PDF Files Turned into .INC files and are now inaccessible

Question

All of the PDF files that I have saved have turned into .INC files. Opening them seems to indicate that they are encrypted now as they are just gibberish text files. My Norton Small Business Security is telling me that "We prevented your connection to previews.dropbox.com because is it a dangerous webpage. Threat category: BV:Filecoder-AI [Ransom]".

Need help.

Megan · Answer

Hey there, @AccountUpgrade123, let's see what we can find about this together!

Please keep in mind that Dropbox cannot directly alter your file types, so it is possible another third-party application caused this change.

I recommend checking your Dropbox account to see if the original .pdf files still exist alongside the .inc files, and if you are using our desktop application, please check if the files preview correctly there.

Can you also try renaming the files in order to remove the .inc extension and keep the .pdf format? If I were you I'd also review your events page to identify when this behavior first started.

Regarding the error message from Norton Small Business Security, please let me know if it appears when accessing our website or when trying to preview a file. While this may be a false positive—where security software incorrectly flags a file—I suggest contacting Norton directly for more information.

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