We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.
Forum Discussion
Special account with packrat since 2009 - All deleted files permanently deleted ?
Hello, I’ve got a big problem. First of all, sorry for my english. I’m a very early user of Dropbox, since 2009, one of the first users. After a basic account, I upgraded during two y...
Mark
Super User II
Super User IIEdit: if you go to https://www.dropbox.com/account/plan it will show you what add ons etc. you have on your account.
For example mine says the following as I'm on a grandfathered plan from before PackRat:
Unlimited version history
Free unlimited file version history
Mine just says that I have a basic account.
It has always said that since my packrat account of 2011 became a free plan. For some time the packrat message was still there, and just disappeared at some point, but I could still restore all my files until today, and for many years. The searched engine that shows my deleted files from the past 12 years ago just stopped to work recently. The last old file I restored (more than 30 days and more than 180 days deleted) was on the 5th of june 2021.
Is there a risk that all my deleted files from the past 12 years have been permanently deleted ?
If so, there must have been a team member to do the change on my account recently. He couldn't haven't seen that those deleted files represent a certain amount of space disk and that they're still there and accessible for me since 2009 !
Ok, I realize that maybe it's a problem in the search bar, because even if I search for a file that I deleted a few days ago (less than 30 days), it does not show in the results of the search engine. Only files that have not been deleted are shown in the search results now.
I can't just imagine someone in the dropbox team just delet permanently and erase all my 21 years deleted files that I had acces to. He should have seen that it represents a consequent amount of space disk (probably many To… 5 To, 10 To, maybe more). He should have send me an email befor doing that.
I'm a graphic designer and a comic book drawer. Go check my website >> [link removed by moderator]
Many of my working files are photoshop files. They can't have been all lost and erase permanently just by a wrong manipulation or by pressing a simple button.
Can you tell me if the team is working on the application right now ? Maybe it's a bug and that's for that reason I can't see any deleted files in the search results. Or is there now a specific new action to do for searching in the deleted files ?
- Mark
Hi raouldouglas
As you have a basic account now I'm afraid yes, all your historic files are lost. That isnt a person who has deleted them - its automated. You are not paying so no longer have access to that feature.
PackRat was a feature which was only ever was added to paid accounts. As I said in my first post if you stop paying, at all, you automatically lose PackRat.
I'm afraid there is no way now to recover those files.
There is no ongoing work or updates to Dropbox. It is all working as it should.
I understand what you say, but in my case that's not true. I stopped paying for my account since 2011, and the packrat with infinite version history continued to work until this year, as the team said to me when they said my account with the packrat would be free in 2011, as I was one of the first members.
So if this function has worked until this year, my account must have been on a special list that no automatic dowgrade could be apply to it. There must be somewhere someone who has did it manually.
I can't imagine that all my files from 12 years are now lost.
Please can you put me in contact with a technical member ?
- Mark
All support options are available at www.dropbox.com/support , however, as a free user the only support is here or Twitter. You can hope somebody sees and picks this up this week, but, I'd not hold your breath
