A folder that is owned by me and shared with two others is now empty. What happened to all of my image files? How do I get them back?
As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.
@rjothvas wrote: ... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...
... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...
How long is a while? If an account remains idle for more than a year, Dropbox will remove it, which also removes all files from the system.
... and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use Installer
Is it possible that you started a new account, instead of signing into your old one? If the old one had been removed and you installed with the same email address, you would have started a new, empty account.
are my files now all gone? If not, where are they?
If you're signing in with the same email address and the account is empty, then it's likely as I described above. Otherwise you can try checking the Events page and Deleted Files to see if the files are there, or see if it lists what happened. If both pages are empty (aside from anything new you've done), then you're in a new account.
I'm so sorry that also happened to you. there has got to be something we can do. I paid them 10+ a month for 2 years and all I got was all of my children's lives in pictures gone forever!!!
I restored files from my backup harddrive. Finally solved! But it will be hard for me to trust dropbox any more.
Dropbox is not capable of deleting your files on its own. Either you, another process on your computer or another device connected to your account had to have caused the deletion.
Start here:
Dropbox lost several important documents since about Dec 23 (spreadsheets representing a lot of hard work) by somehow syncing incorrectly - I edited them extensively on one machine and later that day dropbox "synced" by reverting to the directory on a different machine. This lost all updates and all new files created.
This one disaster is enough for me, I'm out of dropbox, it is not reliable.
RCL
It happened to me too. It is not just shared folders most of my other folders do not have any files. I hope Dropbox keep their back up some where in a physical hard drive. Please upload and sync my files from October 2015. Rest of the files I shall take care of by myself.
I am an University Professor, do not have enough money to buy my personal cloud. Please HELP!!!!!
I just now noticed that I'm missing huge chunks of files - I don't know to what degree yet, but this is very troubling. I relied on Dropbox as a safety net for storing all of my files, since external harddrives (harddrives, in general) are unreliable. I now have to find a new solution. In the meantime, I guess I'll be spending my day assessing all the damage and start recovering what I can. Not cool Dropbox.
Does anyone have a suggestion for an additional backup, other than DVDs or external hard drive?
I just experienced this. I have dropbox installed on four machines. About an hour ago, my camera upload folder became empty. For some reason, the files are still available on one of the computers, but the other three computers all lost the files.
The system says it was done in the past hour by the computer that still has all the files. But I did not even turn that computer on in the past 4 hours. A closer look indicated that I was somehow kicked out from the shared folder (camera upload), even though I didn't share it with anyone. I went to my shared folder tap, found it, and rejoined, and got everything back. At this moment, all my computers are trying to download about 20gb worth of photos and videos.
I would like to know why this happened.
Same thing just happened to me. Files were disappearing from Dropbox while I watched. I was talking with the other person sharing a folder with me. The files were viewable by him but disappeared from my Dropbox. I went online and restored the files. Five minutes later, it happened all over again (but a different set of files disappeared from the folder. This is crazy. With thousands of files in multiple folders, it's impossible to know what is gone at this point. I guess I will be looking for an alternative to Dropbox.
I'm freaking out people! But, it's nice to know that I'm not alone. I have had issues with my Dropbox for the past month similar to the problems described above. Suddenly, instead of the green check box next to Dropbox icon, I get the spinning blue sync icon and I don't know what's happening. Files/Folders are being deleted and I'm not doing anything. I usually end of doing a full Dropbox search and I find the folders hidden under random other folders and I can get them back after a big headache.
But, this time it's worse. I can not find a shared folder that has my entire business' financials in it and a personal folder that I don't share with anyone that also has valuable subfolders and files. My IT team is trying to find out the problem but I can't see to find these folders. I know for sure that I did not delete these, nor did people I share folder with. This happened yesterday and/or day before. I see in events tab showing all of this activity and I did none of it.
Does anyone know how to restore folders if you can't see them on your Dropbox list of folders? Is there anyway to speak to a person at Dropbox? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
Brian
Almost 1TB worth of files and folders are missing from my Dropbox .
Dropbox is synced over 8 computers, after disabling sync for a new folder using selective sync I have realised that most of my folders and files have disappeared from the cloud as well as the local computers.
I have checked for deleted files and event history both showing earlier files then today which means nothing was deleted by me. I had one year version history and deleted files service.
I have reported this to Dropbox, now looking at the previous messages from others it seems unlikely that Dropbox will respond let alone restore my files.
I am having the same problem too. After reading all these messages I have decided to switch to Google Drive instead and hopefully it won't happen to Google.
Appalling! All files in a shared folder gone!!! Dropbox needs to look into this and provide solutions and reasons for this debacle...smh. I am certain neither I nor the co-owner folder deleted anything (at least not intentionally)
As Rich has said:
"Dropbox is not capable of deleting your files on its own. Either you, another process on your computer or another device connected to your account had to have caused the deletion.
If you're still unsure or want to get additional investigation on your account, please log a ticket with our support team on http://www.dropbox.com/support - make sure you add as many details to file or folder names that are missing, dates, etc.
Do not post any personal information here on the forum.
Ed, I think its very easy to move files and not realise and possibly others to delete but...I think looking at type of comments from long term users, it might be worth investigation !
I started to comment in a post and removed as to be honest dont have time to chase but...I can absolutely confirm I have seen folders deleted and then come back a day or so later with only one other shared user that wasnt even logged on or aware they had a share. I have seen once where folder WAS still on the portal but not locally..implied deleted and couple of times where disappeared on both and came back on both - go figure.
I have seen folders move...and I am very careful...many years with dropbox from start and experienced in IT...so did I do it...I have to assume so???
We also use Dropbox heavily to send large files and regularly see syncing issues (spinning out for days with zero action) and crashing of dropbox which we have never had issues with in the past. It didnt like very high numbers of small files either (about 3 Million in a folder tree)
We have 50TB capacity on TEAM now with I guess 50 users so not fly by night user and I would say there are some bugs that should be focussed on just to check...its easy when company growing so fast to push on with new features but its not ALWAYS user error...if the code instigates a command to move or delete, then it can move or delete if there is a mistake.
Ed.
Well this only gets worse! I have stopped adding new materials to dropbox and have had to perform multiple drive rescues to regain most (not all) of my valuable work records and files. So today, I see in my dropbox icon in the task bark a list of recently changed files, hundreds of them. I have been extremely careful with my activities and can guarantee I did not do this!
Issue: files randomly disappear and are changed, but not by the owner
User remedy: Contact dropbox for support
Solution by dropbox: User error, dropbox can do no wrong, you're on your own.
Issue continues: Files changing or being modified by someone else or drop box error!
Cause: Either dropbox software is buggy and totally unreliable or, Dropbox security has been compromised and has been for some time or User error.
Result: I am forced to cancel my DB account as I am convinced user error is not to fault.
A little more insight into what files were deleted. I noticed that anything "normal" was deleted i.e Word, Excel, PDF, JPG, .Gif, .mov (and any of their variations). What wasn't deleted was anything "unusual" Pages, Numbers and Keynote (I'm a Mac user), my 1Password keychain, other mobile apps that write their own data i.e the mobile health app I use.
I would have been an extraordinary accompaniment for me to go into every folder and sub, sub folder and delete only some files and not others. Or even for my computer or another user to do this , FYI there are no other users and I sync only 3 devices - computer, iPhone and iPad.
This completely "random" behavior is leading me to believe even more strongly that this is a DropBox issue. Something was run or hacked into and run that is causing only certain file types to be affected.
DropBox hasn't been any help, there emails to me were circular... are they they here or there... when what I really wanted was an entire replacement of my files - everything.
I was however able to retrieve everything from my TimeMachine backup since I do know that DropBox is not backup but storage. However, if this was happening on my internal drive I'd be having a tech look at it, something DropBox isn't doing on their end. They are admitting no responsibility.
Well. I am totally at wits end with DB! The tech support guy "Aldo" repeatedly sends me the same BS form email. I'm certain now that he doesn't even read my emails. I cant even unlink! the app on my PC tells me that the its not linked with an account while at the same time it tries to sync files! Dropbox clearly does not take their product, customer service or security seriously. What will it take to get some cooperation?
Woowww just got the same problem that I deleted 50200 files and to restore them I have to buy a ADD On app. I did this and know Dropbox is telling me the files are to much to restore.
Very desapointed at this moment in Drop Box
wahooooh! If its saying you need an add on app that is NOT Dropbox!! Dropbox offers free restores within 30 days via the website - note, no app needed.
Sounds like you have a virus on your machine.
That isnt an app. That is an add on.
That means that from when its added (i.e. now if you bought it) everything deleted will be recoverable for 1 year from deletion. Note, however, it is NOT retroactive. So your 50,200 files would NOT be available with this. But, should be if they were deleted within 30 days via standard recovery.
hhmmm many thx. for your explanation. I try to restore via the normal 30 days be the ADD on kept popping up. So I bought it and in deed I can't restore anything. The why all this deletion is what I do not understand. I certanly didnot delete any file.
You may not, however, SOMEBODY or SOMETHING on your machine has.
USB / external drive? Network share? Shared Folders?
https://help.dropbox.com/security/missing-reappearing-corrupted-files
It says deleted 3 hours ago and when I try the restore button I get the following:
Too many files. Please use the desktop application.
Log a ticket with support
www.dropbox.com/support
Replies may take a few days, but, can be tracked at http://dropbox.zendesk.com
The ticket support does not help. They keep sending the same generic email and nothing gets accomplished. I really don't understand how "all my files are missing" is not understood by thier.support team. All my family photos are gone for the past 10 years. I purchased Dropbox when I had trouble with.a computer and wanted to keep my files in a "safe" place. The laughs on me:(
Just recently my files are gone missing and I've tried retrieving them from the deleted files however I've also noticed that some photos have been uploaded to the Camera Uploads file, I am suspecting that that person's personal Dropbox is somehow syncing to mine everytime they sync to a computer because I share the files to a group of people, I was able to identify the photos last time and contacted them however this time are photos of school books and references so it's harder to identify who owns the file.
Has anyone experienced the same?
Thanks
Same problem. it is very scary. Al the files that disappeared showed in the folder as deleted. But I know I would not have done so and I am the only one linked to them on different machines.
