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Microsoft Word files keep being deleted from my Mac, while I'm working on them. Why is that?

akotsko

I am using the Dropbox desktop app on a Mac. Twice now, I have had files deleted out from under me, literally as I was still working on them in Word. In place of the filename, it shows up as a weird temp file. Once I closed it without realizing and thought I had lost the file completely, but was able to restore it by undeleting it — though I had never deleted it (or even closed it!). The second time, I resaved it under its original name — after seeing that it was gone from its folder.

This kind of glitch is completely unacceptable and makes me no longer trust Dropbox. A cloud backup system should not delete files at all, much less while I am actively working on them.

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Jay

Hi @akotsko, thanks for messaging the Community.

It sounds like these could be temporary files that are created which you're editing a Word document, and as such these are automatically deleted by Word if the file is saved successfully and the program exited.

Were you looking to prevent the temporary files from being deleted on your device? Were you unable to save your Word files, and as such needed the temp files to regain the lost data?

If you can share any error messages, logs or OS/Dropbox specs, that'll help me narrow this down much faster.

akotsko

No, I am not trying to save temporary files. They are normal files which are being deleted while I'm working on them, and they are somehow converting to temporary files mid-stream (hence I can keep editing the text and even re-save them under their original name).

On further reflection, I suspect that this is happening if I accidentally go to close the window with unsaved text and then click "cancel" on that dialogue box that asks me if I want to save. At that point, the content of the file remains open in Word (with the temp file listed as the file name in the title of the window) and the underlying file is deleted by Dropbox. I suppose I can avoid this scenario in the future, but this is still a very serious glitch that needs to be fixed.

Jay

The Dropbox desktop application shouldn't automatically delete files without any user or app interference from what you're describing. Are you certain that it isn't the Word app that is deleting the temp files?

What happens if you attempt to edit a file that isn't in the Dropbox folder? Do you have AutoRecover enabled in Microsoft Word?

akotsko

Put the temp files out of your mind! They are not what's being deleted! I would prefer for someone else to respond if possible — you don't seem to understand what I'm saying.

Jay

Okay, so just for clarification, these are the actual Word documents (.docx) that are being deleted while you're working on them, is that correct?

Does this same behavior occur when editing Word files outside of the Dropbox folder? Are only Word files affected, or does this apply to any other type of file you're trying to edit?

akotsko

Yes, it is the actual Word documents. I just tested it with a Word document saved to the "desktop" of my Mac and it did not delete the file out from under me if I went to close it with unsaved changes and then clicked "cancel" on the dialogue box. Nor does Excel delete the file out from under me if I duplicate the same sequence of events in a spreadsheet saved in Dropbox.

It appears to be an interaction between Word and Dropbox.

Jay

Thanks for the details, at this point it might be better for the support team to look into this in more detail.

You can contact them directly via this link, and they'll be able to investigate further.

akotsko

All I'm seeing at the link is an AI chatbot. Is it possible for you to escalate it to them?

Walter

Hi from me @akotsko. If you'd like to investigate this further, I can send you an email from my end.

Before we switch to email though, could you clarify how are those changes logged in your events page?

Also, does the behavior persist if you pause the syncing process and resume once you're done with your edits?

akotsko

When my file disappeared out from under me, it recorded this event:

AKYou deleted the file 2 Schmitt and friends.docx	Yesterday 2:05 PM

As I said repeatedly above, I did not intentionally delete the file — I accidentally hit "close" with unsaved changes and then clicked "cancel" to go back to working on the file.

I created a ****** file to test with sync off, but it did not duplicate the behavior with sync on or sync off. Apparently it only wants to do this to really important files!

Nancy

Hi from me, as well. Besides hitting “Cancel” and going back to the Microsoft Word file you were working on, did you happen to take any other action, like renaming it, for example?

As for restoring the file you mentioned in your OP, did you do this directly via your Deleted files page here?

Can you remember when the issue occurred approximately, or if it appeared after a specific Dropbox update?

What I can also recommend in the meantime is to create a copy of one of the files in question, and test if the issue persists both inside and outside of the Dropbox folder. Since you said in your last post that this didn’t happen last time you tried it, it would definitely help us to isolate the issue a bit more.

akotsko

The first time I restored it using the Dropbox page you link, and the second time I simply saved a fresh copy of the file to the same folder (using the text that Word kept in the temp file your colleague found so confusing).

This happened twice within the last month. I am unaware of Dropbox updating during that time.

One additional wrinkle: I realize that both times it happened, I was using the public network at my local library. On other networks, I can't duplicate the behavior.

Jay

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, or security software that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains, while on a public unsecured network?

Do you need to periodically log back into the public WiFi network to keep the connection active?

Have you tried disabling the auto save feature in Microsoft Word to see if this helps?

akotsko

The autosave feature in Word is always disabled — in recent versions, it only works if you use their cloud storage anyway, which I am obviously not. I have no proxy, VPN, or anything like that. The connection to the network appears to be persistent.

Hannah

Thanks for the additional info here, @akotsko.

I just wanted to give you some details and clarifications on this issue.

So, the Dropbox app operates passively when it comes to files manually placed within the Dropbox folder, which means that it syncs any changes or file system events as they occur.

To our knowledge, as mentioned by Jay earlier in the thread, Microsoft Word uses temp files to protect user data.

Now, if there's any sort of delay, more so when being connected to a public network which often has drops, this might lead to the behavior you're experiencing.

When using a public network, it's best to keep the file you're editing in a local folder on your device, or at least ensure that MS Word has full disk access.

To be honest, if this behavior was triggered by the Dropbox app, the experience should have been consistently reproducible.

Having said all that, if you experience this behavior again, when not connected to a public network, you can let us know so we can drill further into this from our side.