Mass Deletion Alert (Mac OS Ventura 13.2.1) MacBook Pro

[dan t]

There really isn't  a good "category" to post this under so i'm using this one.

Over the last several months.  I received an email that there was a mass deletion.  While at home, I saw this email last night about 9pm  - yes it was a sleepless night since my laptop was at work in the office.

This has happened about 3 or 4 other times.  I am 100% positive i did not delete the folders nor did the 3 other users. 100% POSITIVE.

Coincidently, it appeared to happen at the exact same time i closed down my laptop for the night.  6:14PM 2/28/24.  My procedure is to Quit all apps, unmount the dropbox SSD Hardrive (i keep dropbox on an external SSD HD), then i closed my laptop for the night.  Been doing it this way for years with normally no issues. I believe 3 of the times this happened it said it was me that deleted the folders.  One instance it said it was one of our users. I believe the other times this happened it appeared to happened around the time i closed laptop for the night. 

Thankfully - this morning i went to the deleted items folder (on dropbox) and was able to restore both folders. This worked for the other instances as well, when folders were mysteriously moved to deleted items folder on dropbox - i was able to restore.

Not sure what the heck is going on but it has to stop 

Please if anybody has any suggestions let me know.  This can't go on like this.

Dropbox what's going on??

thank you

dan t

Background: all our folders on dropbox are flagged as "offline" and shared to myself (admin) and 3 other users.  All users use IMACs. We have the business plan, not sure what the plan is called but we pay about $288 per year/per user.  My account is set up on TWO computers my laptop and on a IMAC OS Catalina 10.15.7  

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@dan t wrote:

My procedure is to Quit all apps, unmount the dropbox SSD Hardrive (i keep dropbox on an external SSD HD), then i closed my laptop for the night. ... Dropbox what's going on??

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The problem is you're running Dropbox on an external drive and you're removing the drive while the Dropbox app is running. Dropbox sees the sudden loss of your files as a mass-deletion and starts to sync the deletion to your account.

This is the main reason why it's strongly suggested that Dropbox not be stored on an external/removable drive. If the drive is removed while Dropbox is running or if Dropbox starts before the drive is connected, Dropbox can see it as a mass-deletion and will sync that deletion to your account and any other connected devices.

If you insist on storing Dropbox on an external drive, it's extremely important that you close the Dropbox application BEFORE you unmount the drive.

[dan t]

Thank you Rich. 

dumb question....

I see the small dropbox icon along the top of my screen (towards the right) next to things like bluetooth, Time Machine, wifi, etc but i don't see how to officially close Dropbox?  Seams like it's just running always in background. I never open dropbox - just runs automatically.  It's not like i can close it like for example MS word or Photoshop document. 

How do i "close" dropbox at the end of the day?

Appreciate your help THANK YOU!

[Rich]

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@dan t wrote:

How do i "close" dropbox at the end of the day?

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Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, click your user icon and then select Quit. I'm not sure about the macOS version, but on Windows you can also Control-click the same Dropbox icon to get the legacy menu, where you can select Exit Dropbox.

One more note. If you plan to continue using Dropbox on an external drive, make sure syncing is complete and showing Up to date before you exit the application. And finally, this is still far from fool proof and Dropbox is NOT meant to be run this way. If you value your data, make sure you're keeping your own back ups.

[dan t]

Rich you're awesome

i can't thank you enough

have a good day