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One of my shared folders disappeared after sharing it with another user.

I have just tried to share a folder with dropbox to another account and the folder has simply disappeared. It doesn't show in the online directory. It doesn't come up when I look for deleted files either, so I assume it is still there somewhere. This is an important folder and I'd like to get it back. Unfortunately I don't have a local copy so that isn't an option. Any ideas?

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Jay

No worries, please let us know if you experience this issue again, or have any other queries!

All comments

Jay

Hi @DrStuart, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Are you able to locate folder on this page?

What about on the events page?

This will help me to assist further!

DrStuart

Many thanks. It's a complete mystery. I did try logging off and on again and all those sort of things. Now when I look the folder is back again and looks good. So fingers crossed. Thank you for your interest but I think it's OK again.

Jay

No worries, please let us know if you experience this issue again, or have any other queries!

Erica F

@DrStuart The same thing has happened to me. A shared file went missing. I looked through my emails from Dropbox to see when the file was deleted, but I don't have any record of it. The folder is not in my deleted files.

Do you have any idea how you miraculously fixed the problem?

Nancy

Hi @Erica F, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in.

Have you also checked your Events page? If the file’s been deleted, you should be seeing the relevant event there.

Do you also remember when was the last time you were able to access it approximately?

Erica F

Hi @Nancy,

The last time that dropbox notified me that my boss accessed the file was August 19, 2022. I do not show any events, nor is this showing in the deleted folder. I don't have any notifications from dropbox telling me that anything was deleted.

Walter

Hey @Erica F, sorry to jump in here, but I just wanted to mention that your access may have been removed by your boss since they were the owner of the folder.

In that case, you'd need to ask them to re-invite you to the shared folder.

N8Lewis

I also just shared a very large folder with a team member and it disappeared. It didn't show up in my deleted folders either.

Nancy

Hey @N8Lewis! Did the folder disappear only for you, or is the team member unable to access it on their end, as well?

What do you see if you visit your Events page here?

RdFltErr

This just happened to me, too. Oddly, I shared a folder with a ton of files inside it. The folder has disappeared completely from the web interface, BUT, it shows up in the "Shared - Dropbox" list. Oddly, even though I created the folder and it's mine and was not shared with anyone else before, it now shows "You haven't joined this folder yet" underneath the folder name.

If I click "Join" I get an error.

I waited 10 minutes and tried again. Boom, the folder is back!

It seems when you share large folders, Dropbox does something in the background and the folder temporarily disappears. If you wait long enough, it re-appears.

studio_jhh

I have exactly the same. I shared a large folder and now it's simply gone from the web interface. The problem is, it's a huge folder (>1TB) and it is starting to disappear from our server as well. This is really unacceptable.. it's been like half an hour and it's still gone. No phone or chat support even if you are a Dropbox for Business customer.. nice.

Walter

Hey @studio_jhh - sorry to hear about this.

When you say it's gone from the web interface, I'm assuming you're referring to your account's homepage and the sharing tab. Am I correct?

Can you take a look at your events page and the deleted files page to see if you can find it there?

studio_jhh

Turns out it was the same problem as what the others have mentioned. It simply disappears from the Content and Sharing page. It wasn't in deleted files or didn't even show up in Folder activity of the parent folder. In our case it took close to an hour to finally reappear, as it is very large with lots of files (1.03 TB in 395.000 files). The problem was that it started disappearing from all our clients and then after it came back had to re-sync again everywhere.

This happened when I tried sharing the folder with "Everyone". After the folder re-appeared it wasn't shared with everyone, but still had the same 2 admins assigned as before. I then created a group with a only 6 of the 7 users and shared it with that group. It didn't disappear and was shared pretty much instantly.

So it seems like while it is applying new permissions in your backend, it temporarily removes the folder. With a large folder it isn't so temporary. Definitely needs some looking into by your devs.

ps: I managed to chat with someone at Dropbox. Turns out Dropbox for Business does have chat support, but only for admins.

Walter

I'm glad to hear it's sorted now and thanks for the update @studio_jhh

I've also noted your feedback on our system and you can let us know if anything else comes up.