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rabchapman's avatar
rabchapman
New member | Level 2
8 months ago
Status:
Closed

Prevention of Local Data Loss on Account Deletion for users with syncing issues

Our organization recently purged a user account that no longer had any data stored in Dropbox on the web. Unbeknownst to us, the user's Desktop client had not synchronized for over a year. The user seldom used Dropbox and ignored or missed error messages presented by the client (support indicated that the client had been in an error state throughout the available logging period). Unfortunately, the user had also opted to back up their Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folders during the Dropbox install, which re-homed these folders within the Dropbox folder.

 

We took the default option to purge local data upon deletion of the account, and while the client couldn't successfully synchronize data, it was able to successfully purge the local Dropbox folder, including 1+ years' worth of unsynchronized data. 

 

Admins should have a way to identify clients in an error state, and they should be warned that data may be lost before purging an account with clients that are failing to synchronize.

 

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    Walter
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