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Random person's photos/videos in my Dropbox account

I have no idea why this is happening, but there must be another user synced to my dropbox because there are photo and movie uploads of someone I do not know. I try to delete them but they keep reappearing and new ones are added, and now my dropbox is almost full but it's full of this random person's stuff! How do I stop this?!

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Orla

Hi Marisa, so that you have a better understanding of where these files are coming from, it may be helpful to know where these files are located in your Dropbox account and then look at how these files were added to your account.

To find out where a file is in your Dropbox account, right click the file on the Dropbox web site and select "Show in Folder". This will show you where this file is located. Photos or videos are usually found in the Camera Upload folder or a shared folder (read below for more information). You can now check which user and device added this file to your account. You can do this by right clicking the file on the website and clicking "previous version history".

Now that you have these pieces of information, please read below to check if either of the following situations explain the issue:

CASE A: The files are in the Camera Upload folder

When enabled, Camera Uploads will automatically upload photos and videos from a camera, phone, tablet, SD card or other media device connected to a computer running the Dropbox Mac or Windows desktop app. Before uploading from one of these devices, a popup window will ask the user if he or she wants to use Camera Uploads for that device. If the user confirms the use of Camera Uploads, photos and videos will be imported from that device to the Dropbox account associated with it. The user may only see this popup the first time a device is connected. Once a device has been approved for Camera Uploads, the photos and videos from that device will be automatically uploaded to Dropbox every time that device is connected to your computer.

If the photos were uploaded to the Camera Upload folder from a computer, it may mean that someone connected a device to your computer. For example, someone may have used your computer to charge their phone or connected a USB memory stick to transfer a file even without you being aware and clicked ok on the Camera Upload message without realizing. If they did this, their photos and videos would be uploaded to your account. You can fix this by deleting the photos and videos from your Dropbox account. This will not delete files from the device that uploaded the photos and videos or from any other Dropbox account.

If the files were uploaded to the Camera Upload folder from a mobile device, it means that your Dropbox account is signed in to a mobile device with Camera Upload enabled. This could have happened if you forgot to sign out from a mobile device that did not belong to you. It is also possible that someone has access to your password and logged on to your account from their mobile device. You should make sure that your email account is secure and that your Dropbox account has a strong, unique password. Additionally, you should also review the devices linked to your account and unlink any devices unfamiliar to you here:

https://www.dropbox.com/account/security

CASE B: The files are in a Shared Folder

Shared Folders are an easy way to share content with others. Anything that is placed in a shared folder is available to all of the members of that shared folder.

If the files are found in a shared folder, it means that one of the members of the shared folder added the files to that folder by mistake or because they wanted to share them with the other shared folder members. If you do not believe that these files should be in that shared folder, please reach out to the person who added them to suggest another location.

I hope this helps!

Jimmy H.1

I have the same issue, Photos and videos att apearing in my Camera Upload directory that is not mine.

I have checked https://www.dropbox.com/account/security and all sessions and devices are known to me, its stated there that the sessions is from sweden as expected.

In the photos and videos that's not mine the kid holding the phone/camera and his family is clearly not from or in sweden.

Reading the event log https://www.dropbox.com/events these syncs started 2015-02-25 and is still ongoing and it's stated that it's me that has uploaded the files

This is messed up.

All the active sessions are from sweden known to me and all the connected devices are in my home, still a 10 year old kid somewere is uploading tons of sefies and videos of his family on my account.

I have the same question as Marissa, how do i stop this? and does he have access to all of my other files aswell?

I'm starting to question the security of dropbox...

I had a strong password, but I will now change it and hope these wierd selfie bombing will end.

Jimmy H.1

Wtf... I just changed my dropbox password on the web and the new password works when loging in to the website and the old is declined.

But i am still able to browse, see and play all my dropbox content in the app on my phone and ipad without setting the new password.

Does this mean that my new found 10 year old friend can keep using my account until he deletes the app from his phone?

Suzanne P.8

i have the same problem

except all from th 25/4/15

its been happening since the beginning of the year and even when i delete them the same photos show up again

Suzanne P.8

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p5lkd4wwt6jtwfe/2015-04-25%2017.34.59.jpg?dl=0

this is one of the photos as an example

Waltet H.

I experienced the same thing. It happened after i sold my old smartphone who had the connection with this dropboxaccount...I diconnected the device from dropbox and it was solved. I also changed the log in password fr dropbox

Ricardo M.16

I'm having the same issue with this photo
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/j6lamsgiu90gjj0/AADROCRJeV8mVcuFv5O0FYdda
It appeared in my dropbox account legal after being sync with my mobile phone. I've checked the photo isn't in my phone and I don know any one in that photo... Serious security failure in dropbox...

Mark

Somebody has access to your account then Ricardo - or a computer you use.

It isnt possible for Dropbox to upload 'to the wrong account'.

If you click on the photo (your link doesnt work btw) and then 'Restore Previous Versions' it will tell you where the files come from. That is where you need to up your security.

Ricardo M.16

No. I'm the only one with access to my computers and the strangers part of it, it happened when I connected my mobile to my computer and dropbox made photos sync. I simply disabled photo sync and deleted the photos then. I've restored the photos in order to get them assessable. I'm really concern about this security failure. Also. I've checked in the history panel and that strange photo had only 25,64 kB all photos that were synced with my mobile had 1-2MB!!!

This is the link for the strage photo https://www.dropbox.com/s/qo986saslv6okls/2015-08-19%2016.14.07.jpg?dl=0

The strange photo had this info while pressing cmd+i > Notice the low resolution the squared aspect ratio, and the lack of information about the device used to take the photo... All my photos coming from my mobile sync had this information <img id=

Scott G.22

The past week, a bunch of random pictures kept getting posted into my dropbox. Even in my private un-shared folders. The weird thing is that it says it was uploaded by a user that I have a different shared folder with, but he swears he doesn't even know where the images came from. We deleted the images today and opened my dropbox a few minutes later to see the picture was uploaded 3 more times, all at times where i wasnt on my dropbox and neither was the person who i have a seperate shared folder with. There seems to he some sort of security failure or bug...

Robert S.

See: Someone else's photos are appearing in my Dropbox. Why is this happening?

Malik M.2

Please bring back the picture from Dropbox to my phone u don't know where to get them

[This thread is now closed by moderators due to inactivity. If you're experiencing a similar behavior, feel free to start a new discussion in the Dropbox Community here.]