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Accidentally logged in using Google SSO instead of username/password, now my files are gone

Hello,
I'm not sure if I messed something up with my account but all my past files are gone and it says I'm in the 2GB plan.

I normally use the desktop app but recently my laptop died and was sent to repair. So I logged into Dropbox on browser, but accidentally used Google SSO instead of regular username/password. Now it says I'm on a 2GB plan and none of my past files are there. My account should be at 10GB or 20GB (I have been with Dropbox for over 10 years and I believe this was a grandfathered plan). If my Google SSO was mistakenly considered as a new account, how do I recover all the files from the old account? I tried logging in as username/password and seems like I'm stuck on the 2GB now with no history of past files!!

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

Joey

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Comments

Jay

Hi @mhuang45, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

As you mentioned you used the Google SSO to sign in, are you using a Gmail account, or another domain in general?

Do you have any other devices that could be logged into the old Dropbox account?

This will help me to assist further!

mhuang45

Good question!

I believe it's a Gmail account, but the domain is managed by my school alumni.

So previously I've used [Removed as per Community Guidelines]
/ password to get in. This time I had use Google SSO (that same email) to log in. And no unfortunately I don't have any other device logged into the old account so I'm really worried...

Jay

Thanks for the details, I've removed the email for your own privacy and security.

Are you certain that this was the same account you've always used to log in, and not another very similar email address provided by the school? Are there any other email addresses you could've used to log in to Dropbox?

Do you see any recent events or deleted files on the Dropbox account which is currently logged in on the site?

mhuang45

Hi Jay,

Yes I'm certain this is the email I've always used to log in, as this is my professional email and hence why I had the "grandfathered" storage limits on it and using it for more than 10 years. I don't see any recent activity on the account for file removals...

Nancy

Hey @mhuang45. If you look into your email address’s inbox/spam folder, do you see any recent emails from Dropbox?

If yes, can you see any names of files/folders that were shared with you? It may be worth using them as keywords to search the Dropbox website (feel free to send us a screenshot of what you see, as well).

Finally, the laptop that you sent over for repair, is it possible that it contains your local Dropbox folder (in case you previously had the desktop app installed there)?

mhuang45

Hi Nancy,

Thanks for the advice, I did manage to find a really old email from Dropbox saying the account was in a locked state, is it possible to recover the items? The email was sent to spam and never made it to my inbox so I'm totally unaware of this. Due to the use of the desktop version, I didn't even know it was not syncing to the cloud so unfortunately the most recent files are probably in the desktop app as a local file. Is there a way to at least recover the ones in the cloud, even though it might not have synced the recent files?

I'm also deeply disappointed that after the laptop repair, it could not repair the Dropbox desktop app, none of the files in the desktop app can be recovered...

Walter

Thanks for the additional information and the screenshot too @mhuang45

I'm afraid that there's not much we can do from our end to restore the account or any of the files that were stored in it at this point since the account was permanently deleted after being in locked state, as the email you found mentions.

I wish I had a better answer than this, and please let me know if you have anything else to ask, Joey. We're always a post away.

mhuang45

Hi Walter,

If the files cannot be restored, what about the previous storage limits? Are there really no way to restore any historical files??

Hannah

Hey @mhuang45, I hope it's okay for me to jump in here as well.

This is a tough situation, to be honest.

Can you tell me when the last time you accessed your account and files on dropbox.com using your account credentials was?

Jay

Hi @mhuang45, just checking to see if you saw our last reply.
If you still need any help, feel free to reach out to us again.
If your issue has been solved, let us know what worked for you.

mhuang45

Hi Jay,

Thanks for tagging again, I had missed the message from Hannah.

To answer Hannah's question, I really can't remember the last time I had access dropbox.com (on a browser) as I had been using the desktop version for a really long time. Is there no history at all from you end that you can see?

Jay

As the email you received was several months ago, it wouldn't be possible to recover the information from that account any longer.

I’d recommend getting in contact with our support team directly to look into this matter in more detail.

You can do this by opening an incognito/private browsing window, while not signed into any account, and accessing this link.

From there you should be able to contact support. Make sure to enter an email address to which you can respond.

Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, which is sent via email in a few minutes, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.

mhuang45

Hi Jay,

I tried different things but still receiving this error message when I try to send the message to support. Is there any way you can report the issue on my behalf?

Jay

Thanks for the info, I've sent you an email, please could you reply to it when you get a chance?