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Forum Discussion
Mark H.2
11 years agoNew member | Level 1
Why did all of my files disappear?
A folder that is owned by me and shared with two others is now empty. What happened to all of my image files? How do I get them back?
As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.
rjothvas wrote:
... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...
How long is a while? If an account remains idle for more than a year, Dropbox will remove it, which also removes all files from the system.
... and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use InstallerIs it possible that you started a new account, instead of signing into your old one? If the old one had been removed and you installed with the same email address, you would have started a new, empty account.
are my files now all gone? If not, where are they?If you're signing in with the same email address and the account is empty, then it's likely as I described above. Otherwise you can try checking the Events page and Deleted Files to see if the files are there, or see if it lists what happened. If both pages are empty (aside from anything new you've done), then you're in a new account.
- Anne L.13New member | Level 1
MASSIVE DELETION OF FILES--Over 45,000 files were deleted or moved from my computer following a computer crash due to a black-out. I'm not sure how the two incidents were related, but one hour after the electricity came back on I noticed I was missing massive amount of my files including years of documents, all my endnote libraries, and PDF articles (collected over 20 years). This occurred on Monday 9/19/16. I had trouble writing a ticket because they needed a recovery file url and the link to tell me how to get it was malfunctioning. So I wrote a general email and I heard back within hours. They asked me for more information which I supplied immediately. A helpful person (Callie or Regina) wrote me back on Wednesday. She said to go to the dropbox website and look at the "events." I did so. All at 12:09 pm 28,000 files were deleted, 21,000 files were restored and many of my shared files were unshared. (just to note that when files were restored, they showed up in random places all over under the wrong sub-folders.) Callie went over my options and said that I could restore individually deleted files, or, if there were too many "events or different types of "events" she could just decide to restore all files as of a certain data/time. I wrote back 24 hours ago choosing the second option since there were so many types of changes that all happened at once. Have heard nothing. This is a work disaster. No access to >28,000 files since Monday!!!!! It is teaching me a lesson. BACK-UP YOUR DROPBOX FILES ON YOUR OWN. I really hope Callie and/or Regina write me back soon.
- josemreussNew member | Level 2
Hi Anne L,
I had the same issue, how are you backing those files up? This is so frustrating.
Thanks for your help...
- WalterDropbox Staff
Sorry to butt into this josemreuss but if you have had recent accidental deletions, I would advise to start by going to your Events page. This is the place where all changes such as edits, adds or deletes are logged and should point you toward the right direction.
Let me know what you find please and we'll take it from there. Thanks!
- Sandy C.11New member | Level 1
I received the following back from support at dropbox and I was able to access the event information and scrolled back over the last 3 months (as that was as far back as I could go). I found 3 deletions and 1 containing 1,115 files. I could see the file names, but nowhere did it say Restore Files, like the instructions say. I have again sent a request for help and a request for a person to call me. This back and forth via email is ridiculous. I also need to go back farther than 3 months, as I didn't know a file was missing until such time as I went looking for it, so have no idea exactly when things disappeared. Very frustrating and so unpredictable.
From Dropbox:
If you're unsure about how a file was deleted, you can see more detailed information about which user and computer added, deleted, or changed a file by looking at the "previous version history" on the web site. For more information, please visit the Help Center article:
https://help.dropbox.com/security/recover-older-versions
Provided these files were synced to your Dropbox account, there will be record of this as well as any deletions in your events page. You can check see your Events page here:
https://www.dropbox.com/events
To refine your event search, you can filter by folder and date near the top right corner of your events page. The events on your actual events page are displayed with 2 sets of text in blue describing what happened in that event. Click on the second blue text. If there is only one set of blue text, click on that instead. That will bring you to the "Event details" page. Here in the top left of the page you should see "Restore these files". Click here to restore the files deleted in your event.
If you are unable to restore these files yourself, I will require an event link. Please provide an event link that resembles the one below:
https://www.dropbox.com/event_details/####/####/#####/
Please note that #'s are all numbers. Additionally, any text after the third series of numbers should not be included in the link you send.
For detailed instructions on obtaining an event link, please visit our Help Center:
https://help.dropbox.com/security/contact-support-missing-files
You can also use the steps below to show deleted files in any folder. You can restore it in a few clicks using the Dropbox web interface:
1) Log in to the Dropbox website:
2) Browse to the folder the file should be in
3) Click the Show Deleted files button below next to the Search field on the right hand side of the page
4) Select the file or hold Control (Windows/Linux) or Command (OS X) to select multiple files that you wish to restore - L. ChauNew member | Level 1
What the heck with dropbox!! I set a folder to shared state, and then when I checked again 2 months later all files in it are gone!!! When I check back the event, it told me that the files are all deleted 4 mins after I changed the setting!!
As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
- William R.4New member | Level 1
I did get a resolution to my issue. I think I got a little lucky, but I ended up figuring out what happened on my own, and was able to retrieve my files.
I am not sure how, but the deletion event (of 18526 files) appeared in the event log, since it was not there previously. I suspect someone at Dropbox did something to make it appear, but I am almost 100% sure it was not there when I placed my support request.
Once I was able to track which files were actually missing, I was able to connect it to an issue with a Dropbox crash and selective sync.
Earlier on the day that all my files were deleted, I had selective synced all of the deleted files to another machine. It looks to me that, instead of selective syncing them, it deleted the files (not all of them, but random ones from the folders I selected). I remember that the first time I went through the selective sync process, Dropbox had crashed when I submitted my selections. I had to relaunch it and restart the process. It was not long after that where the deletion event occurred.
Once I identified what had happened, the Dropbox customer service team simply restored the event.
Again, in my case I got lucky, but I believe that these event happen most commonly after crashes.
If your Dropbox ever crashes, be sure to note the time and what you were doing. It may help you in the future.
- RichSuper User II
As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.
- 30292AF-itoExplorer | Level 3Last week, 26 July 2018, I had immediate access to a very large list of files; but today nothing but access to an old list of files associated with my ACER notebook. Did I exceed my free program limits? If so, I would at least wish to drop many of those files. Lloyd Skaalen
Rich wrote:As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bull**bleep** and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.
- WalterDropbox Staff
Hey there 30292AF-ito - what does your Events page state? Do you see the changes you mentioned logged there? Note that you can see your account's quota anytime through your account's plan tab to see if you have exceeded the space limit of your account.
Keep me posted!
- rjothvasNew member | Level 2
I had 1000's of files in a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile, and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use Installer...are my files now all gone? If not, where are they?
- RichSuper User II
rjothvas wrote:
... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...
How long is a while? If an account remains idle for more than a year, Dropbox will remove it, which also removes all files from the system.
... and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use InstallerIs it possible that you started a new account, instead of signing into your old one? If the old one had been removed and you installed with the same email address, you would have started a new, empty account.
are my files now all gone? If not, where are they?If you're signing in with the same email address and the account is empty, then it's likely as I described above. Otherwise you can try checking the Events page and Deleted Files to see if the files are there, or see if it lists what happened. If both pages are empty (aside from anything new you've done), then you're in a new account.
- Donald J.2New member | Level 2
This morning mysteriously, a whole dropbox folder disappeared. It is not a shared folder. I was using an Indesign out of it, saved the work and moved my Macbook to another room to print it. A practice I do every day. When I went to again edit the file, I couldn't find it, although all my other files are there. Can anybody help me with this please?
- mrptguitarNew member | Level 2
I am having the same problem on my new MacBook Pro. Totally unimpressed after setting everything up and then having all my documents disappear from my computer even though they are selected to sync. They are accessible through the Web access but that is about as helpful as a hip-pocket in a singlet. Worse than useless, it costs me money and I paid for the privilege to waste my own time. Thanks Dropbox... as a cloud service, you suck.
- trjrNew member | Level 2
I was using my dropbox account and had lots of files. I recently forgot my password and needed to get on urgently, after trying multiple times and not receiving a password, I used the google sign in option( used the same email address I always used for dropbox) . Signed in and all my files were deleted like I made a whole new account. now I cant recover anything and all my files are non existent. Please help !
- MeganDropbox StaffHi trjr, thanks for posting to our Community!
It sounds like you created a different Dropbox account.
Can you check your events page, and let me know if you see any deletions there?
Cheers!
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