My account has disappeared

Question

Hello

My account and all my files have completely vanished.  I have been using it regularly all year but this week I went to use the folder on my computer and it wasn't there, so I logged in on Chrome and it said my password wasn't correct.  I tried 4 or 5 times but nothing.  Not knowing what the problem was I tried resetting my password but never got an email to reset it.   I tried that at least half a dozen times.  Then I signed up for a new account with my same email hoping I would get a message saying there's already an account associated with that email but that didn't happen, so now I have an empty account with my email.   I have about 8 years worth of my video editing career on dropbox and I need to talk to someone.  I have emailed customer support but have yet to hear from anyone.  What is the deal? Worst customer support ever.

Hannah · Answer

Hey @jhhh, I'm sorry to hear about this.

How long had it been since you last accessed your account?

If it had been more than a year, then the account was probably disabled due to inactivity.

You would have gotten an email about that beforehand, of course.

Now, if you signed up for a new account using the same email address, unfortunately, you sealed the original account's fate, as it cannot be recovered.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

If you have any questions, let me know.

jhhh · Answer

Hi!

Yesterday I tried to log into my account on the Dropbox website.

My email address wasn't recognized and I was redirected to the registration process.

So I reregistered the same Email address - now I have a 2GB empty account instead of my 10 year old account which included lots of bonus space (close to 9GB for recommendations)...

All my files are gone and all my subscribed folders (folders used to exchange data with customers) are gone.

There seems to be no support to reach - why I get directed to use a chat bot (absolutely not being able to help) is beyond me.

So now I am asking here in hope someone can redirect me to a real support person.

Or is there anything else I can do?

Thanks a lot!

jhhh

Jay · Answer

It does sound like the team admin deleted your account entirely, instead of converting it back to a personal plan.

For 7 days, the account email is reserved since the admin has the ability to recover your account back to the team if it was an accident. Since you're now able to create a new account with the same email, this means it's been over a week, so the original account cannot be recovered.

However, it is still possible that the data on your account is on the team, and the admin can perform an account transfer to themselves, so that they can then share the files to your current personal account.