My file has gone missing from everywhere

[Pierre15]

Hello,

Up until a few days ago, my resumé was in the Dropbox folder on my Mac. It mysteriously disappeared from every location. I know I did not delete it. It's not in a trash bin anywhere. Not in a recently deleted folder. Nothing. 

How do I go about recovering this file when Dropbox does not offer file recovery for the basic plan?

Thanks,

Pierre

[Jay]

Hi @Pierre15, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If the file isn't visible in the events page or the deleted files page, then there's a few possibilities as to why this might be the case:

• The file is on another Dropbox account
• It was in a shared folder you don't have access to any more
• The file was deleted outside of the 30 day period
• The file was permanently deleted

Could you check the above possibilities to see if this could be the case.

Keep me updated with any progress!

[Pierre15]

Hello Jay, that is a no to all the questions above. I did not delete it. It’s just not there. 

Thanks. 

[jennwallace30]

Did you ever find your missing files? I have photos that have gone missing - they were there not too long ago.  They are photos I know I'd never delete.  And they aren't in my deleted items folder.  Just missing.... 

[Jay]

Hi @Pierre15, if the answer is no to everything, then that isn't possible, since the file should've existed on the Dropbox site at some point, and one of the options should be valid. 

Since it's no longer visible on the deleted files page, it wouldn't be possible to recover it, unfortunately.

Likewise, @jennwallace30, if the files aren't on the deleted files page or the events page, then they can't be recovered from the Dropbox site.

[Pierre15]

Yeah but up until last week Monday or so the file existed in my Dropbox. And it's been there for years. Now it's just gone. And you're telling me there's no way to recover a file that has been residing on your platform for over 5 years?

[Hannah]

Sorry to jump in here, @Pierre15, but you mentioned that the file was always in the Dropbox folder on your Mac.

Do you remember ever accessing it from our website?

I mean, is it possible that it never actually synced to your account, and you were only accessing the local version?

[Pierre15]

It was synced because I accessed it multiple times over the last couple months. This was my résumé that I was working on and sending to jobs. 

[mcouvill]

We just experienced the same thing. An entire folder and it's contents just disappeared on Friday. Nothing in any Deleted files (though files before and after show up), nothing in Trash bins. It's as if it never existed and it was NOT deleted as it was a key folder. It was shared and now it is just gone.

[Rich]

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@Pierre15 wrote:

It was synced because I accessed it multiple times over the last couple months.

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But where did you access it? Were you always opening the local file in your Dropbox folder, or were you accessing it on the Dropbox website? Did you ever see the file on the website?