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Logged in to my account after a while and my folders are empty

bowingin

My files are missing. I logged on today for the time in a couple of years. All of my original folders are there but almost all of them are empty. I get regular emails saying I am running out of storage but none saying I have exceeded storage. Please, what have you done with my photos?

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bowingin

Cannot find a edit button, so I will add that error message used to say that I have reached the limit and files will stop syncing. But I did not add any photos. Does not syncing, mean deleting?

Hannah

Sorry to hear about your files, @bowingin, and thanks for your post.

From what I gather, your account must have been out of space, so some of your files got deleted, to bring the account under-quota again.

To clarify the situation, when your account is out of space, indeed your files stop syncing. That means that you won't be able to add/edit files on any linked device, unless you delete some files or add more space to bring the account under-quota.

You can see more info about this process and about what happens with your files when you go out of space here, which I believe is what has happened in your case.

When did you receive the emails that your account was out of space?

Keep me posted.

bowingin

Hi, I received emails that my account was out of space but the messages did not say that files would be deleted, only that I couldn't add anymore. Here is a sample message I got in January 2024:

Hi Laura,

Please consider adding more storage.

Your Dropbox is full and is no longer syncing files. New files won't be backed up online.

Has Dropbox unilaterally deleted my files without telling me?

Hannah

Thanks for that, Laura.

The truth is that if your files were to get deleted for being over-quota, you would have gotten several emails about it, before it happened.

Can you check again to see if you got them and missed them? Perhaps they went to your spam?

bowingin

Hi Hannah,

I see what happened. Over three years, from 2023-2026, I received more than 45 emails (probably more than 70, I still have 45 that are undeleted) from Dropbox telling me that I could no longer add photos to my account. There was no mention of files being deleted, only that I couldn't add more. I accepted this limitation and have been storing more recent photos on another cloud service, all the while believing my photos — 10 years of pictures of my only daughter, from age 4-16 — were safely stored. I tired of reading the constant Dropbox emails asking to buy more storage, which I did not want. Then in April and May of this year, it appears I received three emails, advising me that my files would be deleted. Having tired of the constant, repetitive messages from Dropbox for three years, I did not read these. I am shocked that the company was able to change the terms of its agreement with me without my consent. Had I known, I would have immediately downloaded my files. Dropbox has deleted 10 years of family photos without my knowledge or consent.

Jay

Hi @bowingin, thanks for the info.

It sounds like the data on your account was deleted outside of the 30 day period, given the dates of the emails you mentioned, and it has been 3 months since then.

If your files were in shared folders, then you should be able to recover them from there when you upgrade again.

Otherwise, if your files were in private folders, this would mean that the data cannot be recovered, as it would've been permanently deleted from our servers.

We're sorry we can't be more helpful on this matter.

bowingin

These were not shared folders: Please confirm whether any restoration process is available