I removed Dropbox from my computer, which deleted my Desktop folder, and I can't restore it.

Question

Hello,

I'm dealing with the biggest emergency of 2026.

I erased Dropbox through Mac Settings (Documents - File Browser) by mistake, since I completely forgot that my desktop was automatically synchronized to Dropbox.

Now it shows like the screen capture below.

Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 15.57.05.png

I searched and found two possible ways of recovering it:

1. Use "Put Back" manually Dropbox from Bin

2. Re-synchronize the desktop from Dropbox.

For way 1, when selecting the Dropbox file in my Bin, there is no "Put Back" as a choice (I do not understand why).

Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 15.58.23.png

For way 2, there is no "Desktop" showing up in my Dropbox account "Recently Deleted files".

Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 15.42.38.png

*Although I initiated the erase around 50 minutes ago.

However, the weird point is that Dropbox was at the top of the list in "Storage" in "Settings" on Mac, which is now considered zero bytes at the bottom of the list, followed by their size.

Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 15.42.00.png

*Another point that seems incomprehensible is that my Dropbox page shows that my account's storage limit is 2GB (ref. the screen capture) according to my Basic Plan on Dropbox, although the Dropbox size in the list of "File Browser" in Settings was over 150GB. I confirmed that there is only one Dropbox account linked to my Desktop through the automatic email from Dropbox when I started synchronizing them.

Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 15.43.02.png

So none of the ways could save the situation.

My desktop was a hub for everything in my Mac (all of my job stuff, all of the administration stuff, etc.), job-wise and lifewise; this really is the heaviest situation in 2026.

(Basic information about my device that I can go public with)
MacBook Pro Late 2017

OS: 13.7.8 (22H730)

Plan: Dropbox Basic

*Since I prefer to conserve the exact situation when I accidentally erased it, I've not upgraded my plan to be able to send an email to the company yet.

I sincerely appreciate your support in advance.

Thank you,

Hakim.H

(P.S. This is the English version of it, though I understand/can reply in Japanese and French if needed)

Nancy · Answer

That’s great to hear! I appreciate you sharing your solution on the forum, too.

If you need something else along the way, feel free to let me know.

HakimHAYASHI · Answer

Thank you Nancy, for your follow up analyse!

While waiting for the reply,  I found a way to restore it all using Terminal!

I appreciate your concern and for trying to help me. I'm so relieved and can now work!

For future same case, here is what I did with Terminal as a real amateur at coding: 
(For Mac users) When you erased Dropbox by mistake, which synced to your Desktop and in your Bin, you only see the empty Dropbox folder that you can't put back. But the Dropbox folder in the Bin still has the same file size as your original Desktop, without any visible files in it. However, on your Dropbox page, nothing appears as a record to restore.

Dropbox Backup, Time Machine, iCloud (or any other backup cloud)- none of them were activated.

1.  If your Desktop Icon still exists somewhere and is locked, launch Terminal and run these commands. If not, and you can confirm your Dropbox icon in your Bin, skip to step 2:

sudo rm -f ~/Desktop

mkdir ~/Desktop

killall Finder

*In case the password is required after "sudo rm -f ~/Desktop", enter your password for User of your OS.

Mine was unlocked by those, but there still was nothing. It only showed the same file size as the initial Desktop. Try "Command + Shift + ." to see if all the files in your unlocked Dropbox are hidden. After this step, the Icon of Dropbox appeared in your Bin without anything in it BUT with the same size as the original Desktop.

2. Launch Terminal and run this command:

mv ~/.Trash/Dropbox ~/Documents/Absolute_Safe_Dropbox

*If your Documents folder is full, you can select another one, but not an external disc.

*In case of an error message "Operation not permitted", go to  on the top menu bar - System Settings - Full Disc Access - check Terminal.

*In case nothing changes, check again if the files and folders in the unlocked Desktop are not hidden by "Command + Shift + .".

2.  In my case, I found the "hidden (transparent)" Mac Icon in the folder named "Absolute_Safe_Dropbox" appeared in Documents. In that folder, there was the Desktop folder in which all original files were as they were before the incident.

3. Replace all of them on your Desktop under the Desktop folder in your Documents. In my case, the "Absolute_Safe_Dropbox" folder without any files or folders in it still had several GB. You can put it in the Bin and empty it. Just in case, I copied all of newlly replaced/restorerd Desktop files and folders into an external SSD, then emptied the Bin, then erased the copied Desktop files and folders in the SSD AFTER confirming everything can be onpend, works on the Desktop after emptying the Bin.

Hope it serves the same case as mine.

* Again, I am a total amateur at "coding" even with Terminal. So if someone finds some suspicious points or better command(s), please don't hesitate to comment on this thread.

* The command to copy your Dropbox from Bin "cp -R ~/.Trash/Dropbox ~/(name of place to put)/Saved_Dropbox_Data" did NOT work for my case. It only restored about 1/3 of them, the rest was visually back but as a "0-byte file that you can't open".

Nancy · Answer

Thanks for the follow-up! Based on your first screenshot, it looks like Dropbox Backup hadn’t been enabled indeed.

If you check again the email address this email was sent to and compare it with the one on this page, do they both look identical? Keep in mind that even the difference of one dot means that these are two separate email addresses linked to two different Dropbox accounts.

Other than that, I’d like to have a full screenshot of your restored Desktop files (including their size on your device). In case there's a sensitive filename, feel free to mask it first.