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Forum Discussion
Dropbox data integrity fail
I've never had to ask for assistance with Dropbox or notify the community about an alarming behavior, and now I find I'm doing both.
Last night before bed I used a portable application that has lived within my Dropbox folders. This folder has been in the same location for many years. I use it daily. This particular folder is shared between three of my computers and with several work colleagues.
This morning when I tried to use the application (with custom code that I wrote in it) my machine acted like it was missing. Strange.
I browsed to the folder, and sure enough only a single ini is left to show anything was ever there. I checked Dropbox for deleted files, and nothing as listed. I checked one of my other two computers. Missing from there as well, and again no indication it was removed from Dropbox.
I pulled out my laptop, and it showed that it was trying to sync 3 files from the affected folder. I had the application actively open on my laptop. I made a copy of the application, and restarted the laptop. Correcting the sync... and now the application is missing from my laptop as well, and no entry in Dropbox to show that it been sync'ed away. No deleted files.
I'm baffled. How this could have happened. I trust Dropbox with my data, daily. With my livelihood. That trust has been violated and I'm going to start looking immediately for trustworthy alternatives.
I hope that I'm alone in this bizarre behavior, but I thought the community should know there are apparently circumstances where data can disappear without any trace from your Dropbox.
Update: I found that opening up Folder Activity and going back 9 days I found that one of my co-workers "moved" the folder. I still am perplexed that it didn't give me the ability to retrieve my files or show that they'd been removed during a sync operation this morning.
moshker wrote:
I checked Dropbox for deleted files, and nothing as listed. I checked one of my other two computers. Missing from there as well, and again no indication it was removed from Dropbox.
What does your Events page show?
- Rich
Super User II
moshker wrote:
I checked Dropbox for deleted files, and nothing as listed. I checked one of my other two computers. Missing from there as well, and again no indication it was removed from Dropbox.
What does your Events page show?
I had to go back 9 days to find the event. My colleague removed the folder. I'm guessing the sync took so long to effect because I keep the application open, always. I'm a little frustrated that in the events it didn't show that it had just removed the items from my machine.
Thank you for your reply. Truly helpful.
- Rich
moshker wrote:
I'm a little frustrated that in the events it didn't show that it had just removed the items from my machine.
The actual event (removing the folder) occurred 9 days ago, so that's when it's logged in the Events page. The Events page shows the activity for your account; not a specific machine.
