ALL MY FILES ARE MISSING!

[FLHowe]

I have not deleted anything, and every, single one of my file folders is empty. I had a LOT of important graphic design work in those folders and it is ALL GONE. How do I get it back? I did NOT delete any of it. I have not changed my subscription, or anything else. The files have just disappeared. 

Please help! 

[FLHowe1]

Yea. Thought DropBox WAS my back up. 

[FLHowe1]

Well, this is very interesting. According to what the experts in the community shared with me, DropBox is a syncing system and it doesn't store copies of the files. If I delete the source of where those files came from, they are removed from my DropBox account. And since it had been more than 30 days and I don't have a business account, they were permanently gone. 

The funny thing is, I had provided the president of the non-profit I created these graphics for shared access to the folder so she could access the files if she needed them, whenever. 

The folder is mine, and I provided her access to it. For some strange reason, she still can access all of the files, every single one. Which is great news for me, because she was able to get the files back to me so I have them and will back them up on the hard drive I ordered. But it doesn't make any sense given what I was told here. Since I deleted the main source where these files were synced from, she should have lost the files too, but she didn't. 

Glad to have the files back, but still very confused as to how this could have happened. 

[Jane]

Hey @FLHowe1, 

Please let me follow-up on the matter, hope you have a great week ahead! 

Please keep in mind that me and @Mark are suggesting some possible causes for the deletions based on your description, since we can’t access your file structure here. 

To better determine the case and locate why your files were deleted, we’d need to follow-up through our official support channel, where we can access your account details. Please include a ticket ID in your reply here, so that we look up for your ticket internally and follow-up on your request. 

I’ll be awaiting your reply, so that we work on that together! 

Warm regards, 

JaneA

[mychang]

I am having the same problem. Please help me too!

[JM88]

One thing that surprised me is that files can be deleted from other computers, including ones you've previously logged in to and no longer use. Customer service may be able to tell you where the deletions are coming from, and you can then remove whichever computer that is from your device list. In my case, I was losing thousands of important files due to a Sony laptop I once logged into two years ago. Removing it solved my problems - here's how:

 - Open Dropbox online

 - Left-click on the circle with your profile picture/avatar in the top right corner of the screen. This should open the "Personal Account" page.

 - Select the "Security" tab.

 - Scroll down until you see a box beneath the heading "Devices".

 - Just click the "x" next to any devices you're no longer using.

After that - if you haven't done so already, buy a few external HDs and backup your stuff there every week from now on (or set up Time Machine if you have a Mac). I wanted to use Dropbox as a backup, but it's not sufficient for that unfortunately.

[mychang]

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated! I had a bunch of my files from my Walmart.com work computer and I don't see it there in the other devices unfortunately! The only device I see is my personal laptop, so not sure what I could do next?

Maybe I need to talk to customer support again....

[Sanchez]

Hey @mychang, 

Sometimes we have more than one Dropbox account, and things can get mixed up. The place to start is on https://www.dropbox.com. Log in here, and check your devices. If you don’t see a connected device, then you may need to log in with a different email address, as you may have connected (linked) that device to another Dropbox account. 

Take a look at this, and get back to me when you have a chance. 

Thanks, and have a great weekend
 

[aprimhb]

Wow what a condescending response. I was reading this back and forth to figure out what may have happened to several of my files. I had a ton of images on dropbox and they are all gone (but yet their associated text files remain), and I have not even opened that folder in a couple of months, so there is no way I deleted them. Dropbox is clearly having problems and these condescending responses are not helpful. Maybe it will happen to you someday and you can see how frustrating it is. I am paying for dropbox, so this is extra frustrating.

[aprimhb]

 My comment above was in response to Mark, super user.

[Sanchez]

Hey @aprimhb, welcome to our community! 

I’m sorry to hear about your missing images. I suggest that you write in to our support team here. If your images went missing that long ago, there may be nothing that we can do, but perhaps an agent can have a look at your account, and see what caused this. 

Cheers