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cindymc716's avatar
cindymc716
New member | Level 1
10 days ago

I got an email saying I deleted many files, but I don't think I did such a thing.

I keep getting emails that say things like: "You recently deleted 69368 files from your Dropbox account. If you want these files back, you can still restore them until 7/10/2025. After that, they’ll be permanently deleted." I don't think I've been deleting files, so I don't know what this is about. Also, when I looked in Dropbox under the "Deleted Files" tab, nothing is in there. Please help, as I don't want my files to disappear. 

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    cindymc716 wrote:

    I don't think I've been deleting files, so I don't know what this is about. Also, when I looked in Dropbox under the "Deleted Files" tab, nothing is in there.

    Have you been moving or renaming any large folders? In some cases, doing that can appear as a deletion. Dropbox sees FolderA and suddenly it disappears, but FolderB appears a moment later. This can appear as a deletion of FolderA and the creation of FolderB if it's a large enough folder and it takes time to index/sync. In such a case, the "deletion" of FolderA will trigger the deletion notice that you've received.

    • cindymc716's avatar
      cindymc716
      New member | Level 1

      Thank you for your reply. I did move a large photo folder from my laptop to an external drive (which backs up to Dropbox of course, as it did from the laptop), so maybe that's what happened.

      • Rich's avatar
        Rich
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
        cindymc716 wrote:

        I did move a large photo folder from my laptop to an external drive (which backs up to Dropbox of course, as it did from the laptop)

        That's likely the reason. The external drive may be backing up to Dropbox, but that's not the same as your regular Dropbox storage. When you moved the files out of the Dropbox folder, that's a deletion. You removed files from Dropbox. The fact that you put them on a drive that backs up to Dropbox doesn't matter. The files are no longer in your regular Dropbox storage.