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Forum Discussion
Why did all of my files disappear?
A folder that is owned by me and shared with two others is now empty. What happened to all of my image files? How do I get them back?
As I am a basic user, the policy of dropbox says I can only recover the files deleted within 30days as they will be deleted for real!!! Can someone tell me whether this statement is really true or it is just bullshit and I might have chances to let the staff of dropbox to recover them?
That is correct. Basic accounts, or Pro accounts without the Extended Version History addon, can only recover files for 30 days from the date they were deleted. Beyond that they cannot be recovered, even by Dropbox staff.
rjothvas wrote:
... a Basic account that I haven't used in awhile ...
How long is a while? If an account remains idle for more than a year, Dropbox will remove it, which also removes all files from the system.
... and now it's telling mee that it can't find any of my folders, and dropbox made me use InstallerIs it possible that you started a new account, instead of signing into your old one? If the old one had been removed and you installed with the same email address, you would have started a new, empty account.
are my files now all gone? If not, where are they?If you're signing in with the same email address and the account is empty, then it's likely as I described above. Otherwise you can try checking the Events page and Deleted Files to see if the files are there, or see if it lists what happened. If both pages are empty (aside from anything new you've done), then you're in a new account.
I am missing a massive amount of files. All my folders are still in place but they are ALL empty and my Dropbox folder on my Mac is empty as well because they are synced.
I am soon screwed! I really need these files and thought Dropbox was a great way to have files on my hard drive and in "the cloud" and now I have NOTHING and can't seem to get connected to anyone at DB.
I will obviously need a different solution moving forward but that doesn't help me find the 2TB of files I lost!
- I have experienced the same thing.... at least 50 folders still remain on my computer, but the contents of my folders, which were hundreds of files, disappeared!!! I had not made any changes to my account and i do not share my computer files with anyone... countless hours and lots of hard work wasted!!!
- Daphne
Dropbox Staff
Hi there Nanalin1, I'm really sorry to hear about this!
Could you take a look at your Events page here to see if you can locate any deletion events or anything that would explain what you're experiencing there?
If the files have been mistakenly deleted, can you try restoring the files with the steps outlined here?
If you get any errors in the process, please send me a screenshot (excluding any personal info).
Let me know what you find!
I had the same problem and submitted a help ticket. They responded with wrote answer thinking it's user error but I have seen several other reporting similar issue. They also had a file deletion bug last October 2014 (see link below). Yesterday thousands of files in a shared folder were deleted from Dropbox account for all shared users. It shows it was done from my computer when I look at the deleted files but I was using my computer at the timestamp and not deleting thousands of files. When I go to the Events page on Dropbox it does not show this deletion event. Something happened on Dropbox's end. I have submitted a help ticket and I hope they own up to this and fix it.
http://www.cnet.com/news/dropbox-fixes-file-deletion-bug-offers-year-of-free-service/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/13/dropbox-selective-sync-bug/
http://betanews.com/2014/10/13/cloud-burst-dropbox-confirms-bug-deleted-user-files/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3037055/elasticity/dropbox-bug-deletes-user-files
i am having major problems with deleted files and moved files. Dropbox have not owned up to it they are a shower of lying [profanity removed as per our Community's Guidelines] never again this has caused my business no end of problems dont use dropbox
- Walter
Sorry to hear that mug123 - can I help somehow?
Could you maybe elaborate on the problem you seem to be experiencing so I can assist further?
On a side note, I removed the profanity from your post - please refrain from using such language around our Community in the future.
If you'd like me to reach out to your Dropbox associated address so I can put you in touch with our Restorations team, please let me know.
Thanks!
This is how I restored all of my deleted files and folders too. However, it's highly unlikely that several people all simultaneously with shared folders had their files mysteriously deleted on the same day by each having someone with access doing it. It also doesn't explain when I look at the Events tab on the right-hand side of the screen why every other file that I knowingly deleted or added shows in the history but these mysteriously deleted files don't show in the Event history. Clearly this was some bug that happened on Dropbox's side and they haven't taken responsibility for it yet, likely won't if not enough outcry is made and they hear from enough of us to force them to do the right and ethical thing by taking responsibility and making sure it doesn't happen again.
The restore of files was enabled. All good now.
Tks!
I'm having the same problem. Will you please post what DropBox responds to your ticket?
Same here.
ALL files vanished without trace!
Two days ago they were here, but now they simply vanished! ALL files!
Please help ASAP!
I am missing files in folder that were not shared, and I haven't deleted. Looking back to a folder I archived on DB years ago I see the folders are the but are empty. This is terrible! I have ten of thousands of files on here and sync with my PC that are work related. Periodically I go looking for something and its just gone! No idea what I am missing!
About 2 weeks ago thousands (>50,000) of my photos and files were randomly deleted from my Dropbox. Luckily, I noticed this right away but, unfortunately, there is no way to restore all of the files at ones. In order to get the files back I would have to go through every folder one by one restoring the random deleted files. I contacted Dropbox(via the online chat option) asking them to restore the files and provided them with links to the deletion events. A week later I had not heard from them and could not find a number to call them. I upgraded my account to a business one because of the promise of improved customer service and submitted another request for help. When I submitted the request I got a message saying they would respond in 12 hours. It is now more than 3 days later and I still have not heard from them and my files are still deleted. There are no responses to my prior requests as well. Has anyone else had similar issues and does anyone know of a better way to contact Dropbox? Is this the same Dropbox bug that people were reporting in 2014?
I do not know how the subfolders and files were deleted. Maybe one of the shared users with "edit" privilege could have unwittingly deleted the contents of the entire main folder. I scoured the Dropbox help pages and found a solution after I submitted a trouble ticket.
Go to the empty folder and click on the trash can icon. It will most likely show all deleted files. Right click on the folder or file and you will see an option to "restore".
all of my files (years of family pictures) are missing. all of my folders say empty! I shared none of them and no one has access to them except me. my deleted files says nothing has been deleted, my shared files says nothing has been shared, my files are just all GONE! with the exception on one picture. literally all my family pictures for the past 10+ years are gone. anyone please help. I've been paying them monthly for the extra space thinking the files would be safe. what can I do??
