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Forum Discussion
If I rewind a folder, will a removed member regain access?
A user who should have not had access to a folder any more went in and deleted a bunch of files/folders within a core folder in my Dropbox. I am planning to use Rewind to restore folders so I can properly backup the data.
I have already removed access to the root folder for the user who should no longer have had access. If I initiate a rewind of the folder, will the user gain access to the restored/rewinded files? It should not matter - as I will promptly remove access again - but I just want to plan accordingly and act rapidly if I need to.
And to be clear - I know that if I do a "Restore" instead of a Rewind, that the person WILL be given access again. But it is my understanding that Rewind operates differently.
Thank you!
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey WxTech443, thanks for joining the Dropbox Community.
If you rewind a folder to restore deleted files, the member that was removed from the folder will not regain access.
Restoring the folder's deleted files from the deleted files page will also not re-add the removed member.
In any case, as long as you are the owner of the folder (or in some cases a member with edit permissions), you can always remove another member.
I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any questions.
Hannah -
Thank you for the comprehensive answer! Just for my peace of mind and clarity - may I rephrase and potentially re-state just to ensure I'm understanding?
We'll call the main folder "Folder A" - it was created last year at some point. Then shortly after a subfolder "Folder A1" was created. Folder A1 was shared with two other people and we all (the three of us) collectively were adding/modifying/etc files.
The folder became dormant and (bad on us, I know) we mostly forgot it existed. At some point last week, one of shared members (I am the owner) hopped into the folder and deleted large quantities of data - both in Folder A1 in general and in additional subfolders within it. ALL of the deleted content DOES show in the "Recently Deleted" section - but of course with that disclaimer that if the "Restore" function is used, they will regain access.
So I have yet to run Restore or Rewind functions at all. Instead, I went to Folder A (the original overarching folder) and removed all access and then confirmed that access to Folder A and Folder A1 shows only me and the remaining person who SHOULD have access.
So now, if I am understanding you, if we use Rewind (not Restore) on Folder A1, it will restore the deleted files and NOT return access or notify the now removed user? Mind you, some of the content in that folder was placed there by the removed party (and other content was added by me and the third person).
Ultimately, this is not the end of the world - we are just trying to recover the data without notifying, or otherwise having a period (even if brief) when the unwanted user can access the data. I just want to be sure if access WILL be returned to the person, that we are ready to remove it quickly.
Thank you again! The response time was awesome on this!- Hannah
Hi again, WxTech443!
So long as the folder member in question is still an active member, whether you choose to restore the files or rewind the folder, they will regain access to those files, since they're still an active member.
If you remove this member, though, they won't be able to regain access to the deleted files or the folder itself, no matter how you choose to recover the files.
I hope this clarifies things!
