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Forum Discussion
Cannot find files I thought I'd been saving to Dropbox on my old computer which won't let me in.
Cannot find files I thought I'd been saving to Dropbox on my old computer which won't let me in. Had to buy a new computer; on it now but when I login to Dropbox, I don't find my files. I was using OneDrive before, on my old computer. Is that the problem, or likely something else? I also understand that there are two versions, the web and the app? I tried the web, and nothing is there. Help! I need my word processing files back! Those are long novels, one in progress!
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hey michaelelias, welcome to our Community!
How did you add files to your Dropbox account on your old device? Did you upload them using our website, or was the desktop app installed on your computer?
As a first step, I recommend you check your deleted files page or the events page, to see if you can find them there. Do you see any sign of the files being uploaded when you go through your events page?
Is it possible that you were using a different Dropbox account when you were uploading the files in the first place?
Let me know more, and we'll take it from there.
Hi Megan,
Thank you for your fast reply! On my old computer, I would save my files to my Documents folder in This PC and also to Dropbox folder in the same section (broader category This PC). So does that mean I'd installed the Dropbox app? In this case, are my files recoverable if I didn't save them to the web version?
I've already checked my deleted files and there's nothing. I didn't even delete anything accidentally. The Events page only lists my community forum participation an hour ago.
I think I only have one account.
- Megan
Hey michaelelias!
If you had a Dropbox folder, you most likely used our app.
It sounds like you enabled our Backup at some point. Can you also check your Backup page online, and let me know if you see anything?
If not, and based on what you're describing it sounds like they never synced to our servers, so you may need to be looking for them locally on your device, be it in their original locations or your trash can.
Hi Megan,
I searched in Backup with the file name in question, with and without the extension, and nothing turns up. I didn't pay for Backup; it was a free account. I can't look in my old computer because it kept getting stuck at the login screen and wouldn't let me in. This is why the new computer is what I'm using now. Any other way to find my files?
I was looking on the web version. Is this the right thing to do? Would installing the app on my computer make any difference, or does it only keep things locally without file sharing?
- Jay
Hi michaelelias, if you install the Dropbox desktop application, it would sync the files from the site to your machine.
However, if you have a Dropbox Backup from the old machine, it might be possible to restore from that Backup to your current device.
Are you certain that you're logging into the correct account as well? Is it possible that the Dropbox desktop application wasn't running on your old machine, so files weren't getting synced to the site?
Installing the app on my new machine might work, but I don't know if the files are even on the site for the app to find. When I searched the site, nothing turns up.
I don't think I have Backup. I never paid for it. I can't even get back into my old machine.
How do I find if I had another account? I had a hard enough time figuring out how to log into this one. It's possible I could have registered under different usernames, but I could have used a number of other possible usernames if I had a different account. The files that are in this account (four of them) were all created and saved on a different computer at my (now deceased) mother's apartment which I don't have anymore.
- Jay
If you're not seeing the missing files on the Dropbox site or the deleted files page, then there's a few possibilities as to why this might be the case:
- The files are on another Dropbox account
- They were on a shared folder you don't have access to any more
- The files were deleted outside of the 30 day period
- The files were permanently deleted
Dropbox Backup isn't a paid feature, so free users could also use it if need be.
Dropbox accounts are associated with email addresses, so if you have more than one email address, the Dropbox account could be under that email.
I tried installing the app onto my new computer, but it had no effect. Only the same files were in my account, not the ones I was looking for. Does this mean they were never saved to the cloud? How can Dropbox have an app which only stores things on a PC but not into the cloud?
- Mark
Super User II
First question here is do you have enough quota? Dropbox will stop syncing when you are at quota (which it does warn you about). So once you are at quota it will just save locally and not on cloud.
Second question is was Dropbox running? Does www.dropbox.com/events show changes in the timescales you were expecting? If it wasn't running then it obviously cannot sync
Third one...
How can Dropbox have an app which only stores things on a PC but not into the cloud?
It does sync to cloud but only the files inside of the Dropbox folder. It wont/cannot sync from elsewhere. It can also only sync if its running AND has space.
Hi Mark,
I'm not sure about the quota. The only large files I'd been saving into the Dropbox folder on my old computer were my novels, and they were 200,000 words, 230,000 words, and 395,000 words, plus maybe 30,000 words from the fourth one I started. Even though those are long novels, the memory taken up from each is in the MB range, not GB, correct? And isn't the quota for Dropbox accounts created around 2010 roughly 2-3 GB? My files contained no photos and hence were not huge in data size. It was all word processing. It's possible my computer itself was running out of space, but I never got an error message when saving my work to the folder in 'This PC'. Whether it's running or not, I couldn't say, because I'm not sure I'd ever opened these files from the Dropbox folder after saving them into it. I always asked the Writer program to open the files, and it would. I had not accessed any Dropbox account for at least a couple of years from anywhere other than my old computer which won't let me sign in after 10-15 attempts.
- Mark
I couldn't say, because I'm not sure I'd ever opened these files from the Dropbox folder after saving them into it.
This is very likely to be the issue.
If you didn't open and edit the files inside of Dropbox you have not updated the files in Dropbox. Dropbox does not have a link to any other file on your machine. It can ONLY update and edit things that are inside its own directory. So if you saved a copy of it and then opened the file using a different application BUT hadn't told that application to change where it opened it from then you have ended up with 2 versions of the file on your machine.... one in Dropbox that was dated when you copied it over but hasn't updated and the other you did open, update and change.
I should also add that I may have added the Dropbox app to my old computer under an old email address which I don't have access to anymore. I tried answering the questions about the file, but I remembered some details incorrectly and it said I attempted too many times to log in. So now I can't even log into that old account (I had remembered the password correctly), and I try to contact support but it only gives me a business development page. How do I get my files back? It shouldn't be this hard.
- Mark
How do I get my files back? It shouldn't be this hard.
Without access to the email its very unlikely you can do so - for the obvious security issues and reasons.
You need to contact support via www.dropbox.com/support WHILE NOT LOGGED IN, even here, so use an incognito window.
Thank you for that. How do I use an incognito window? I will try that, but something tells me I will run up against the same login/password/verification problems I've been having with my old, inaccessible email. I don't even have it as an account anymore, yet I still remember the password.
- Mark
How do I use an incognito window?
If its Google Chrome its usually from File -> New Incognito Window
