Old versions of Documents replacing new versions

[mrswilliam]

I have two laptops, Windows 8.1 (my main device) and Windows 10 which I rarely use.  8.1 had to go into a repair shop so i set about setting up dropbox on W10 with dropbox. It had some old files on it from the last synch several months back.  

When i checked on the synch - and luckily for me it was very slow - i found that W10 was uploading the old files to my dropbox account (instead of download everything from dropbox as I had expected it to do) which was then downloading the old files to my main 8.1 machine.  

I unlinked W10 pc very quickly from dropbox otherwise all my new files on the 8.1 would have been replaced with the old version from w10 and months of work lost.

I never expected this to happen. It's very strange.  Surely there must be a flaw with dropbox.  Surely there should be some mechanism to check file properties and the synch should only upload/download documents that are not already on the server account. 

I now need to use both laptops, one in the office and one on the move so files need to be all synched properly on both laptops but how can i be sure old won't replace new?

[mrswilliam]

Jane

Thanks for the info.  

i think I'm OK now.  My problem did indeed arise because I hadn't synched W10 for a long while and it contained loads of old files which had been deleted both from W8.1 and Online and they started reappearing again.  I stopped, unlinked and uninstalled Dropbox from W10 quickly enough to stop it doing any damage. Both W8.1 and W10 are synching OK right now.

My problem will arise again in the future should I leave one or the other PCs in limbo - ie. not use it for a while which means it won't synch. Deleted files may start reappearing again. But as long as they don't replace new files of the same name than its OK.

[Wilu]

Hi Jane,

I think I understand Dropbox now better and I will use it in the following way:

- on a regular basis (system online) nothing special: change documents, syncing etc

- if I am offline for a long time, I will make a backup-copy of my changed files, before syncing! Just to be sure not to lose my work.

- unless Dropbox will warn me in future of conflicts or make an automatic back-up.

Dear Jane, thanks for your support and regards to mrswilliam

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hey @mrswilliam & @Wilu, I appreciate it that you both circled back to me here letting me know of your current state of affairs. Initially I’m glad to hear that you’ve both been able to work around the previous syncing issues & I’m here to send you some pro-active tips for future reference!

Now @mrswilliam, I’m right on the same page with you after the last bit you added in your last post that your deleted files re-appeared & I can confirm that you took the most appropriate course of action, therefore you may reference the same set of steps in case you experience that again in the future. 

Spoiler

Often when you delete files or folders, they don’t immediately disappear from every synced computer. If you have a synced computer running an application that is using the file, that will cause the file to reappear in your Dropbox account. Or, if you’re seeing a shared file or folder reappear after deletion, it may be that a person you shared it with is accessing it.

If you check the previous versions of the file and see that it was accessed from an application on another computer, you can delete it off of that computer to stop it from reappearing in your Dropbox.

Following, when it comes to your remarks @Wilu, you may have an additional look on my post here that explains how Conflicted Copies are created & ways to avoid them, as well as some tips regarding versioning. 

Once again, thanks a lot to both for your ongoing cooperation & contribution on this conversation, it’s been a pleasure discussing this behavior with you, as each interaction helped me shape a slightly more coherent picture of what you were experiencing. 

Our Community wall is always open to further inquiries or feedback & it’ll be a pleasure to hear back from you in the future. Happy syncing & take care until we talk again!