nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

My Basic account is still active after 3 years, the password works but I can't access my email

Louwgy3

Hi,
I have an old Dropbox Basic account that I haven’t been able to access for about 3 years.

I still know the correct password.
Two-factor authentication is enabled and the 6-digit code is sent to an old email address that I no longer have access to.
I have no recovery phone number and no backup codes.
I am not logged in on any device or app.

Every time I try to log in, the password is accepted but I get stuck at the 2FA code step.
My main goal is simply to permanently delete this account
My questions are:

Does attempting to log in (password accepted + 2FA prompt) count as activity and reset the inactivity timer?
Since the account has already been inactive for 3 years, is it still possible that it will eventually be automatically deleted?

Thank you for any clarification.

Find more posts tagged with

Security

Account Access

Create or Delete Account

Accepted answers

All comments

Jay

Hi @Louwgy3, thanks for contacting us.

Just to clarify, could this be the 6 digit security code needed to log in to your Dropbox account, and not two-step authentication, which does require a phone or authenticator app?

The former does send an email to the Dropbox account email address, which from what you're describing you don't have access to.

Do you know if that account is part of any shared folders, which could indicate that it is still in use somehow?

Whatever details you can provide, even if they seem small, will help us get to the bottom of this together.

Louwgy3

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, you are correct. It is the 6-digit security code sent by email to the Dropbox account email address (not two-step verification with a phone or authenticator app).
I no longer have access to that email address (it was a address that has been inactive/deleted for a long time).
Regarding shared folders:
As far as I know, the account is not part of any shared folders. I was the only user and I stopped using it completely about 3 years ago. I have not shared any folders with other people.
Additional details:

The account is a free Basic account.
I still know the correct password.
Every time I try to log in, the password is accepted and Dropbox asks for the 6-digit code sent by email.
I am not logged in on any computer or phone.

Please let me know if the account will eventually be automatically closed due to inactivity.
Thank you for your help.

Jay

Yes, after 12 months of inactivity, the account should be disabled as per the details in this article.

However, if you wish, you can try to contact the support team directly to see what options exist for that account as it is. You can do this by opening an incognito/private browsing window, while not signed into any account, and accessing this link.

From there you should be able to contact support. Make sure to enter the email you currently have access to in order to be able to reply to the support agents.

In the meantime, if there's anything else we can assist with, feel free to reply back here!

Louwgy3

Thanks for your reply.
Just to clarify one last point:
Is it possible that my previous login attempts (where the password was accepted and Dropbox asked for the 6-digit security code) counted as activity, and that this is why my account is still active after more than 3 years?
I just want to understand whether or not these partial login attempts reset the inactivity timer.

If that is indeed the case, then I’ll just have to wait.
Thanks.

Mark

Just to clarify something here.

Is it possible that my previous login attempts (where the password was accepted and Dropbox asked for the 6-digit security code) counted as activity, and that this is why my account is still active after more than 3 years?

The account itself, for some reason, always seems to stay active. So even if the account is deleted by Dropbox, logging in again causes it to automatically re-create a brand new empty account.

So I'd not assume that the attempt at logging in would be keeping your data safe. This is almost the expected outcome. If you ever manage to regain access to your email and thus log on I'd assume your account would be empty of data.

Hannah

Hi from me as well, @Louwgy3.

Indeed, trying to log in to an account, would not be considered "activity".

Do you know roughly how much data used to be in the account?

And is it possible that the account was linked to a Dropbox team account?

Louwgy3

Thanks for the explanation.
However, I ran a test in the past that leads me to believe the account still exists.
Some time ago, I manually deleted another Dropbox account as a test. After deletion, when I tried to log back in using the same email address, Dropbox rejected the old password and did not ask for the 6-digit security code. Instead, the system prompted me to create a brand-new account (by entering my personal details, etc.).
In this case, however, the password is still accepted, and Dropbox consistently asks for the 6-digit security code. This behavior differs from what I observed with an account that had actually been deleted.
That is why I think the original account is still active; I wonder if repeated login attempts (password accepted + security code request) could explain why it hasn't been deactivated after more than three years.
Do you know if this type of partial login attempt can reset the inactivity timer?
Thanks.

Louwgy3

Thank you for the clarification.
Regarding your questions:

The account is a free Basic account with 2 GB of storage. It was never part of any Dropbox team or business account.
The account was full and had exceeded the 2 GB limit.

I still don’t understand why the account still appears to be active after more than 3 years of inactivity.
Thanks for your help.

Louwgy3

Thank you for your reply.
Just to make sure I’ve understood correctly:
In my case, the password is accepted by Dropbox, and then the system asks for the 6-digit security code (which I am unable to receive).
Does this specific scenario (password accepted + security code request) still not count as activity?
Or is it only a completely failed login attempt (incorrect password) that is disregarded?
Thanks for the clarification.

Hannah

Thanks for the additional info, @Louwgy3.

The thing here is that we don't have access to account specific info, to be able to determine what might be keeping your account active.

Our support team would have been able to see more info about the account, if you could access the email address associated with it.

To be honest, I would suggest following Jay's instructions above, to contact our support team, explain the situation and see if there's some way to regain access to the account, because that would be the only way for you to delete it; manually on your end (if it's indeed still active).