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deleted folder re appeared after a couple of years
Something very weird just happened with my dropbox account. Out of nowhere, a folder which was deletec about 2 years ago re appeared on my dropbox. It has the files as they were, which makes me wonder why the hell dropbox is still keeping these files after a few years that they have been deleted?
First I thought it was a hack, but then I checked all my devices and what was accessing my account and indeed, everything was as it was before.
It makes me think this is a serious bug and on another note, why the hell is dropbox keeping data that was deleted 2 years ago?
I'll surprised, scared and angry at the same time. I'm not even sure where to begin! I'm now wondering about several of my clients that use dropbox in their business if the same happens.
Thanks everyone for your patience while we worked on a way to clean up the inadvertently restored files and folders. We've built a fix that will automatically return this content to the way it should be: deleted and out of your Dropbox. This will only impact the inadvertently restored files and folders, and only if you haven’t updated them. We’ll begin rolling out the fix to affected users’ accounts later today. We’re giving you a heads up here so you’re aware of why there may be changes to your Dropbox. Here’s a bit more information about the fix.
Will this affect my other files?
The fix will only impact the inadvertently restored files and folders. If you have edited the files or folders—by moving them or updating the content inside—they will stay in your Dropbox. You can still manually delete these files and folders if you don’t want them.What if I don’t want these files or folders removed?
While the fix will automatically take effect later today, you can contact our support team (dropbox.com/support) within 30 days and we’ll restore the files and folders for you. You won’t be able to restore on your own using the events page.Do I need to do anything?
We will automatically roll out the fix, you don’t need to do a thing. If you have questions or concerns, please write our support team at http://bit.ly/cm-support so that we can investigate your specific case. Your ticket will be prioritized by the team.Thanks again for your patience, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience and confusion we’ve caused.
I too have this issue and would like a response to resolve and learn why it happend.
Another important thing to note is that the space utilization is completely off after the bizarre restoration of these files. For instance, my account space reads 0% utilization after removing these old files; therefore, I can't tell if my current files are securily accessible through my Dropbox, because it says I'm not using any space (even though they're present). This is pretty crazy stuff.
- Noticed here too... Actually very angry about this. When I deleted files, i liked that I had a window to recover if I made a mistake... But to now know that Dropbox has been storing files I deleted over 5years ago has really shaken my confidence and trust... Some of these files I'm pretty sure i even purged thinking they would be permenantly deleted and never recoverable (long time ago, might even be on another service).... Very angry.
In the mean time I highly recommend everyone change their passwords!! Also, go in and remove all other sessions and connected devices for now. my main issue here is, files from many years ago have re appeared.
Files that dropbox should not keep have been kept without my knowledge.
It feels like NSA/CIA like agreement, what is next, share encryption keys with them? That is a very low blow from Dropbox!
That is what you get from trusting the "cloud", you don't own your data once it is there.
This just happened to me, too! Several folders, with all their contents, from as long ago as 2011.
These were all folders I made, some of them shared with others at the time (most of them, if I remember correctly, but with a variety of different people) but none show as shared now.
I deleted all these myself. I only use one computer, and the computer I had back then has long been wiped and donated. These seem to be coming from some memory vault at Dropbox. Creepy.
For now I'm not deleting them, in hopes that some sort of a reset makes them all go away again.
- I had two huge folders appear from 2009 - from a computer I used at my previous employer! I must have signed in at some point to move some large files but wasn't even using Dropbox regularly. I've deleted all associated devices and the folders themselves. I think that computer is long dead so I am pretty shocked at Dropbox for keeping these files, and then placing them all these years into my account again - which technically was some kind of data security breach because these files had personal information. It also made me worried that my current files got synced to who knows what other devices! How is Dropbox going to explain this away?
Experiencing the same issue: my first ever issue like this with Dropbox. Please, please investigate - very disconcerting for data integrity, guys.
- I have the same issue as above, and I concur with the security concerns everyone said previously. Over 3GB of my data from 2009-2011 era were resynced. Not all files from this time period were affected though.
It is interesting to read the following in the help pages:
"For Dropbox Basic users, and for many Dropbox Pro users, files are permanently removed 30 days after the initial deletion. These files cannot be recovered, even by a Dropbox support agent."
https://www.dropbox.com/help/9230
This is obviously a lie and makes me very concerned about privacy.
Has anyone reported a fix to this?
Also apps are not properly showing PDFs
Thank you
1/19/17 - I just went to save a file to my account and I had old folders suddenly reappear and one major one is now gone. I know this because the folders were those I set up on a project some 8 years ago. My folder structure looks like a mess now and it was tidy just yesterday. More alarming is one important folder is entirely gone! I checked the history and nothing out of the norm shows up but what a mess they have now caused. And I was looking at switching to a business account - ah, not after this.
Old folders reappear here at our office on two out of five computers.
Same issue, I just had folders sync up from years ago. No account activity, checked computer access and no unknown or old computers could have possibly done this. The folders were added yesterday around 8:30 CST.
Several folders that were deleted years ago appeared in my main Dropbox folder yesterday. Should I be worried about this?
Two days ago, a folder mysteriously appeared in my dropbox folder. Some time later a subfolder was added and a word file was added. The folder and the files therein were mine but had been deleted years ago.
The events page has no record of the folders or the file being added to my dropbox folder.
How do I figure out what computer they came from and how?
Jim
Just happend the same with me. 5 or 6 folders from 2011 suddenly ressurected on my dropbox. This also happend on my office's accont with folders from 2012. This makes me wonder if there is a global issue here.
The problem now is quite simple: HOW CAN WE TRUST DROPBOX EVER AGAIN?
It just made my server uploud 4Gb of unnecessary/obsolete files for no reason.
Honestly dissapointed.
