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The account appears to have been deleted without a warning.

Hello,

I hope someone can help. I have had a dropbox account going back many years, and have been using it to upload family photos (and camera uploads automatically from my phone). In October last year, I received an email saying my account had been downgraded as a payment for my plan hadn't gone through—but my inbox is a mess, so I only just saw it this evening.

The email said it was downgraded but that my files hadn't been deleted. There was nothing about deletion. However, when I logged in tonight, it's like a brand new account... No files at all, no event/account activity.

Has anyone had a similar situation? I'm so frightened that I've lost everything, as this was my backup. I don't know what I'll do if I can't recover my files. That's my wedding, my deceased family members, my whole life going back to 2012...

Any assistance at all would be so appreciated. Thank you in advance!

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Rich

chlojito wrote:
However, when I logged in tonight, it's like a brand new account... No files at all, no event/account activity.

Are you sure you're signing in with the correct email address? Are you using the email address where you received the message about the downgrade?

Do you have any other emails from Dropbox? After the downgrade, if you ended up over your quota for an expended period of time then Dropbox would have started sending you warnings about possible deletions due to the overage. Do you see any such emails?

Sivmo

The same happened to me. I tried all the email addresses i have ever owned. It just logged in as a new account. I’m devastated. Mine was a personal account. Please advise

chlojito

Hello—thank you for your message!

No, I didn't receive any warnings re: deletion. Yes, I'm signing in with the correct email address; I checked through my inbox to triple check I was using the right one, the one that I received emails about re: the downgrade. I am.

I'm just thinking, surely they have backups, right? They must. Surely my files are on a server somewhere... They must be. There has to be a way to roll things back or recover files. Even if there was a fee, I'd pay it!

Megan

Hey @chlojito & @Sivmo, thanks for posting here!

Also, do you recall when was the last time you accessed your Dropbox account, by any chance?

Is it possible that you opened a new account, instead of logging into your old one? I'm asking because it sounds like this might be the case.

Do you see any signs of your files in your events page by the way? If it's a brand new account, it'd most likely seem empty.

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

Sivmo

I used it last, last month. When i went into the app, it had logged me out, i tried logging in, for it to say wrong password. Then i pressed forgot password and it created a new account for me. I am 100% sure that’s the email i have used before. It’s a completely new account. The restore function does not work as it says nothing to restore. Please help.

Megan

Hey @Sivmo, have you tried searching for any Dropbox related email in your inbox?

Checking for any old devices, that might still be linked with the old Dropbox account that you were using might also do the trick.

If this doesn't work either, I can send you an email in order for us to look into this.

Clairecox

Literally the same thing has happened to me. I've logged in and I have zero images or folders. Could this be a Dropbox error if there are several people getting the same thing? I'm baffled and completely gutted. You can't seem to be able to get hold of anyone at Dropbox either. What can we do? There's got to be a way?

Mark

Clairecox wrote:
Could this be a Dropbox error if there are several people getting the same thing?

No it isnt.

Clairecox wrote:
m baffled and completely gutted

How long ago did you last log in? Was it over 12 months?

What does www.dropbox.com/events show?

Clairecox wrote:
You can't seem to be able to get hold of anyone at Dropbox either.

www.dropbox.com/support will let you log a ticket BUT you must do it while not logged in, even to here. So use an incognito window.

Clairecox

Hi. I have the same. I was only in it a few weeks ago, even possibly last week. It's not a new account as the login and password are all saved to my computer. Please help.

Clairecox

Thanks so much. Was logged in maximum 2 weeks ago, but think I even downloaded an image last week. The app on my phone is also showing no photos or files?

Mark

chlojito wrote:
I'm just thinking, surely they have backups, right?

If an account is removed due to inactivity, or, files are deleted and not recovered within the recovery window (30 days for free users) there is no recovery possible. The files are removed - you are warned this repeatedly on the emails sent.

Dropbox removes data for inactivity, or, being over quota - that was something which came in awhile ago but would have been in different emails to your downgrade one.

Clairecox

I have just upgraded again to the 2TB paid option and the photos have appeared back. It seems I can only access them when paying.

chlojito

Hi Megan,

I don't recall the last time I accessed my account; I have it linked to the app on my phone so the camera uploads happen automatically—does that count?

I tried to log in using my usual email/password combination, and it appears to be a brand new account now, with no files at all. No signs of anything in the events page; as in, there are zero events, it's a blank slate.

I'm so frightened I've lost everything; I've already started grieving all those lost memories. Please, can you let me know if there's any way we can roll things back? Surely they're all still on a server somewhere? I used to pay for the account, and I've had it for many years, maybe there's a backup somewhere?

I can't have lost everything. I don't know what I'll do. Please let me know?

Jay

HI @chlojito, when you say you had it connected to your phone, do you mean prior to the recent login?

From what you've described, it sounds like the account has been deleted, meaning that it wouldn't be possible to recover the account or the files within.

Do you have any other devices that could've been connected to your account prior to now, in order to try to recover any local data from there?

Sivmo

I have, but that email address like I said, created a new account unfortunately.

that would be great as I still have hope this can be recovered! 🥹

Hannah

Hey @Sivmo, you can actually contact our support team yourself, by following these steps:

Open a private browsing/incognito window on your browser
Without logging in to your Dropbox account, go to this page
Fill out the form and submit your request

When you have your ticket number, please send it along to us as well.

chlojito

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies. I’ve been too depressed to log in here in fear of there being no solution.

i didn’t receive any emails,@Megan. Please, is there anyway? I’d pay any amount of money to recover those photos… so many of my grandparents that I now longer have, and they’ve since passed away. I was uploading them here to keep them safe; I thought I was being smart. I don’t think I’ll handle it well if they’re lost forever. My husband has suggested perhaps there are back-ups somewhere (not that he’s an expert, obviously—just trying to give me hope, I think).

please do let me know?

Best,

Chloé

Mark

chlojito wrote:
My husband has suggested perhaps there are back-ups somewhere (not that he’s an expert, obviously—just trying to give me hope, I think).

There arent I'm afraid. Once an account is removed its permanent. Can you imagine the legal complaints and ramifications if they say they have deleted all data permanently and then it transpires they havent?

There could have been a slim chance maybe a day or so after removal, but, after 5 months thats not happening I'm afraid. Even paid accounts (i.e ones paying at the time) only get a 6 month recovery window and unfortunately you've waited 5 months to follow up the thread.

Jay

HI @chlojito, as @Mark said, by now it wouldn't be possible to recover any files from a Dropbox account, let alone one that was deactivated or deleted.

The only possibility remaining for you is if you had a device that was once connected to your account, which hasn't yet synced to Dropbox. The device should still have those files on the hard drive.