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Deleted Files on pc

I have had dropbox for a while and mainly use it to transfer pictures and such to and from devices, However, when I updated dropbox on my computer there was an option to sync files. Not really paying attention I agreed and now my ALL of my Documents and Downloads have backed up on Dropbox. I dont have an option to remove the backed-up file but can delete the files within, however when I do that they also dele from my computer. I just want to remove this sync and delete the files from Dropbox and keep them on my pc

UPDATE. I THOUGHT I UNCHECKED THE STUPID OPTION AND IT DELETED ALMOST EVERYTHING IN MY DOCUMENTS AND DOWNLOADS FOLDERS.

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Accepted answers

KaiCaughman

Restored most of the deleted files from dropbox's deleted folder online. No option for that on the app. Still highly recommend an option to maybe NOT delete everything from your computer just so there a reason to fill up the Dropbox online storage forcing people to pay for the larger size. Instead maybe, just maybe, add an easily accessible option to not do that. Thanks

All comments

KaiCaughman

DonnaMartin555

I think I have a similar problem but I'm not sure. Could you please contact me via email at [personal information removed as per Community Guidelines]? I also accidentally did something(I maybe hit that sync option) that caused Dropbox to start downloading my computer files and filling all my available storage space . If I start deleting the files from Dropbox, I'm afraid I'll be deleting files from my computer. Would love to discuss a solution with you, as Dropbox does not appear to provide support to basic, non business clients.

Donna Martin

Lusil

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, @KaiCaughman, glad to hear that you were able to resolve your concern.

@DonnaMartin555, you'll have to turn off the computer backup feature before moving the files back to their original locations.

Let me know how you get on with it, cheers!

stru

Same thing happened to me, early July. The "My PC" folder was huge, and I immediately deleted it, as I did not want to keep all these files online. The result is I've lost a huge ammount of work, as the files were no longer stored locally on my laptop. The funny thing is Dropbox does NOT offer any notification, the only info about this is a box reading "Back Up" during the installation, which is checked by default. So believe me, it was really not your fault for "not paying attention".

So Dropbox removes all your locally stored files and uploads them to an online folder of its own, without asking for permission. I think this new feature is an absolut shame and would definately deserve a law suit, should people like us have enough money & time.

valousme

Hi there

I just had the same problem. I didn't get both were linked and deleted some files permanently (I thought they were only uploaded files not sync so I deleted permanently). No historic info, no rewind possible bc free account...

I tried to recover my files from my computer (restor system) but unsuccessfully. Is there a way to get these files back?

stru

From my experiencence, no. After 3 attempts by professional technicians I was never able to recover my files, because I never actually DELETED them from the hard drive. I lost months of work. This is a scandal. I'm wishing you the best anyway

pachecovzki

Bro, this just happened to me, but worst! I didn't have enough space to sync, I got only 2 gb in my dropbox (basic plan) and when I deleted the dropbox folder on my computer it deleted all my work! The worst part is that it isn't on the deleted files, because dropbox was unable to sync, so I lost everything, years of work! Please, someone help me solve this!

stru

If you "permanently deleted" the files I'm afraid there is no way to get them back. If you just deleted them but not permanently, then you should be able to find them in your dropbox "deleted files"and restore them. As I wrote in previous comments above, it seems that even a professional technician can not restore files that were never actually DELETED from your local drive, but instead MOVED by dropbox into an online folder. You can give it a try though, my advice is get your pc to a technician as soon as possible and see if they can restore something. They could be able to restore at least some older versions of your files. Personally after this catastrophe I stopped using dropbox, after being a user for many years. I do sign in online eventually if I have to, to keep up with work mates who are still using it, but I will never ever again download the app and give access to my pc. I'm now using google drive but only as much as necessary, and I'm doing a back up in an external disk once a week. I can't say this loud enough, those dropbox guys definitely deserve a lawsuit for exposing people to this kind of damage, just because of their aggressive marketing policy. They are very wrong to think that they can treat people with such disrespect, intruding and stealing private data with no permission. A small box ticked by default during the installation, reading "back up", is not adequate notification & permission for moving someone's files out of their local drive, into an online space which obviously is not big enough, and with no option of restoring. The blame is 100% on dropbox and its policies.

willtheron

Hi,

I moved all my folders from my dropbox account onto another drive by selecting it and dragging it over.
The files in my dropbox were removed and my dropbox is now empty.

The folders that were moved over are now empty. there are no documents and/or files in my folders. This means I have just lost a @#$$ load of work.

Why did this happen?

How can I recover those lost files and documents?

PLEASE HELP!!!!????!!!

Megan

Hi @willtheron, welcome to our Community!

When you move content by dragging and dropping them out of the Dropbox folder, the app detects this as a delection.

Can you try checking into your account's deleted files page, to see what you'll find?

Let me know!

willtheron

Hi Lori,

Thank you so much for the quick response. I appreciate it.

On a quick scan, your advice worked well. I'll need to go through all the folders but it seems ok.

Thank you very much!

soher1

i have bought a new laptop and has been proposed to use dropbox to move my files from old computer to the new one which i did but not only the files have been deleted from my laptop 😱 but they do not appear in drop box !!! the folders are empty : how do i retrieve my files ????

thank you for your help

Megan

Hi @soher1, let's see what we can find about this!

Have you checked both your deleted files page and your events page?

Can you give it a look and let me know what you find there?

Thank you very much!

soher1

Bonsoir Megan oui il n'y avait aucun fichier supprimé ni dans mon ordi.

alexneedshelp

Same thing here. Empty folders in my dropbox trash, nothing in my hard drive trash. This is appalling. Where is the actual Dropbox Support?

Walter

Hi @alexneedshelp, sorry to hear about this.

Do you see any signs of your missing files or folders in your events page?

This is the place where all uploads, edits, and deletions are normally logged so it should give you a hint or two.

JLcrypto

Hey Guys

I'm gutted by seeing than Dropbox took the liberty to delete all my files on my Mac

I added Dropbox app as part of my work and the app started to bring all my work dropbox files on my Mac which I did NOT want and took more than 130GB of space.
So I deleted locally the file and even remove the app because I could only use the online version and have access to them without having this problem.

I deleted Dropbox app and suddenly everything on my Mac was deleted as well right away.
Fortunately I made a backup of my personal files on my online dropbox but when I try to download my file back to my Mac it says I have no space whereas I have 130 GB free and the .zip is 6.2GB.

Can someone help me?

1) Get my file back to my Mac

2) Help make sure all the dropbox file are deleted on my disk because I still have high disk usage which was not their before

Thank you guys

Joris

Megan

Hi @JLcrypto, how are you today?

It sounds as if you enabled our Computer backup option on your end, right?

When you say you deleted the folder locally: are you referring to the "My Mac" folder? If I were you, I'd reinstall the app, in order to disable the feature. Then, you can then check in your deleted files page, to see what you'll be able to find there.

Let me know more!

JLcrypto

Hello Megan
Thank you for your time

I did enable computer back end but it was with the intention of backing up my file online like I do with iCloud

Not taking control over my file locally on my laptop

When I deleted the file, I only deleted the file from work that were coming from Dropbox and downloaded themselves on my laptop (about 130 GB) so I deleted them and only them, then I deleted the app DropBox. And when I deleted the app, all my files from my Mac (except my music) where deleted as well, which obviously was absolutely not the objective.

Now I managed to download my file back again but I can't access my desktop anymore nor my download. The link were deleted as well. I can not put anything back on my desktop.

Your solution will be to reinstall Dropbox, disable the computer backup feature, get back my file (if necessary) and delete the app again?
I was happy with the online version but the desktop app really messed up my computer, sorry to say that.

Thank you

Joris

JLcrypto

Anyone can help?

I found it insane to allow such big problems happening (you can see online and on this forum that the problem is common to a lot of people)

And there is almost no support

I'm still unable to use my desktop or my download since I deleted the dropbox app
I downloaded my file back fortunately but It seems Dropbox messed up with my permissions and I'm not allowed to use my desktop/download

Any help to retrieve it appreciated

Walter

Hey @JLcrypto, sorry to hear you're still having issues with this.

Could you maybe try the steps outlined here and let me know if it helped improve matters?

JLcrypto

Yes it works at least ! Thank you

I had to remove some files because I could not open them without Dropbox even if they were originals file from my computer at the beginning.
Sorry but never again the desktop app
Never again ! It has mess up with my Mac so much it's insane

I have some shaggy mouse now when I use it, like it's going to bug and it never happens before

Anyway at least I have my desktop/download back and I deleted that horrible app for good
Thanks

Walter

Glad to hear you're back up and running and thanks for the feedback on this too @JLcrypto

Let me know if you have anything else to add or ask.

Farion

Hello,
Your software deleted all my files from my Dropbox folder on my PC. What the hell? It had to synchronise with them, not delete them. Now I've lost all my photos and videos from 2013-19, thank you Dropbox. I had no copies. The Dropbox support didn’t even check my problem and redirected me back to Dropbox. I also would like to put some screenshots of my PC and the chats with Dropbox online services as an evidence. I’ll be gratefulI if someone from the technical support of dropbox will help me retrieve my files as they are of very high importance to me, I’ll even give manual control of my PC/account via TeamViewer or any other software. I need my files.

Megan

Hi @Farion, sorry to hear about that!

You mentioned you contacted our Support team, right? Do you have a ticket number that I can check on my end?

Let me know!

Farion

Sorry, for answering after a month, I was enlisted to the army, didn’t had the opportunity to check out the website. The ticket no. is: #232886

Akerke Maulenbay

I do have similar problem with back up! My question is: is it possible to get back all my files? (I thought i was deleting files on dropbox, but turned out my conputer is fully empty).

I do not know anything refarding dropbox, actualy i personally consider it not a user friendly.

Please, help me! years of work (!) have been gone.

Akerke Maulenbay

I am not a very confident user of cloud storage, but I needed to exchange just a couple of files. To do this, I downloaded dropbox. I did not give permission to sync absolutely all the files on my work computer, and I did not even know that all the files were somehow related to dropbox. Synchronization was stopped about two months ago. Since I no longer needed file sharing, I wanted to remove dropbox. But when I uninstalled the application, absolutely all files were deleted from my work computer. These are years of work and data collection (!). I urgently need the recovery files. Please, help.

I found some deleted and added files from the link in the events. I'm afraid to do anything, so as not to make things worse!

PLEASE HELP!!!

Jay

Hi @Akerke Maulenbay, I've merged you to this thread for users with similar issues.

Could you check on your machine for an old Dropbox folder to see if the files are visible there?

Jay

Hi @Farion, this isn't a valid ticket ID, could you check it again on the system?