All My Data Disappeared :( ... Nothing in Trash, No Activity, No Events. Please Help!

[adamfinley]

I am a new Dropbox Business member (having signed up just a couple of weeks ago) and this morning I woke up and all of my data that was marked 'make available offline' was gone... I about had a heart attack and hours later, my gut still feels like a pit. I'm really hoping someone here can help. 

The data was in a shared folder that was shared with two other people, both of which didn't delete anything. Nothing is in the trash can, there is no activity showing that someone deleting anything, and no events... just gone. I tried to use the 'Rewind This Folder' feature on my entire Dropbox folder and it only goes back as far as the 'event' that seemed to have caused all of my data to be missing. I've been able to figure out this schedule of occurrence. 

1. Last night, around midnight, everything was normal.

2. At 1:49AM, there was the below activity from one person shared on the folder:

2A. Removed user/group from shared file/folder

2B. Left shared file/folder

... to me, that is suspicious because of the time, but also because the device and location are listed as 'Unknown'. Also at 1:49, there was an Event that the second person on the shared folder removed their own access. Both people have said the Dropbox activity wasn't them. 

3. At 3:40AM, my Dropbox started syncing files from the night before 

4. I woke up the next morning and every folder and file was gone, nothing to be seen in trash, activity, or events, other than the files that started synced after 3:40AM.

I am in need of some major help - countless days of work were put into project files that are among the missing... not to mention files that are irreplaceable. Waiting until Monday to speak to someone seems like an eternity. I read in a similar post that @310EI and @Jane were able to help someone facing a similar problem. When their problem was solved, the data just started coming back. 

Really hope I can find some assurance and solutions as soon as possible. Thank you.

[Mark · Accepted solution]

Hi @adamfinley 

So whoever 2A is removed the access to those folders - the timings of that could be wrong as this is the time it syncs to Dropbox. That could be that they removed the folders from outside of the Dropbox directory. They need to replace them, or, via their own account, rejoin them and reinvite you. That should restore everything 

In the meantime why dont you use your backups for whatever information you need?

[adamfinley]

Hey Mark, thanks for the reply! I spoke with the person who is mentioned in 2A and they actually never accepted my invite to join the Dropbox team (I'm still a super new Dropbox Business customer). I'm about to get on the phone with the only person who had joined the Dropbox team to see if he might have accidentally moved the folder out of the Dropbox directory but if he did, wouldn't there be an activity log or an event log of it? We're talking about 4-5TB of data gone overnight.

Another question: if he did move the folder out of the Dropbox directory and for whatever reason is unable/unwilling to put it back, is that something Dropbox can remedy on their end and restore to me? My hope is that there'd be some sore of safeguard there.

And if he didn't in fact move them, do you have any idea what else could have happened or how helpful Dropbox will be in finding the data with nothing in the Trash, no Activity Log and no Event log of any deletion?

I can go through archives to find a number of the video files, but it'll take a weeks to get the online again. The most important files were project files that have work that can't be re-done unfortunately. 

[adamfinley]

Update: so after getting a Dropbox Team member on the phone, the first thing he told me was that Dropbox had an open notification: "Do you want to save the master folder to the team dropbox, or your personal dropbox"... and I said, "select the team folder!"

... and as soon as he did that, all my data showed up instantly. I'm so happy... 

But major suggestion to Dropbox: there's got to be a way to track what/when/how this happens. Or if there is, making it more obvious. Waking up to no data and nothing in the trash, no activity, no events... that is a serious fright!

Thanks for your help, Mark!