Documents, Downloads, and Desktop folders are gone on my MB Pro. Dropbox has folders but no files

Hey @tgelhaus, thanks for all the info and the updates!

I'd also suggest searching for My Mac folder on your Finder. Keep in mind that it could be hidden.

To show hidden folders/files: Press Command+Shift+Dot (Command + Shift + .)

Let me know what you find!

All comments

Hey @tgelhaus, and welcome to our Community!

It seems you're referring to our Computer Backup feature.

Have you tried checking your account's Deleted files page here? If none of your content is visible there for you to restore, then I'd suggest looking into your device's trash, to see if you can locate it there.

Keep me posted on what you find, and we'll take it from there!

tgelhaus

Hi Lori!

First off, thank you so much for helping out! None of the files were in the Deleted files page, and I found a zip file of my downloads folder in the trash, ...moved it to my desktop, but opening it revealed it to be a copy of what I found on my computer this morning...all the folders, but all of them are empty. I put some screenshots here with different folders selected as examples..no files in any of them..in fact aside from a couple screenshots I took earlier today. This is how all the folders in my Documents and Desktop tabs look as well..empty!

Screen Shot 2021-04-22 at 9.18.44 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-22 at 9.18.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-22 at 9.19.08 PM.png

tgelhaus

Update: I found a handful of folders in my Desktop folder that still have files! It's very strange tho..it's as if everything that hadn't synced with Dropbox yet by the time I messed with it got deleted, but whatever small amount of files HAD synced got saved...

tgelhaus

Hi again!

I initially searched through Finder and came up with nothing, just the My Mac folder that has all the missing files.., BUT I decided just to look in the Trash and lo and behold, a hidden My Mac with a different icon appeared..I attached a screenshot of after I dragged it back to my desktop. I opened it up and everything is there! All the files, everything! So many thanks for helping me find this. This is a great weight off my shoulders going forward.

I do have one final question! Now that I've found this folder, where is it's proper home space on my computer? Does it go somewhere in Macintosh HD? Someplace else? Basically how do I overwrite/consolidate the folders with missing data currently in my Finder with these new/old folders that have everything?

Thank you so, so much again! I cannot stress enough how much this brings me relief!

Screen Shot 2021-04-23 at 4.37.04 PM.png

Hey @tgelhaus, wishing you a great Monday so far!

Happy to see that your issue is resolved, and that you located your content!

You can drag-and-drop those files or folders back to their original paths at any time.You would need to update the new content manually, and that would do the trick.

Give me a nudge if you have any other questions, I'd be happy replying them!

I have exactly the same problem after using dropbox today. My desktop folder and download folder are gone and I see them on dropbox.com but not in finder anymore. This is quite annoying.

Any suggestion please let me know. Thank you

unfortunately I have emptied my trash and I do see the maps desktop and download on dropbox.com but have no idea how to put them back as I need them on my Macbook Pro...

Hi,

After using Dropbox yesterday my desktop folder and download folder disappeared from finder on my Macbook Pro. When I start using Dropbox it started to sync and I stopped it, emptied my trash and deleted the files in the sync folder. After this my desktop and download folder where gone in Finder. I searched in hidden files but no desktop of download folders anymore. When going to dropbox.com I see the folders there and have no idea how to get them back to my HD on my Mac. Please let me know how to get the folders back on my Mac. Thank you

Hey @Tornaduc, thank you for posting here!

As a first step, can you clarify if you've disabled the feature following the steps shown here?

Let me know, and we'll take it from there!

Thank you for your reply.

I deleted all related to Dropbox as I wanted to restore all in finder via back up. Now I try to install dropbox again but Safari says there is not enough space to download the DMG installer file while I have more then 500GB available on my HD. As my download folder has disappeared I am not sure how to download the DMG file anymore. I made a new folder "download" from my back up and copied all the lost files into this new folder but my mac dos not acknowledge this folder so I assume that the refusal of the download has something to do with this.

Jay

Hi @Tornaduc, when you disabled the computer backup feature, did you get the option to move the folders back to their default locations?

Regarding the message you're getting, are you certain it's referring to the space on your hard drive, and not the space in your Dropbox account?

Hi Jay,

In the mean time I succeeded in downloading the dropbox app again by changing the settings and I have i stalled the app “dropbox” again. However this does not solve my problem on how to get the download and desktop folder back to my harddisk. When going to “Dropbox.com” I see my missing folders but no option to put them back on my Macbook Pro. I even copied the file and now I have “dekstop 1 and download 1”. I also check how to delete these but do not find a way to do so.

Jay

According to the desktop app, is the computer backup feature definitely disabled?

leswoodland

I have a similar problem, only the My Mac folder is not complete...some folders are empty and missing files. Is there a way to get them back? Irony is I wanted to backup some files, and instead I've lost them!

Les

leswoodland

Just saw this now. Thanks, my files appear to be there!!

Les

I have disabled the backups but the app says it can not stop the backup. I wanted to add some screenshots but as the desktop folder is missing (where it usually keeps the screenshots) I have no idea where the Mac storages the screenshots now....:-(

Seems I got the desktop back and also dragged the download folder back to the favorites in finder. Desktop seems to work again but download folder is empty but I could recover them from my HD....very strange so its all quite confusing....Hope all works now like it did before Dropbox changed.

The exact same thing happened to me! Everything is gone!!!!!!!! I cant find it in trash, deleted items... nothing. Its like as soon as dropbox downloaded it erased EVERYTHING. Hours and hours of work and school just gone...

Hey @ryanjenks, sorry to hear about this.

Can you please let us know some additional information about the issue you're facing? Did you enable the computer backup feature when you installed the desktop app on your computer, perhaps?

Do you see any of the missing files on our website, be it in the deleted files page or the events page?

Hello,

Thanks for such a quick reply! In regards to the computer back up I don’t believe I did. Also I did not see the missing files in either of those categories.

It’s very weird. My files were all there and then Dropbox downloaded and everything is just vanished. I got my desktop and documents back but they are empty all my stuff is gone. As for my downloads folder, that is just completely gone. I reached out to Apple support and they weren’t able to help me and we’re confused by the situation as well.
I really hope the files are not just gone. I have worked really hard on the contents in those files.

Have you tried enabling the hidden files to show up on your computer to see if you can find your files that way @ryanjenks?

I have yes.

Thanks for clearing this up for me @ryanjenks

May I reach out via email to have a better look internally?

I'm not promising anything, I just want to make sure we've covered all bases.

Hi. Yes you may.
My laptop is currently in the shop right now as I am hopping they can retrieve my files.

I hope they'll be able to help, Ryan.

In any case, as promised, I just sent you an email, so please take a look at your inbox and we'll take it from there.

John T.64

Hi,

I have a friend going through this exact scenario at the moment. Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders do not physically exist, contents of what has been transferred to Dropbox are incomplete and she has already been in contact with Support who have advised her to reinstall and cancel syncing so that files may be restored.

I don't use the Computer Backup function myself, so I've no experience in this exact scenario.

Having looked at this thread, the showing hidden files tip hasn't yielded the files/folders she's looking for, nor the deleted files/events at the site. What I have done is arranged for her to get the Dropbox installer onto a USB stick and launching it that way, as it couldn't be downloaded.

She's now receiving a prompt on launch asking her to either restore the Dropbox folder's location or relink to her account to restore from the "web version".

Both of us are unsure what to do at this step as a) this thread does not address this step specifically and b) we just want to restore the contents of those folders.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

John T.64

Really need some assistance with this, please?