You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

Alan W.12's avatar
Alan W.12
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

Files disappeared from my Dropbox folder

The problem started yesterday. I noticed some files were missing from local synced files as well as the web interface. This morning more files disappeared. I checked the Deleted Files folder. It appears that close to 100,000 files were deleted at the same time yesterday afternoon, which I absolutely did not do. I have a Basic account with limited support. Can someone enlighten me on how to solve this problem? Thank you in advance!

 

p.s. I am an IT professional and have been using Dropbox for many years without issues. I am confident it is not a new user issue.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    2 years ago

    Alan W.12 wrote:

    One of them says "You deleted 48940 files" with a link to those files. ... I did not delete those files.


    It may not have been you directly, but something on a device of yours initiated the deletion. Have you moved any folders lately? That would often show as a mass-deletion in Dropbox (Dropbox detects that a folder no longer exists where it once was and marks it as deleted). Or have you run any clean up utilities on your computer that may have organized or removed files?

     

    If you restore one of the files and look at its version history, it will show you the specific device that the deletion occurred on. Look to that device for a possible cause.

     


    Is there a support department I can reach out to?

    You can find the support options that are available to you, which vary based on your account level, on the Support page.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    Alan W.12 wrote:

    It appears that close to 100,000 files were deleted at the same time yesterday afternoon, which I absolutely did not do.


    Check your Events page and version history of one of the restored files. It will show you where the deletion occurred.

    • Alan W.12's avatar
      Alan W.12
      New member | Level 2

      Thanks for the reply! I did not know those pages existed. The event page shows several delete activities. One of them says "You deleted 48940 files" with a link to those files. After I clicked on the link, I saw a bunch of small files in the size of around 1kb shown as being deleted. It doesn't make sense. I did not delete those files. Is there a support department I can reach out to?

      • Rich's avatar
        Rich
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

        Alan W.12 wrote:

        One of them says "You deleted 48940 files" with a link to those files. ... I did not delete those files.


        It may not have been you directly, but something on a device of yours initiated the deletion. Have you moved any folders lately? That would often show as a mass-deletion in Dropbox (Dropbox detects that a folder no longer exists where it once was and marks it as deleted). Or have you run any clean up utilities on your computer that may have organized or removed files?

         

        If you restore one of the files and look at its version history, it will show you the specific device that the deletion occurred on. Look to that device for a possible cause.

         


        Is there a support department I can reach out to?

        You can find the support options that are available to you, which vary based on your account level, on the Support page.