Change my email address without having access to email account used to create the Dropbox account.

[Pb17]

I changed the linked email for my free Dropbox account and cannot access my old files. How do I recover them?

[Pb17]

Hi Hannah,

Well I don't know how that happened but I changed the linked email 2 days ago to my current email and it is totally functional. I should say also my Dropbox was totally functional before I changed the linked email and I only did that because the old email was defunct for 10 months. The only linked email that comes up now in preferences is the new one. If I start to type in the old one, that address comes up but that server is turned off (out of business).

[Megan]

Hey @Pb17, if you check your account's events page, what do you see there? Any sign of your files?

The Events page at www.dropbox.com/events gives you an overview of all activity in your account including files events (adds/edits/deletes), as well as adding or removing shared folders. 

[Pb17]

The event page shows jjust the file I added to this new account when I changed the linked email to see that things were working. They were. . I have Dropbox on my MacBook and I pad. After changing the email link on the MacBook, the iPad wanted to confirm things and was non responsive so I deleted the app and installed a new one that’s when it seemed to lose any connection with the files I had in Dropbox. The events does show the added app of Dropbox. I didn’t change anything on the MacBook but I had to login with the new iPad app.   I’m surprised the MacBook didn’t have a connection to the old Dropbox content. There is nothing in the file folders, nothing in deleted files. It’s like the old Dropbox never existed.

[Pb17]

It seems the usual ways to access the old account are gone.  Is there a way to use my old email address and access that Events page? It automatically went to the new email Dropbox account.

[Megan · Accepted solution]

Hey @Pb17, it sounds like you might have created a new Dropbox account, instead of changing the email address to your existing one.

Had your files been deleted, then you should be able to see them when accessing your events page. 

When you say the usual ways to access the old account are gone, can you clarify more? I suggest that you either sign out of the current Dropbox account, and then try to sign into the old one, or you can do this using an incognito tab on your browser. 

If you have any problems when doing that, please let me know.

[Pb17]

Genius! That’s exactly what happened.  All the files are there in the old account.  One extra thing, is there an easy way to transfer those files to my new account?

[Pb17]

Megan, Thank you so much. The first trick to find my old account and following your instructions, was to log out of this new account then starting on a clean slate, then to enter my old login info. The other clue you solved was to suspect that I never lost the old account and instead had just created a new one. So you solved my problem. Did I say Thank You! 

[Pb17]

I have a notice at the top of the Dropbox page that says “we can reach you at your address “. Should I follow through and try the link to update my email contact?

[Pb17]

The notice says “we CAN’T reach you at my old address….my question it still active.

[Hannah]

Hey @Pb17, I'm really glad Megan was able to figure this out and help you get back to your account!

Now, if you'd like to change the email address, while you're logged in to the old account, you can go to this page and edit it from there.

If you see that you can't change it, because you don't have access to the old address, my suggestion would be to just download your files from the old account and then upload them to your new one.

I hope this helps!