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currentcapital's avatar
currentcapital
Helpful | Level 6
9 years ago
Solved

Randomly deleted files and folders

Anyone else experiencing files and folders being deleted from Dropbox without human intervention?   I know that I'm going to get the stock Dropbox answer here that it can't happen, but I can expl...
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  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    8 years ago
     
    Hey Daz, 
     
    Welcome to the Dropbox Community, let me send over some tips below regarding your inquiry and we’ll take it from there! 
     
     SKBJ ‘s reply could point you towards the right direction, though you may need to dig deeper, depending on the behavior you’ve noticed. 
     
    Firstly, as Dropbox syncs any files added to it, a virus or malicious software would get updated to all computers linked to the account accordingly. If the virus or malicious software is in a shared folder, shared folder members and computers may also be affected. That being said, I’d strongly recommend removing it as soon as possible, as it’ll definitely create more issues in the long run. 
     
    Secondly, it recently came to attention that connecting or pointing external locations (i.e. Symlinking them) to your Dropbox folder might cause unexpected behavior, so it may appear to you as if files are randomly deleted. That being said, I’d advise you to have a look intro this as well, just as a possible scenario. 
     
    Regardless of the cause, if you need further clarifications or you’d like your account reverted back to a particular point in time, my advice would be to reach out directly to our team, who’ll guide you through the necessary steps and actions you’d need to take, so as to revert back to normal operations. 
     
    If you decide to go per my advice above, you may keep in mind that I’m always here to pursue a resolution, so please let me know a ticket ID I could reference in your next reply. 
     
    I’m looking forward to hearing back from you on this discussion! 
MeAndMrJones's avatar
MeAndMrJones
New member | Level 2
9 years ago

I have computers on syncing on both Windows 10 and Mac Sierra computers. Mid-day yesterday, about 8,000 files and directories were deleted in a single dropbox event. The files appear to have been deleted in alphabetical order over the course of a few minutes. I know it was not the result of human interaction because the deletes took place across hundreds of directories. Some files and folders in these directories were deleted and others were left untouched. Moreover, I was out of the office when the event happened.  All the deletes appear as a single event in dropbox. 

 

On my Windows 10 computer, I noticed the Dropbox app was not running (perhaps had crashed) and had not been running for a while, probably around 12 hours). I restarted the app manually probably an hour before the mass random file deletion took place.

 

This type of random deletion cannot be attributed to human error so it must be a bug. Where do I report bugs?

 

Is there a way to undo an event in dropbox? If not, how do I get my files restored in an efficient manner? It would take days to manually restore using the links in the event. I can't do a bulk restore because then I would still need to sift through my restored files and redelete thousands of files. 

BackMeUp's avatar
BackMeUp
Helpful | Level 5
9 years ago

The same thing happened to me.  Many files and folders deleted, then restored incompletely and randomly.  I did not delete these files.  Some have been duplicated, some deleted completely.  It has happened in both shared and unshared folders.  This is not a syncing issue.  I have used Dropbox for years and nothing like this has ever happened.  Dropbox tech support is very unhelpful so far.  

  • crewsgrady's avatar
    crewsgrady
    New member | Level 2
    9 years ago

    We are in the same boat. Dropbox "help" has consisted mostly of canned chats and email responses and refusal to give a call back. I've been very disappointed. Our mass deleted docs were also restored randomly and out of place. Once we tried to move them all around appropriately on a desktop version, caused another mass deletion online. No satisfactory explanation from dropbox. Service used to be much better. I hope they acknowlege the cause and get everyone assisted that is having this problem.

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