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Forum Discussion
I lost some updates on the files I was working with, after a computer crash.
Hello - I hope I've got the right category and am not asking a question already asked (I couldn't spot it).
For the second time today, after a computer crash, all the file saves after a certain point have disappeared. I left my desk half an hour ago and returned to find my computer had crashed, and all my files had reverted to where they were 11 hours previously.
To be clear, I had saved these files - possibly up to 10 in total. (Because I'm working on a PhD, I work across a lot of files at the same time, so I'm not even sure what had edits or not. For some I had done some substantial writing, for others I had added small notes to follow up. Fortunately I took a break in the afternoon and then worked on another program where I *hadn't* saved my changes (ironically those were therefore not lost!), so I've only lost 2 hours' work, but it will be difficult for me to remember it all and redo.)
Is there any way of getting my saved versions back? This happened about 6 days ago, and I thought the problem was because of the shift in the storage possibility (I have 4.75GB from when I first got Dropbox and it still says I have that, but I know the basic storage is now 2GB). So I spent a day removing files and am now within the 2GB limit. It's happened again, and the losses are more substantive this time, so I don't know what the problem is and I'd really like my work back if possible.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hi there SenB - sorry to hear about this.
Can you please have a look at the version history of those files to see if you can find a previous version to restore?
Also, how is this logged in your events page exactly?
Let us know more and we'll take it from there.
Thank you for getting back Walter.
So this is part of the mystery: the version history stops at the point each file reverted to, even though I saved subsequent versions (and they synced).
My event history also stops at that point, with the exception of one file that survived the crash (#2 below). That's to say, the events page lists all the edits I made to various files in the morning (I am in the UK, so British Summer Time - the last of these edits is 1:43 PM), then there are no events after that except the edit to this one file (at 5:52 PM). I don't know if this makes a difference, but there are also events about moving files, including various .tmp files, but I did not actually move any files, and these events are prior to 1:43 PM.
I should add three points I've realised/noticed:1) I switched off my computer during the day (I think around that same time of 1:43 PM), and the version that the files have reverted to seems be the version prior to that switch-off.
2) There is one file, but only one file, which is an exception to this (i.e. the later saved version has survived, saved at 5:52 PM).
3) When I restarted my computer after the crash, one of the folders in Windows Explorer (but only one) had those extra "locked" versions of the files that get created when you open a file for editing. These were dated to the correct times. I should have tried to open one directly to see what happened! Unfortunately, once I started opening the main files, opening their extra "locked" counterparts just returned me to the same main file (without the subsequent (saved) edits).
- Nancy
Hey SenB! Sorry for jumping in. I’d like to clarify something (and apologies if you’ve already mentioned it).
Before the crash occurred, had your desktop app synced everything to your account online? Had you checked www.dropbox.com at some point to see if your updates had synced there, or checked the Dropbox icon in your system tray instead to see if the app was up to date?
Since you also mentioned your Dropbox quota at some point, had your account gone over-quota (past the 4GB of available space you have) and was no longer syncing, by any chance?
