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Dropbox started deleting files after linking an older computer to my account

I removed dropbox syncing from an older laptop a while back because the laptop couldn't handle the file size. Today I reinstalled dropbox on that machine hoping to set it to online only so it wouldn't take up hard drive space. As soon as it installed it starting syncing and I noticed the files were not the same as on my main machine. I'm not sure what blueprint/main files it's pulling from. I checked dropbox online and on my phone and the files are now the same as they show on the old laptop (with TONS of files missing). I checked on my desktop and they looked like the original, but I immediately stopped syncing for fear it would update there too. There are hundreds of files missing and I have no idea what happened or where it's even pulling from. The laptop sync should be pulling from what's online, but it appears the online and phone version updated to what's on the laptop.

How do I fix this? I fear I've just lost all these files for good.

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Nancy

Hi @heidiraquel, and thanks for posting this on the forum.

Have you checked your Deleted files and Events page online, but it’s still not possible to locate and even restore your missing files?

Also, do you remember how you removed the Dropbox app from your old device the previous time? Was the app up to date when you stopped its syncing? Did you delete your old Dropbox folder after that?

I’m wondering whether there were still unsynced files/updates there, which overwrote your current Dropbox files, as soon as the desktop app was relinked to your account.

Let me know and we’ll take it from there.

heidiraquel

Thank you for this! It's been a while so I don't entirely remember. I know I was worried about files getting deleted permanently if I deleted them from my laptop. I know I stopped syncing and tested deleting one file and it remained on my main computer and dropbox so I figured it was safe. I eventually deleted all the folders from my Dropbox folder on my laptop, but couldn't figure out how to get dropbox off my machine. I just ended up removing it from my applications folder, but the empty dropbox folder remained in my favorites (I'm on a Mac).

Today, I reinstalled dropbox on my laptop and it started syncing immediately, to what I don't know. I chose online only view from the dropdown menu so the files all had the cloud next to them rather than the checkmark. Still thought it was ok until I checked my phone and saw those all now matched my laptop. My desktop appeared to be ok so I paused syncing for now and copied all the folders to my desktop hard drive in case.

I see only a few files in the trash on dropbox online from recent deletes. And again, there was nothing in the dropbox folder on my laptop to even sync from.

Can I at least move all my saved files from my desktop to dropbox to get it back the way it was? And should I uninstall dropbox from my laptop before I do that? I wanted to just have aliases on my laptop until I can get a new one that can handle the volume. Every time I opened a file on the online version I couldn't get it to open properly or sync and so it seemed worthless to open them from there. I'm traveling soon and just wanted to be able to access them easier than online.

Megan

Hey @heidiraquel, thanks for the details, and for walking me through the steps that you followed!

I was about to suggest the same thing that you did.

Here is what I would do: I suggest that you copy the valuable content that you have on your desktop to either an external hard drive, or somewhere else in your hard drive.

You can then resume syncing of the app, and let it sync any files. Once the app is up-to-date, you can then copy any files into your Dropbox folder, and let it update any changes.

Then, once some of the files/folders are synced, you can change their status to online-only if you wish.

How does that sound?

heidiraquel

Thanks. I’ll try that. Will it try to duplicate all the similar files or will it recognize they are duplicates and only copy what’s missing?

Nancy

Hey again, @heidiraquel! Depending on your computer’s OS, you should get a notification that there are duplicate files being copied over and you can decide what to do with each one of them, i.e. merge them or keep them both on your device.

heidiraquel

Hi Nancy,

I finally found my backup drive and was able to safely let my desktop continue syncing while I secured my potentially lost files on the backup drive. The main files were altered on my desktop as well to match my laptop. I still have no idea how that happened and why files on one computer would delete tons of files on the dropbox cloud and another machine. I would think they would sync and secure all of them.

At any rate, I did have to copy back all the files that were lost to the main dropbox cloud and it seems to be syncing on my phone as well. My next question is how do I get them updated on my laptop that caused the issue in the first place? I'm concerned if I resume syncing there I will lose all the files again. Can I wipe that clean somehow and then start over? What is the safe way to approach this?

Walter

Hey @heidiraquel - sorry to jump in here.

I just wanted to mention that you should be able to walk-around your concern by un-linking your account through the app's preferences and re-linking it to force the app to re-index your database.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

heidiraquel

Oh, thank you! I already disengaged the link when I first saw the problem and was worried if I started syncing again it would copy what's on the laptop (the files I don't want) and put it on dropbox. That's what started the problem in the first place even though I can not understand what it would've even been syncing to because I had deleted all the dropbox files from that machine before re-engaging the sync. So it should, theoretically, copy to match what's now on dropbox? That's how it's always worked until now, but I don't trust it after this issue.

Walter

Yes, that is correct @heidiraquel - it should match what you see on the Dropbox website.

Let us know if anything else comes up!