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JWHIII's avatar
JWHIII
Helpful | Level 6
10 months ago

My backed up files appear to be empty

I have a 500 GB hard drive full of files from older computers which I "uploaded" to my Dropbox account.  Each time I turned on my computer, Dropbox would resume the upload process (which by the way, took days to complete).  I upgraded my account to 2 TB to accommodate this, as well as another drive I intend to back up to cloud storage.  However, when I logged into my account tonight, NONE of those files are present.  In fact, it shows that my last activity was in October and this simply isn't true.  I only have one Dropbox account, so what gives?  Where were my files uploaded to?  I'm new to this, so perhaps I'm missing something simple.  But after paying the extra money and waiting for days, I'd expect to see my files where they should be.   

  • Ugh, nevermind - I figured out what I was doing wrong.  I was referring to the "Modified" and "Size" fields to the right hand side and clicking on those.  I could've swore I had tried clicking on the folders to open them, but evidently hadn't.  Thanks for your help and sorry for the hassle.

  • JWHIII's avatar
    JWHIII
    Helpful | Level 6

    Me again.  So it took quite a bit more digging than what it should've, but I finally managed to find my missing "backup" of the external hard drive.  Both the content size and backup completion date appear as they should.  However, after opening it to view the contents, the file titles are present, while the actual content of them is not:

    As I stated before, I paid for additional storage and this backup literally took days to complete.  Where then, are my files and just what exactly did I pay for?  As you'll note, on the upper right-hand column, it states: "There was an internal Dropbox error. Try again."  I don't mean to sound rash, but this is rather upsetting.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hi there, JWHIII, thanks for reaching out to us.

       

      If I understand correctly, you've located your backups on the backups page, however, when trying to view your files, the folders appear to be empty, right?

       

      First of all, can you check the sync status of the Dropbox application, to make sure syncing has finished?

       

      You can hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon to see this info.

       

      If it's "up to date", make sure to login from a different browser or a private browsing window, to see if this is just a browser issue.

       

      Let me know what you find,

      • JWHIII's avatar
        JWHIII
        Helpful | Level 6

        Hi Hannah,

         

        Yes, the folders appear to be empty.  The Dropbox application icon is masked with a red square containing the number 6 in it.  When I hover over it, it reads "Up to date".  When I click on it, the pop up window contains a check mark at the bottom with the message "Everything is up to date".  I logged in with Chrome as opposed to Firefox and was presented with the same info as before (that nearly 500 GB is accounted for, when the folders are empty)...

         

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