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Bryan28's avatar
Bryan28
Explorer | Level 3
3 months ago

I'm missing files from my over-quota Dropbox account after moving to a new device.

My old (12 years) pc died with a failed graphics card, I had had old messages that my free dropbox was full by email. I do not remember any password being asked for at the time. I now have a new pc (windows11) and the hard drive data has been transferred, but only stuff from earlier than around 2011. I cannot find any of the full dropbox docs and nothing from 2022 on. Where is it and how do I find it?

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey Bryan28, welcome to our forum. 

     

    When did your Dropbox account become full exactly? Did you keep adding files to your desktop app after that point? If yes, then they wouldn't have synced to your Dropbox account online.

     

    Also, how exactly did you transfer your Dropbox files over to the new device? Did you install the Dropbox app again and only files before 2011 synced locally?

     

    Are you missing files on www.dropbox.com

     

    Let me know.

    • Bryan28's avatar
      Bryan28
      Explorer | Level 3

      Nancy

      Thanks for your reply. I do not know exactly when the dropbox became full but I had been accessing files from 2022 onwards days before the graphics card failed and had created powerpoint presentations within the last month. All these were on the old pc but not on transferred data. The dropbox would have been with this email address and was probably started around February 2022, a date when nothing further seems to have ben saved. The 'helpful' person who transferred the data added a team dropbox account for the free trial. But there is nothing there apart from Professor Dr Lake account. There is no recent data there. Does dropbox delete files when full and if so where are the recent ones not saved which were on the pc the day before the failure. I need the old dropbox files for some consultancy work. Please help.

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

        Hi Bryan28 

        Once Dropbox is full it stops syncing, so, nothing else will have been added to Dropbox online - that includes updates to files or new ones. You can see any changes at www.dropbox.com/events. If you work on Dropbox locally they will save on the hard drive in the Dropbox folder but crucially not save to Dropbox - because, as the error is telling you, it is full. 


        There is no way, at all, to get that data back from Dropbox. Thats because it didn't upload to Dropbox (as it was over quota). Dropbox doesn't even know it existed. Its not done anything with it. 

         

        Sorry.