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 ...
... 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 Installer
Is 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.
I had the same problem and submitted a help ticket. They responded with wrote answer thinking it's user error but I have seen several other reporting similar issue. They also had a file deletion bug last October 2014 (see link below). Yesterday thousands of files in a shared folder were deleted from Dropbox account for all shared users. It shows it was done from my computer when I look at the deleted files but I was using my computer at the timestamp and not deleting thousands of files. When I go to the Events page on Dropbox it does not show this deletion event. Something happened on Dropbox's end. I have submitted a help ticket and I hope they own up to this and fix it.
http://www.cnet.com/news/dropbox-fixes-file-deletion-bug-offers-year-of-free-service/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/13/dropbox-selective-sync-bug/
http://betanews.com/2014/10/13/cloud-burst-dropbox-confirms-bug-deleted-user-files/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3037055/elasticity/dropbox-bug-deletes-user-files
I'm having the same problem. Will you please post what DropBox responds to your ticket?
I do not know how the subfolders and files were deleted. Maybe one of the shared users with "edit" privilege could have unwittingly deleted the contents of the entire main folder. I scoured the Dropbox help pages and found a solution after I submitted a trouble ticket.
Go to the empty folder and click on the trash can icon. It will most likely show all deleted files. Right click on the folder or file and you will see an option to "restore".
This is how I restored all of my deleted files and folders too. However, it's highly unlikely that several people all simultaneously with shared folders had their files mysteriously deleted on the same day by each having someone with access doing it. It also doesn't explain when I look at the Events tab on the right-hand side of the screen why every other file that I knowingly deleted or added shows in the history but these mysteriously deleted files don't show in the Event history. Clearly this was some bug that happened on Dropbox's side and they haven't taken responsibility for it yet, likely won't if not enough outcry is made and they hear from enough of us to force them to do the right and ethical thing by taking responsibility and making sure it doesn't happen again.
Robert,I agree your assessment of mysteriously deleted files is plausible. I solved my problem by viewing the events log that clearly stated one of the individuals with access deleted the folders and files. Fortunately, I was able to completely restore them. However, I have not spoken to this individual and I do not believe she deleted these file intentionally but I do know she was copying (downloading) these files and that's when these files were (most likely) inexplicably deleted.
I am missing a massive amount of files. All my folders are still in place but they are ALL empty and my Dropbox folder on my Mac is empty as well because they are synced.
I am soon screwed! I really need these files and thought Dropbox was a great way to have files on my hard drive and in "the cloud" and now I have NOTHING and can't seem to get connected to anyone at DB.
I will obviously need a different solution moving forward but that doesn't help me find the 2TB of files I lost!
https://help.dropbox.com/security/missing-reappearing-corrupted-files
https://help.dropbox.com/security/recover-deleted-files-folders
And remember, Dropbox is NOT a replacement for a back up system - no cloud storage ever is. You should ALWAYS have more than one!
So suddenly folders were missing that I owned, but other people had access to them and show me as a member. I tried to recover the folder and I recovered it but there was nothing in in! Event history tells me there are only 4 moments of history and that I joined and left the folder on September 9, 2015 --this folder has been active for over 3 years! This is happening with multiple folders, what can I do?
@Mark Mc --yeah, there are no files any more they've just vanished, no history, nothing. Unbelievable. Yeah, the cloud is supposed to be my primary back-up!
I see issues similar to what I'm experiencing above. What in the world happened to all of my files? I was just accessing earlier today....
C'mon Dropbox - we pay for this service.
Same here.
ALL files vanished without trace!
Two days ago they were here, but now they simply vanished! ALL files!
Please help ASAP!
The restore of files was enabled. All good now.
Tks!
I would like to add my two cents
I too lost a huge amount of files. Random tho. Some various photo files so doc files. But when I say some, I mean thousands of files. I was in shock.
Luckily I was able to restore ( trash an, click on deleted file and the restore )
but why did this happen ? We pay good money for Dropbox. I understand that
things happen but I would like reassurance that the bug is being fixed as I have no intention to keep restoring files in the years ahead.
All my files are gone. Just folders remain... Not OK! Any word from Dropbox??
All of my folders except one disappeared recently. The same with my wife's Dropbox folders. In my Events it said I 'left' certain folders. It appears that I stopped being a person sharing that folder, even tho I created it. Dropbox did it, I didn't. In the web interface there is an option to 'Rejoin' these folders. I rejoined and all of my folders and files now show up. They were not deleted.
Currently puzzled: Dropbox icon disappeared from menu; now Dropbox is busy re-syncing thousands of files. Luckily, I have up-to-date copies of all my "important" and "active" business-related files on my Mac Mini. Hopefully I won't need them. stay tuned - more details of interest if and when they occur. - PM
I am missing files in folder that were not shared, and I haven't deleted. Looking back to a folder I archived on DB years ago I see the folders are the but are empty. This is terrible! I have ten of thousands of files on here and sync with my PC that are work related. Periodically I go looking for something and its just gone! No idea what I am missing!
At least 10gb of our files are missing in our Business Dropbox account. What's going on?
I can access my files on my tablet but I am on a Mac and I cannot access a single file. The home page is blank!
Lots of random files are missing - they have not been deleted or shared! HELP!
I'm having the same issue, folders are there but files are missing. I can see a couple of files I worked on several days ago but they only appear in the recents list - not in the folders where they belong. The folders I belong to are empty as well - so I know it's not me. If it were my fault - they'd be in the recently deleted. As I viewed them on my phone I could see them disappear. Now there not in the Finder interface, not on the web, not on my phone. About the only thing I've done was sign up for a Paper account but I hadn't even gotten my invite (or signed in) before the files began to disappear. Ugh.
We all seem to be having the same or very similar issues around the same date. Dropbox??? What's up?
Hello Dropbox, I followed your instructions with TWEETING @dropboxsupport yesterday - no answer. Loads of my FOLDERS and FILES are missing - at least those that i remember as i have set them up just recently.
I am a PRO user and paid money. The account is due on 24th december.
Please help by clarifying first - why does it say "deleted" when i was looking for them? Though I saw Recover File - but still doesnt explain why it went missing?
This raised lots of doubts about your service. Please reply TQ
nazril.idrus@gmail.com
The same thing has happened to me too. I also pay for my dropbox account and use dropbox because I was under the impression that nothing was more reliable than backing work up in the cloud. I wanted to de-sync dropbox with one laptop to free up some space but when I realised this was un-necessary for various reasons, I re-synced it. I checked the account online on Sunday and there was no issue. This was over night between Sunday 13th Dec and Monday 14th Dec 2015. I use multiple devices for a mixture of freelance work and for all of my PhD studies as well as personal files like the back up for all of my photos and I have now lost everything - this equates to hundreds, if not thousands of files. I was also kicked out of all my shared folders which I have now re-joined but there was a huge amount of work that wasn't in shared folders - these are all gone. There is nothing in the deleted folder apart from a few files that all seem to be encrypted. I am absolutely distraught and in desperate need of help. I have no idea what to do for the best. For instance, will it work to try and recover the files from time machine on the iMac I use? I have tweeted @dropboxsupport and emailed them from the contact section but I have received no response.
Please help.
Hayley
I think everything might be solved...
Hey Hayley
What is "the event page"? I've got loads of files being deleted all over my dropbox. It takes a long time to get them to recover
Thanks
all of my files (years of family pictures) are missing. all of my folders say empty! I shared none of them and no one has access to them except me. my deleted files says nothing has been deleted, my shared files says nothing has been shared, my files are just all GONE! with the exception on one picture. literally all my family pictures for the past 10+ years are gone. anyone please help. I've been paying them monthly for the extra space thinking the files would be safe. what can I do??
HI Nazril and Karen,
None of my missing files were in the deleted files section either. For me, I received an auto email notification from Dropbox (I have a gmail account so it went into the "updates" section) to say that it had noticed a large "deletion event". It gave me the option to restore my files from the events section.
Go to your account home page and on the left hand side, under the dropbox icon, there is a list of options starting with "recents" and "files". Go the the "events" option. This is a record of all the changes made to files in your account. In the drop down menu in the top right, select "all" and set the date to just before everything went missing. As long as it happened in the last 30 days (unless you already pay for dropbox to keep hold of deleted files for longer) there should be an event there saying that your files have been deleted with an option to restore when you click through to that event. If there is no option to restore but you have found the event, email the dropbox support team with the link to the event and they should be able to restore it for you.
Hope that helps? I only just found this out myself.
thanks, I tried that and it said that there were no events. I'm just extremely suspicious because it is sooooo hard to get a hold of anyone by email, not to mention impossible by phone. makes me so darn angry!!! thanks for the help though. I do appreciate it!
Today I checked that some of my files were vaporized without any track. There is no information in recent file list, no way to restore files.! Dropbox was the one of the best for me, I will move files to another company's cloud system.
My important files are gone!
