropbox account was used on cell phone in 2015 to save photos. After this, I used my IMAC only to check Dropbox activity about twice per year when I got their emails.  By 2018, I was assured by Dropbox Support that my account would auto-close for inactivity, as I wished.  I kept getting email warnings:  "your Dropbox will close shortly if you don't log in."  However, I never got notified of Dropbox closure.  Their emails continued, as if the account was active.  As a non-techie senior without techie friends, I never used Dropbox again.  So yesterday, I found via Website preferences, that my Dropbox was/is ALWAYS ON, and it is the ONLY application that is, although not logged in for at least 5 years. Also, it has full access to all permissions, including microphone, location, etc.  Could you tell me, what caused this and why?   Could it be a hack, as very suspicious behaviours have occurred?  If I delete Dropbox completely, how can I still save all of my own info?  

[Jay]

Hi @A28, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

When you say you checked your Dropbox account twice a year, does this mean that you logged into the account on the Dropbox site when you got the email?

If the Dropbox desktop application isn't signed into any account, then it wouldn't be able to access any data on your machine, since there is nothing to sync to. You can access and download the data from the site, and if need be, delete the account afterwards.

Note that deleting the account is permanently, and it wouldn't be possible to recover the account or any data within after the deletion.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

[A28]

Dear Jay, Support:

   Thanks for your help.  Yes, I did log in to account maybe once or twice yearly, just after reading your emails, but never after 2018.  That's 5 years without login activity;  thus my confusion why I kept getting your emails till now.  Can you enlighten me?   (thanks for your tips too)

[A28]

Dear Jay, Support:

   Thanks for your reply.   Yes, I did log in to account maybe once or twice yearly, just after reading Dropbox emails, but never after 2018.  That's 5 years without login activity;  thus my confusion why I kept getting your emails till now.  Can you enlighten me?   (thanks for your tips too)

[Hannah]

Hey @A28, sorry to jump in here.

Just to clarify, do you still have a mobile device that's been logged in to your Dropbox account since 2018?

[A28]

Absolutely not.  I have not opened any device's Dropbox account since about 2018.  (However,  * a few days ago I did login, just to check what's going on.)  Thanks for your help.

[Hannah]

Understood, @A28.

Well, in general, an account remains open if there's some kind of activity, but in any case, if you do not want to keep the account, you can of course delete it, by following the steps in this article.