Corrupt file disappeared??

[Danipants]

I was working in an Excel file and made a couple changes, when I hit save it froze, then the program closed. When I opened it back up, the file was completely gone from my dropbox, but I did NOT delete it. The only reference to the file whatsoever anywhere on my computer is when I open a different Excel file and on the left side, it appears on the document recovery list, however, when I try any of the options it ultimately tells me the file cannot be opened because it is corrupt. I’ve tried all of the standard options found on dropbox help regarding Recovering deleted files, but none of that works because the file is no longer in my dropbox, including the deleted folder. Any ideas at all? This is a super important file that I’ve been building for a year. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@Danipants wrote:
I was working in an Excel file and made a couple changes, when I hit save it froze, then the program closed. When I opened it back up, the file was completely gone from my dropbox, but I did NOT delete it.

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Excel deleted the file during the save process.

When working on an Excel file, Excel creates a temporary file and all of your edits are made there. When you save, Excel first deletes the original and then renames the temporary file. If Excel was unable to save after the original was deleted, you would lose the file. I'd look in the folder where the file was located for any temporary files. You'll probably need to enable the display of hidden files on your operating system.

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I’ve tried all of the standard options found on dropbox help regarding Recovering deleted files, but none of that works because the file is no longer in my dropbox, including the deleted folder.

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Are you sure the file was syncing to Dropbox? Do you see any mention of it on your Events page? If it's not showing up in Deleted Files and there's no reference to it on your Events page, then it was likely never syncing to Dropbox.

[Danipants]

I got it! Was able to restore it through the events page, didn’t even know that was a thing. Thank you so very much!!

[ivan10grazie]

I have a similar problem..yesterday I worked on 3 excel files in the dropbox folder..this morning I open the folder, 2 are there and the third has disappeared..it's nowhere!!!! A file I use every day seems like it never existed on my Mac! How is it possible?!!! There are months of work on it, I use dropbox to avoid the risk of losing this data but this way it is absolutely less risky to have it on your hard disk! CRAZY!
I checked the events page, in the deleted files... it doesn't exist anywhere!
I don't have a paid plan, will I lose my job?

[Hannah]

Hey @ivan10grazie, so sorry to hear that you've lost your file.

Have you checked your account online, to see if you can locate it in your files?

If it's not there, it's possible that it never actually synced to your account. If it never synced, then it's not possible to recover it through Dropbox.

Make sure to check, though, and let me know what you find.

[ivan10grazie]

I used the files directly from the finder by opening the dropbox folder where I copied them a week ago... like this for all 3... and they are normally online every day... other pdf files generated from that file are present... as are the 2 others that I always used yesterday and which are synchronized just like the last ones but dated yesterday afternoon... I checked on the web but I don't see it.

[Hannah]

Thanks for the update, @ivan10grazie.

This particular file that is missing, have you ever seen it in your account online?

If you could previously access it online, but cannot find it now, we can send you an email, to investigate further and see what might have happened to it.

[ivan10grazie]

The file was online exactly like the others that are present, in the exact same way. Last saved yesterday afternoon as well as the others who are seen and are normally there. Furthermore, I have already done various searches locally but the file isn't even in the trash.

[Jay]

Hi @ivan10grazie, are the files in a shared folder, or a private folder on your Dropbox account?

Have you tried checking the Dropbox cache to see if the file is there, or in Excel itself for the 'recent files', to see if somehow it wasn't in the Dropbox folder?

[ivan10grazie]

The files are in a private folder where only I can access.
I also tried checking the cache via hidden files as you indicated but there are no files of that type (excel).