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I removed my old device, and my files reverted to their older versions.

I had the maximum 3 devices on my account. When I deleted an old device and installed dropbox on my new computer any files in folders that existed on the old device reverted to that version. Some up to nine years old. Recently added folders and files outside the old folders are visible. So instead of a being backup dropbox has corrupted the files I use daily. The old device was windows 7. The new one is windows 11. I tried checking on my iphone and found that the files had been corrupted there. I don't have the windows 7 device any more.

Now I don't want to connect my windows 10 device to the internet for fear that dropbox will corrupt the only recent copies I have. I will try starting it without internet connection so I can make a backup and turn off syncing as well.

I saw that someone previously lost some files when migrating to a new computer and they reappeared after some time. Is this likely to happen in my case?

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Megan

Thanks for that @TwiceRight.

It indeed looks like these files were last edited almost a decade or so ago, and not recently.

Therefore, to mention what I also said in my previous reply but it looks like these were the only versions synced to Dropbox.

Based on the screenshot, you don't seem to have any recently created conflicted copies or new versions of these files.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

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Megan

Hey @TwiceRight, sorry to hear about that!

As a first step, I'd like for you to check your events page. What do you see there?

The events page should give you an overview of all activity in your account including files events (adds/edits/deletes), as well as adding or removing shared folders.

When was the last time these files were edited, and can you find any of them there?

Also, if you check the version history of these files, what results can you find?

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there.

TwiceRight

Hi Megan

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

The events page shows that I linked a new device at the correct time but doesn't mention deleting or unlinking the old device. The oldest event listed is a file edit on 10 March 25 and no events relate to the files in question although I have edited some of them daily. If I set an earlier date there are no entries.

If I check the version history of the old files I get error 400. I tried several.

Oddly when I clicked on the link to the events page a second time the page was in German. Some but not the majority of the old files relate to my German language class. When I tried again it was back to English. Maybe this is an example of superficial intelligence trying to guess what language I use.

Regards

TwiceRight

Megan

Hi @TwiceRight, thanks for checking!

When was the last time you saw the updated version of your content online?

I'm asking because based on what you saw in the events page, it sounds like the changes you made to your files never synced to the Dropbox servers.

If you can't find any recent events of your files, then they might have not synced from your computer to Dropbox. Is it possible that you have a different Dropbox account too?

TwiceRight

Hi Megan

Some of the files I update every weekday. So Friday was the last time I did it. I deleted the windows 7 computer and added the new windows 11 computer on Sunday. The edits on these files don't show in recent events on the windows 11 device. The versions of the files that I can see on it date back to the when the deleted (Windows 7) computer was used which is about eight years ago and earlier. Folders, files, photos and edits on the windows 10 device which don't relate to content on the windows 7 device do show up on the windows 11 device so they are online (and must therefore be syncing?).

I think that I set up the account using my Microsoft ID and it recognised that when I logged in from the new computer. It is possible that I used my other email address to set up the account but if the account existed under that address then how did I login? I haven't set up any account for any other devices.

I changed the email address in settings from my other to my Microsoft account address when I was initially trying to solve this issue. DB seems only to allow the one email address.

Is it possible that only for those folders that existed on the windows 7 computer no files have synced but that all other folders, files and edits that I have created in the intervening years on the windows 10 device have synced?

Some of the old file versions that are there now are conflicted copies which have reappeared but which I thought were deleted. It is possible that I turned off syncing only on the windows 7 device so could that have had this effect?

I can't say if I examined those particular files on my iphone over the years but it would not be the usual thing. It is possible that I haven't accessed them online since I stopped using the windows 7 device. I have used DB more as my means of keeping a backup.

Megan

Hey @TwiceRight!

Alright, let me take a step back and reiterate a few things, to ensure that we're on the same page.

First, when you unlink a device, the connection between the device and your Dropbox account should seize to exist. This means that no changes should occur to your files online from a device that was unlinked.

On the other hand, when you link a new device to your Dropbox account, the files that exist online (i.e., on the cloud) will sync on that device and they should mirror exactly what you see on the website. With that in mind, there should be no issue linking your Windows 10 desktop.

By reading once more the first post, my instinctive thought and best estimation is the fact that the changes/updates you're looking for were never actually synced. The reason I asked you to check the Events page and the version history of the files was to confirm whether that could be the case.

The secondary thought was that, potentially, somehow, there's a second account involved. In that case, I'm afraid that the only thing I can suggest - just in case - is checking any e-mail addresses you may own to see if there's a Dropbox account attached to them.

If it wasn't clear before, let me say that what you see on the Events page is what's reflected on our servers. If you haven't done so yet, it might be worth checking the apps you used to make the edits to see if there's a version history recorded there that you could potentially recover.

Now, could you please check one thing for me? Can you access your Dropbox account on the web, see if you can locate the conflicted copies you mentioned and grab a screenshot of the modification date? You can send it to me here, by clicking the camera-like icon, or copying and pasting it.

TwiceRight

Hi Megan

screenshot here

Megan

Thanks for that @TwiceRight.

It indeed looks like these files were last edited almost a decade or so ago, and not recently.

Therefore, to mention what I also said in my previous reply but it looks like these were the only versions synced to Dropbox.

Based on the screenshot, you don't seem to have any recently created conflicted copies or new versions of these files.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

TwiceRight

Hi Megan

I have it working now. I couldn't mark the affected folders to start syncing but had to delete all appearances of the folders that were on the windows 7 device in dropbox online and on my windows 10 device then restore the contents from backup copies that I made.