Many files from a specific folder have gone missing.

[gerry_51]

I've recently stumbled on the fact that I've lost literally hundreds of genealogical files that I'd spent vast amounts of time manually creating circa 2000-2010.  I can't say exactly when the loss occurred but it must have been some time in the last 12 months, as I generally access those files at least every few months.  The files were contained in numerous subfolders beneath a folder called "Relatives".  That folder, along with a couple of dozen peer folders, was stored on my C drive and manually (drag and drop) backed up to Dropbox.   

Two really strange things about this loss: (a) The entire folder structure below "Relatives" is still present in each location (C drive and Dropbox), just that none of the numerous subfolders contains any files; and (b) "Relatives" is the only folder among my top-level folders to have suffered this fate. 

I can't think of what I could have done to cause this to happen.  I can vaguely imagine accidentally deleting the entire "Relatives" folder in one location and propagating that error to the other location but I can't imagine deleting just its files and retaining all its subfolders, which would be an arduous manual process anyway.  

Can anyone think of what I could have done to cause this to happen (presumably some months before I realized I'd done it) and could it have had anything to do with the way I back up to Dropbox?     

[Nancy]

Hi @gerry_51, and thanks for posting this here on the forum. 

Have you taken a look at your Events page to see what has happened during the last few months?

It may be a long shot from what you’ve mentioned, but do you see any of your missing files in the Deleted files section? 

Finally, is it possible you accidentally dragged these files outside of your local Dropbox folder? If yes, they’d be removed from your Dropbox app and your account online indeed.

Let me know, and we’ll go from there.

[gerry_51]

Sorry for the delay.  Searching in Events I wasn't able to find any specific files I'd lost.  Just to repeat, no folders were deleted.  The entire folder tree below the folder in question ("Relatives") was still there, just that none of the folders contained any files.  I can't imagine how anything like that could have happened, not even accidentally.  (I've since deleted that folder and all its subfolders from Dropbox.)  Thank you for telling me about Events anyway.