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Forum Discussion
Deleted files from Dropbox were also deleted from my PC
Dear all,
I would like to ask for an advice how to proceed further.
A few days ago, I signed up in Dropbox – web version. When setting up my account, I must have left the default ticks to sync Dropbox with my Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders. Later I realized that I should have not left this default setting. As expected my free storage limit of 2 GB was exceeded and I tried to clean it up, so I deleted the files in my Dropbox web account. It turned out that these files were deleted from my computer as well (they were removed from Desktop, Documents and Downloads).
I was able to restore them from “Deleted files”, but the point is that I still do not have those files on my computer (please see the first screenshot ScS_1). I managed to download them from Dropbox and have them saved on an external flash drive. I can manually copy and paste them on locations on my computer, but is there a more proper way to do that automatically from my Dropbox account to my computer (i.e. transfer those deleted files from Dropbox to my computer, analogous to the way they were removed from my computer previously)?
In addition, when I try to access my Downloads folder from the Windows Explorer, I get an error message (please see the second screenshot ScS_2).
Can someone please help me with this? I would be extremely grateful. I searched different sources, but was not able to find a solution
Thanks for getting back to us here NoviceToDb!
If you previously uninstalled the desktop app, or have since disabled the backup feature with the steps Jay mentioned above, then the backup should no longer be syncing those folders to your Dropbox account.
However, the error that you're getting there for the Downloads folder may be due to deleting the folder without correctly disabling the backup feature. It's a little unexpected that the file path wouldn't revert back automatically.
To restore the default folder path for your Downloads folder, you can right click the folder and choose "Properties", and from there choose "Restore Default".
Let me know how it goes!
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi NoviceToDb, thanks for posting on the Community!
If you’ve restored the deleted files from the site, then installing the Dropbox desktop application would allow the files to download to your machine automatically.
You can then disable the automatic computer backup, if you haven’t done so already, and then move the files from the Dropbox folder to their old locations.
Hope this helps!
@Jay
Thank you for your reply!
Hopefully I will be able to download the files from my dropbox web account to my computer.
But can you please help me fix the issue with the unavailable path and directory (in this case "Downloads" as disclosed in the second screen shot from my previous post). Is there a way to solve this or I simply have to create the missing folder in the path where it is supposed to be (outside the dropbox folder)?
Thank you in advance!
- Daphne
Thanks for getting back to us here NoviceToDb!
If you previously uninstalled the desktop app, or have since disabled the backup feature with the steps Jay mentioned above, then the backup should no longer be syncing those folders to your Dropbox account.
However, the error that you're getting there for the Downloads folder may be due to deleting the folder without correctly disabling the backup feature. It's a little unexpected that the file path wouldn't revert back automatically.
To restore the default folder path for your Downloads folder, you can right click the folder and choose "Properties", and from there choose "Restore Default".
Let me know how it goes!
All of my files that are on My PC (desktop) somehow got into the Dropbox (and needless to say I ran out of space).
When I try to delete any files from inside the Dropbox, it "threatens" to delete the file "everywhere", which means, I would be left with nothing because it is the core of My PC.
How can I get My PC and all the files in it out of Dropbox but not wipe it out of my computer altogether? Thanks
Thanks you so much Rich.
It worked, however, My PC and Desktop folders are still in Dropbox.
Is there a way to get them out of there?
Thanks for your help.
