Searching within deleted files

[LabelsRus]

How do I search by file name in deleted files? When I use the search bar it searches not-deleted files, and as far as I can tell all I can do is sort deleted files by date range. I have no clue what the date of creation or deletion was, but I have the file name. Also, I only have one account using my dropbox, so who deleted it is useless. I would do ctrl+f, but dropbox's website only loads a few lines past the bottom of the visible page, so it's useless. And folders change, merge, and get removed over the years so searching by folder is also not helpful. I know I used to be able to search my entire deleted file history by file name a few years ago but haven't needed to recently.
Is there a limit to how far back deleted files are saved? I've been paying for the option sine opening my dropbox account, so in theory I should have access to anything I've ever deleted.

[Jay]

Hi @arigoldfilms, sorry to hear about this. 

If you search for a file using the normal search bar, it will first locate all files that already exist on your account.

If you scroll down, you'll get to the 'grey' files, which are deleted files. You should be able to locate the file from there, unless it was possibly on a shared folder that you no longer have access to.

Let me know how it goes and if you can locate the file!

[arigoldfilms]

Unfortunately this does not work. The file that I deleted is called piano. There are literally thousands of text files in my dropbox that mention a piano. So when I search for the music file, I get a list that goes on and on and on and on and I keep scrolling and it keeps refreshing and so far I have scrolled back through a few thousand. I have not gotten to any Grey files. Is it really true that there is no simple way to search for a file name only in the Deleted section? I did try the other way where I searched during a time period that something is deleted, but because I did major file house cleaning during this time, I am also looking at thousands of files, text and otherwise. This functionality is unbelievably bad. Why can’t I just search in my deleted files for a certain file name??

[Jay]

Currently, there isn't an option to search for a filename specifically while you're on the deleted files page. 

Since this isn't possible, I can suggest this to our dev team for their consideration to implement something like this in future to improve the usability of the site. 

[arigoldfilms]

Yes I would argue that this issue is not "Solved" at all. I've lost 3 files, and there is no way to find them. Please tell the developers this should be remedied IMMEDIATELY.

We should be able to search by +Filename +Deleted. (And choose between filename and contents as well).

Attached is a photo of my browser history as I spent six hours trying to find the files by clicking and clicking and clicking. No luck.

[Mike K.61]

Seconded for including this as a feature, and for saying this question should not in any way be marked "solved", that is overtly deceptive. I am trying to search my deleted files for a phrase that I have literally tens of thousands of in my regular files. By you forcing me to scroll through all the existing files before seeing the delete ones, you have forced me into a hell of literally two days of scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling.

And that's the very abbreviated version. Now multiply how annoying it is that I just did that to you by several dozen, and how much of your time that uselessly wasted by several thousand, and you have some idea of what trying to find this deleted file has put me through for the last two days.

Maybe instead of rolling out fancy new bells and whistles and trying to replace google docs, your developers should get the basic functionality we pay for, so it's actually usable without it literally taking over a day of work just to find a deleted file.

[wim r.1]

Any update on this? Still looking efficient way to search particulary in delted files. How to do this ... pain still there.

[Lusil]

Hey @wim r.1, thanks for checking in with us!

When you search for files on the website, deleted ones will currently appear at the very bottom of the results. 

However, you can view and filter deleted files online by, for example, date or user. You can find out more about it in this article. 

Also, you can post any ideas of features here, where other users who share the same interest can comment and upvote. 

I understand this may not be the reply you were looking for, but I hope it helps to some extent.

[wim r.1]

This is not the answer in my point of view. I want to *search* in deleted files, not have to sort and stuff ... as @Mike K.61 mentioned it is quite hard to eally find what you want the way discribed in the link posted above ... not solved from my point of view.

[vleon1012]

Greets,

I'm replying in August 2020. It looks like a specific search for deleted files hasn't been implemented yet.

It would be extremely helpful to be able to specifically search for Deleted files. It shouldn't be necessary to search all files and then hunt for deleted ones, especially when there could be thousands of undeleted files that match the search text.

The filenames are obviously being retained with a logical delete flag in the database. It shouldn't too difficult to implement the existing search functionality for files with a logical delete flag.

This could be implented in at least one of two ways:

- Search for deleted files specifically on the deleted files page

or

- Add 2 checkboxes next to the global search prompt. "Deleted Files" and "Existing Files" or something along those lines. The user can select one of both options. 

Searching for deleted files is usually an urgent (if not frantic) task  and scrolling through results is a waste of time.

Cheers,

-Vic

[jeromeca]

Same problem here. 
Very frustrating. 

Please solve this! 

It's a very simple development!