Leaving teams and migrating personal files back to me

[Richard F.39]

OK, I started off with my own DB account, then my company set up a teams account, which, at that time, required me to merge my account with theirs. You then came up with an option to have a personal account linked to the teams account. All good.

So, until recently, I had Dropbox, and Dropbox (Personal) on my computer. I left the company, and upgraded my personal account to Pro. The company removed me from thier teams account, and all their files were removed from my computer (the computer was/is my own). This left my personal files "safe" in Dropbox (Personal).

Then, I was asked to link the computer to my personal account, which added a new Dropbox folder, synched to????

I now have Dropbox and Dropbox (Personal) both containing mainly the same, but not all the same files!

Help!!!!!!

[Jonathan O.10]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for posting this question on our Forum.

It sounds like you might have a Dropbox folder which is no longer linked to your account. You should be able to identify, which of your Dropbox folders is the active one by checking the overlay icons (i.e. are there green check marks on the folders, are your shared folders showing the little people icon, etc.).

You may also check your Dropbox location by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the menu bar, clicking the gear icon, and choosing "Preferences". From the account tab you can see where your Dropbox folder is located.

The other folder will not be linked to your account and can therefore be deleted. Before you delete it you may want to check that you have not been editing files in that folder, though, as these changes would not have synced to Dropbox.

Please let me know, if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Andreas

[Martín B.]

Hi. I've set up my Personal Dropbox as a Team Dropbox. I don't have only one team (I have 4 different jobs) so I'd like to go back to my Personal Account (or be able to create 4 teams without paying for a Pro Version because I can't afford that). 

[Paul M.65]

I recently thought I'd try the Teams option.  I am a one-man business, but work with various groups in other companies on a project-by-project basis.  There are some groups I work with regularly, and thought Teams might be a way to run this.  I have a few issues:

1. I am now concerned that the Team members i added can see ALL of the Dropbox content and not just the shared directory I invited them to.  Is that the case?

2. My Dropbox folder became Dropbox (EAd Ltd) - in fact both exist, but the latter is the linked one.  All my working project shortcuts refer to the original route named Dropbox, which also happens across my OSX system and the virtual machine under Parallels for Win 10.  Rather than recreate all my shortcuts and links, can the Dropbox (EAd Ltd) folder be renamed back to just "Dropbox"

3. In sharing Dropbox with the VM (using Parallels option to do this), only Dropbox (Personal) shows up - I suspect Parallels needs to catch up on the Teams thing

4.  I can't see how i would simply return to the non-Teams setup, with all the team files back in my own Dropbox (in a director called "Dropbox", and me relying on shared folders instead of teams again.  Is that an option?

Regards

Paul

[rod l.6]

If we all have PRO personal accounts, so why aren't we allowed to security partition our storage space, and use the same account for private, and for Teams.

It makes absolutely no sense to make separate accounts, especially when millions of people work freelance, work on side projects to their main job, or are entrepreneurs. You would think that Dropbox would realize this and allow PRO users to create TEAMS within their personal paid accounts. Many accounts which are not using their full storage allowance. I completely understand if you are corporation with staff, but this is not the case. 

The biggest joke is that when you create the team, it does not offer to Create a new Dropbox for the Team, rather than converting your private one, which already has all of your personal files on it. It really makes no sense.

For Example:

Starting with a Pro Dropbox account with many years containing all of my personal files and photo uploads

Create a Team

The Pro Dropbox converts to the Team Dropbox without warning

Your sensitive information is in the Team Dropbox

Before you can go into the Paper Beta, you need to create a new personal dropbox

You cannot no longer use photo uploader on IOS until you create a new personal dropbox account, possibly duplicating another 8000 photos and videos.

the only option is to leave the team and revert to the original settings.

how was that EVER passed by your board????

[Michelle O.3]

I joined a team and my Pro account was cancelled. Then, the team deleted me as a user and I LOST ALL MY FILES! I am beyond being an unhappy customer. Right now I hate Dropbox and want to send them a bill for the loss of all of my personal business files. Years of artwork gone. So messed up.

[Kora]

Hi Jonathan!

This article on our Help Center gives you information on how to create a free teem:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/9124#create

In a specific place it says that if you are trying to create a free team with your personal account, then:

How do I create a free team?

If you are using a Dropbox account with a personal email address:

1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
2. Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
3. You will be prompted to enter a work email address, if you have one.
4. If you don't have a work email address—in other words, you're using your personal email address for work—click create a team now.
5. Enter your company or organization name.
6. Invite members to join your team.
7. Click Create team.

You do have a work email address however it is related to another account, that is why you need be extra careful with step 4 

Hope I've helped,

Kora

[roger3]

It's worse than that, gang! Dropbox merged my account with a client who shared a folder with me so when I deleted her shared folder from my drive I lost every bit of work I have done for the past 10 years. Every cad file, excel, word, quickbooks, photos, various engineering program solutions, EVERYTHING! They essentially put me out of business. You would think they would want to remedy this, especially knowing this happens to others, but they have been totally unresponsive. All the tech help will do is cut and paste links to their help page which do not even address the problem. Do not think your data is safe with Dropbox! They can and will obliterate it without warning and there is no who will help you. Get out while you can.

[roger3]

I'm in the same boat, Kora. I lost 10 years of my engineering practice and I get no help from Dropbox. They need to be put out of business jist like we were. I am trying to recover data from a forensic scan of my hard drive but am not too optimistic. We should stay in touch in case DB decides to actually serve their customers at some point. Meanwhile I am putting out the warning to drop out of Flopbox before they destroy your data.

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hey @roger3, 

Sorry to hear about the frustration caused. 

I'd be more than glad to work on that with you and figure out a solution to this issue. 

Could you get back in touch with me with a ticket ID, so that I have a look into the case? 

Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation, looking forward to your ticket ID!

Warm regards, 

JaneA

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