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I deleted my dropbox and it deleted my desktop and documents folders. How can i restore them?
Hi everyone,
I downgraded my Dropbox account, and because it had been syncing my desktop and documents folders, I was over the storage limit for the free account.
I tried to follow the ...
nevermind, i did a force quit of Finder and it fixed the Desktop issue
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi there awilson576 -I'm sorry to hear about this.
Since you've deleted your Dropbox account as well, apart from uninstalling the app, I'm afraid we won't be able to help much with restoring any files you had stored there.
Have you tried looking for them locally on your computer, be it in their original locations or the recycle bin/trash can?
As for your computer's OS folders, have you tried resetting their folder paths?
Keep us posted with any updates!
Thanks for your reply Walter.
The rubbish bin folder on my mac only contains files that I had deleted prior to deleting the dropbox account.
The 'original locations' eg the Desktop and Documents folders are missing.
How do I reset the folder paths?
I've tried creating new folders, 'DesktopNew' and 'Docs'
Dropbox needs much clearer warnings about the possibility of this happening when you delete your account, plus much clearer information about how to stop sync and reduce dropbox storage when you downgrade - please pass that on.
- Megan
Hey awilson576, thanks for replying back!
To answer your question about the reset of the folder paths, you can see more about this here.
However, I'm not sure this will help, since the content has already been deleted. It would help if you did this prior to the deletion of your account, but by all means please give this a go.
As for deleting your account, there is a relative warning that informs you on what happens when you're about to delete your account, and that all of your files and folders will be permanently removed, however I'd be happy to forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.
Thanks Megan, I followed these instructions and now the Desktop and Documents folders are functioning as before
The warning that appears when you delete your account is not explicit enough. It implies that only the files stored on dropbox will be deleted. It does not explicitly warn that the files will be deleted forever from your local computer as well. I have a high level of literacy, and work on UI for a software company, so please trust me when i say that the warning was not clear enough, especially given the implications of permanently losing data from the entire Documents folder on the local. That type of action should have a big red warning and two step action.
- Mark
Super User II
awilson576 wrote:
The warning that appears when you delete your account is not explicit enough. It implies that only the files stored on dropbox will be deleted. It does not explicitly warn that the files will be deleted forever from your local computer as well.
And this is where the whole backup thing goes wrong (I've been shouting this for ages). The text is correct. The only things deleted are stored in Dropbox. But, what ISNT made clear is that when you set backup up Dropbox MOVES everything in to the Dropbox directory - hence the issues where none of your folders worked. Thats because they'd all been moved in to the Dropbox directory which was then deleted.
So they text itself is accurate. Its the fact that Dropbox is being a bit underhand in how it is setting backup up thats the issue - people dont realise that their data is now not where they think but instead is inside \Dropbox.
