We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.

Forum Discussion

geoffwales's avatar
geoffwales
Explorer | Level 4
12 months ago

Downgraded Dropbox to basic and accidentally deleted entire Dropbox folder from my D Drive

I thought it was a full backup, not the actual folder. I see all the files (580GB) on Dropbox online. Can I download the whole lot in one go?   Are they safe or will Dropbox delete them forever? ...
Delete
Desktop
Folders
Sync
Web
Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
12 months ago

Hey geoffwales! Thanks for posting on the Community.

 

If your device is still linked to your Dropbox account and the folder is empty locally, please make sure to disconnect this specific device from Dropbox before doing anything else. Otherwise, you risk having your files deleted from your web account as well, since it’ll look like you deleted them from your desktop app and these changes will sync to our servers.

 

Also, even if you relink the Dropbox app after that, you’ll most likely receive an error that it can’t sync everything, since you don’t have enough space on your Dropbox account.

 

If there’s something you need to download urgently, please try using the website, and let me know if you run into any issues.

 

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

  • geoffwales's avatar
    geoffwales
    Explorer | Level 4
    12 months ago

    Thanks for the reply.

     

    I did exit Dropbox on my PC straightaway. I am in the process of manually downloading folders, which is a real pain.

     

    Why? There are so many folders I had to bundle folders together. Then I get a message that the resulting folder is too large to zip. Then I try to move some folders out, but I can't find out how big they are and moving them is very hard as I don't know where I can move them too, other than to another folder.

     

    A very unintuitive experience, all in all.

     

     

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      12 months ago

      Hey geoffwales, I understand where you're coming from, however, by downgrading your account to the free version with 2 GB of space, having 580 GB of files in it, would get your account over its quota.

       

      When the account is over quota, the application will no longer sync, so you can't really sync your files through the app anymore, unless you re-upgrade to go under quota.

       

      That's why you'll have to download your files in batches from the website.

       

      I hope this clarifies things.

    • Dondon1975's avatar
      Dondon1975
      Helpful | Level 6
      11 months ago

      Edit ?? The web??.the computer drive??. Then put files where??. Omg. It looks easy. But it's the folders stuff I don't like at allll!

       

      Help!

       

      I was thinking perfect..for all. But it's not really! I do not know how to do this

       

      Can I have help..and explanation pllleeezz..

       

      Want all online..and why one eighty days??. Where's it to then? Why's it not to straight to online cloud drop.bx..??.. Set to be diffgicult.. I instructions diff...

       

      I really liked it apart from this bit!!

       

      For on!one therapy.business!.n.movin.hebrideas..so...was.like.aye..grt.!!.for.businessess!!!!

       

      Is like to learn!.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!