Shared folder that was deleted by an outside 3rd party

[isolutions4u]

First, I tried to contact tech support for Dropbox and was informed there are no phone numbers.  Clearly that is not true so I am hoping someone in the community can help me.

I have/had a shared folder to share confidential work docs with an employee.  I pay for my Dropbox and I created the folder and invited the other person.  I was under the impression that meant only that person and I had access to the folder.  No other invites were sent and, on my side, only saw that person and I on that folder.

This employee was performing services for another company (I was aware of the other work) and the other company also uses Dropbox.  The other company created folders and shared with my employee.  The employee used the same email address for both my company and the other company to log into Dropbox and access the respective folders. 

The employee's temp assignment with the other company ended and they deleted her from dropbox.  Here is where the issue begins.

When they deleted her from their folders, they also deleted her from dropbox.  When I look into the folder I created and shared with this employee, it shows them as "deleted".  When I try to send them a new invite, they are not receiving the invitation and I cannot add them. 

I have removed them (unshared) the folder so now I am the only owner of the folder.

Question -

1.  How can another outside entity delete a contact in a folder I own?

2. If the other entity was able to delete the employee from a folder I own and created, could they have had access to its contents?

3. Is there a way I can trace the actions in and of folders I own? (I usually click the 'follow' button for uploads, downloads, etc)

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@isolutions4u wrote:

First, I tried to contact tech support for Dropbox and was informed there are no phone numbers.  Clearly that is not true so I am hoping someone in the community can help me.

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That is true, actually. There are no phone numbers for Support. Dropbox Business accounts have access to phone support but it's handled via a callback initiated through their admin console. There is no number to call. If you see a phone number posted online somewhere, it's either for the Sales team who won't handle support, or it's a fake support company claiming to be Dropbox (or HP, Dell, Microsoft, etc.).

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When they deleted her from their folders, they also deleted her from dropbox.  When I look into the folder I created and shared with this employee, it shows them as "deleted".

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She likely wasn't invited to a shared folder from the other company. Instead, she was probably invited to join the other company's team Dropbox account. By accepting, she merged her account into theirs, using one of their licenses and effectively making them the owner of her account. When a team admin removes someone from the team, the account is deleted along with anything in it.

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When I try to send them a new invite, they are not receiving the invitation and I cannot add them.

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Because the account no longer exists.

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1.  How can another outside entity delete a contact in a folder I own?

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They didn't delete someone from your folder. They deleted her entire account, and since they were (technically) the owner of the account, they're able to do that.

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2. If the other entity was able to delete the employee from a folder I own and created, could they have had access to its contents?

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Direct access, as in other team members being able to directly open the folder, not likely, but a team admin has the ability to sign in as any account on the team and view all files in the account. If they did this, then yes, they could have accessed the content of the folder.

You might want to let your employee know that she needs to contact the team admin of that other company and ask them to restore her account, and then have convert it to an individual account. This would restore the account back to her as a separate account, not joined to any team. She needs to act quickly because the team admin only has seven days from when it was deleted before it can no longer be restored. Only the team admin for the other account is able to do this for her.

[Jay]

Hi @isolutions4u, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

It sounds like the other user was a member of a Dropbox Business team. This means that the team admin can delete their entire account.

Depending on their plan, the team admin could also sign in as the user, and view whatever they have on their account, including that shared folder. You can use the file activity log to see basic actions, however, the more detailed reports are available for a team admin on a Dropbox Business team.

Regarding phone support, currently, we only provide incoming phone support for team admins of Dropbox Business subscriptions.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

[Mark]

1) As you can only have 1 Dropbox account per email my guess is that either she moved on to a Business account with them and they wiped the account (because they now own that account - they own everything in that account as its a business, like if they put the stuff on a server in your building) OR they deleted the files off her device before wiping it (assuming it was on a work device). 

2) Yes. If they have been able to delete it they have almost certainly had access to it - especially if it was on a business account because they could if they so wished log in as that person. The person you worked with should never have allowed both roles/jobs to cross in to one Dropbox account 

3) Once a share is deleted all actions within that share are also deleted. You can try restoring it at www.dropbox.com/share and see if that helps, but, it depends upon how it was removed initially. 

[isolutions4u]

Thank you for your reply.  I truly appreciate it.