online only folder issue

Question

Hi,

Hope someone can help me with this:
On my notebook there is a folder which I cannot copy to another folder, drive etc.
Opening files in that folder is not possible. Files are all readonly.

My first thought was that this is a virus or permission thing, but nothing worked, settings are fine.

I remembered that this particular folder used to be in my dropbox account/folder.
The message when opening a file in the folder is 'this is a online only folder, please copy it to dropbox'.
So I hope I am right that this has something to do with a Dropbox settings/permissions?

I canceled the pro license about 1,5 or 2 year ago, deleted lot of folders online and I do not use dropbox since then.

To make it work again, I bought a pro license today, to see if copying to dropbox is/was possible to make the files in this folder accessible again.
I started with copying 1 text file from the online only folder to the local dropbox folder.
The file disappeared from the 'source' folder (online only) but never showed up in my local dropbox folder.
Restoring my action by CTRL + Z, showed me a message that the file 'could not be found'.

So...now it is gone forever?

Does this sound as a dropbox issue or is it something else?
And if so, is there a way to solve this?

Regards,
Midiman

Rich · Accepted Answer

@midiman7472 wrote:The message when opening a file in the folder is 'this is a online only folder, please copy it to dropbox'.
So I hope I am right that this has something to do with a Dropbox settings/permissions?

It's not a settings or permissions issue. Dropbox has a feature that allows you to remove a file or folder from your computer while leaving a placeholder in its place. This allows you to see the file or folder on your drive, but it only exists in your account online; it's Online-only. When you access an Online-only file, Dropbox downloads it back to your computer and marks is as Available. This is (mostly) a seamless process. On your end you just continue to use your files as you always have.

I canceled the pro license about 1,5 or 2 year ago, deleted lot of folders online and I do not use dropbox since then.

If you canceled Dropbox and deleted the files from your account before you first marked all your files as Available Offline so they could download, then any file that was previously Online-only no longer exists on your computer. Basically, you would have deleted the original file in Dropbox before it was downloaded back to your computer.

To make it work again, I bought a pro license today, to see if copying to dropbox is/was possible to make the files in this folder accessible again.

Purchasing a new license won't make these files available again if you previously deleted them from your account.

Does this sound as a dropbox issue or is it something else? And if so, is there a way to solve this?

To me it sounds like you had files marked as Online-only so they didn't actually exist on your computer, and you canceled your subscription and deleted the files from your account without first marking them as Available Offline. This means you no longer have the original files; just the empty placeholders.

If you resubscribed to the same account you had previously, then you'll still have access to any files that were in the account, excluding those you deleted. Any files that aren't in the account or any files that you deleted likely cannot be recovered.