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All files are missing from my account.

Hi! I'm running into trouble with my account. I just signed in to access my older files (I have had a Dropbox account for around 10 years now, though I have never been on anything above the free plan) after not having signed in for a good while, and everything is gone. No files, no folders, nothing in deleted files, nothing on the Events page saying what might have happened. Just gone.

There was nothing prompting me to make a new account or anything, it asked for my password when I signed in and if I check the account itself it still has messages from years back so the account has not been deactivated.

This is pretty disheartening for obvious reasons. Is there anything at all I can do?

Screenshots below. There are messages about being over storage limit, but would that really mean all my files would have been deleted?

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Rich

@bersona3 wrote:
I just signed in to access my older files ... after not having signed in for a good while, and everything is gone. No files, no folders, nothing in deleted files ...

How long has it been since you last used the account? If it's been more than a year, the account would have been deleted due to inactivity, and you're now signed in to a reactivated, empty account. Unfortunately, if this is the case, once an account has been deleted due to inactivity, there's no way to recover the files that it once contained.

bersona3

I don't know for sure. It probably has been longer than a year. Looking it up it's very frustrating, isn't Dropbox supposed to give you warnings via email that your account will be deleted? I have emails from years back from Dropbox, absolutely none of which even attempted to inform me about any impending file or account deletion. Extremely frustrating. Thanks anyway.

Rich

@bersona3 wrote:
... isn't Dropbox supposed to give you warnings via email that your account will be deleted?

They do. They send several emails before an account is deleted.

To be sure, take a look at your Events page. If it's empty, or only showing events since you recently signed back in, then you're most likely on a reactivated account with the previous account and contents deleted.

bersona3

Sorry for the delay. I just checked my emails again.

I last signed into Dropbox on December 13, 2023 (I can tell thanks to a "new sign-in on my account" email which is 100% mine) so it hasn't even been a year yet. I have emails from Dropbox between then and now, absolutely none of which mention any sort of impending deletion. And the Events page is empty, yeah.

Since it hasn't even actually been a year, and I have no emails about file or account deletion, is there anything I can do from here?

Nancy

Hey @bersona3! From what I can see in your OP, there are older notifications indeed, so it seems that your Dropbox account hasn’t been deleted.

In any case though, do you have any other email addresses? Is it possible you have a second Dropbox account where your files are stored?

bersona3

Hi Nancy, thanks for the reply!

This is my only Dropbox account. I know for sure this is the correct one as there are connected devices from 7 years ago, and I haven't used any other emails on the site.

Walter

When is the last time you remember seeing them on the website @bersona3?

If you're not seeing any signs of them in your events page, it may be that they were never uploaded in the first place.

bersona3

Hey Walter, thanks for the reply.

The files were definitely on my account when I last signed in, which would have been in December. Some of these files had been on the account for over 10 years, they were 100% uploaded. The notifications for the account mention being low on storage space, so I absolutely had files stored... They've just all vanished without warning.

Walter

Thanks for the additional information @bersona3

Since you made sure that you're looking at the correct account and since there's no file activity showing in your events page and you can't find those files in your deleted files page, the Sharing tab and/or your backups page, I'm afraid we won't be able to help much from our end.

That said, if you'd like to have a further look internally, please let me know and I'll reach out via email to investigate further.

bersona3

Thanks for the reply. I would love if you could reach out via the email for further investigation, thanks so much.

Walter

Sure thing @bersona3 - you've got :envelope:

Whenever you get the chance, please take a look at your inbox and we'll take it from there.