Is it possible to access files on my hard drive that I no longer have email access to?

[ivan3278]

In the past, I worked at a company that uses dropbox using company emails. Lately I was scanning my storage hard drive to make space and found that I still have GBs of files I worked on back then. I was thinking of putting some of this work onto a new portfolio, but I can't open these files because I no longer have the work email. Is there anyway I can use these old desynced files on my hard drive?

[Mark]

Why wont it open? What is the error message?

[ivan3278]

They all have the x symbol on them, and trying to open an illustrator file says

Although I have to admit there are a few files I can open that don't have this symbol. Does this just mean I didn't actually download these files onto my computer? and the these icons represent that they exist in the folder at the time?

If this is the case, is there a way to browse by downloaded files only? this file directory has a massive folder structuring system and I don't want to look through each folder to see which ones I can actually use haha... 😅

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@ivan3278 wrote:

Does this just mean I didn't actually download these files onto my computer?

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Correct. When you had access to the account/files, those files were marked as Online-only, meaning they didn't actually exist on your local drive. They were just pointers to the online files, which would download automatically when you tried to open one. Since you're no longer connected to the account, you can no longer access or download those files.

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... is there a way to browse by downloaded files only?

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No.

[ivan3278]

Not the answer I was hoping for but it all makes sense now. Thanks for the answers, I appreciate it!