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mrswilliam's avatar
mrswilliam
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Old versions of Documents replacing new versions

I have two laptops, Windows 8.1 (my main device) and Windows 10 which I rarely use.  8.1 had to go into a repair shop so i set about setting up dropbox on W10 with dropbox. It had some old files on it from the last synch several months back.  

When i checked on the synch - and luckily for me it was very slow - i found that W10 was uploading the old files to my dropbox account (instead of download everything from dropbox as I had expected it to do) which was then downloading the old files to my main 8.1 machine.  

I unlinked W10 pc very quickly from dropbox otherwise all my new files on the 8.1 would have been replaced with the old version from w10 and months of work lost.

I never expected this to happen. It's very strange.  Surely there must be a flaw with dropbox.  Surely there should be some mechanism to check file properties and the synch should only upload/download documents that are not already on the server account. 

I now need to use both laptops, one in the office and one on the move so files need to be all synched properly on both laptops but how can i be sure old won't replace new?

Desktop
Download
Sync
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    Hey mrswilliam & Wilu, I appreciate it that you both circled back to me here letting me know of your current state of affairs. Initially I’m glad to hear that you’ve both been able to work around the previous syncing issues & I’m here to send you some pro-active tips for future reference!
     
    Now mrswilliam, I’m right on the same page with you after the last bit you added in your last post that your deleted files re-appeared & I can confirm that you took the most appropriate course of action, therefore you may reference the same set of steps in case you experience that again in the future. 
     
    Spoiler
    Often when you delete files or folders, they don’t immediately disappear from every synced computer. If you have a synced computer running an application that is using the file, that will cause the file to reappear in your Dropbox account. Or, if you’re seeing a shared file or folder reappear after deletion, it may be that a person you shared it with is accessing it.
     
    If you check the previous versions of the file and see that it was accessed from an application on another computer, you can delete it off of that computer to stop it from reappearing in your Dropbox.
    Following, when it comes to your remarks Wilu, you may have an additional look on my post here that explains how Conflicted Copies are created & ways to avoid them, as well as some tips regarding versioning. 
     
    Once again, thanks a lot to both for your ongoing cooperation & contribution on this conversation, it’s been a pleasure discussing this behavior with you, as each interaction helped me shape a slightly more coherent picture of what you were experiencing. 
     
    Our Community wall is always open to further inquiries or feedback & it’ll be a pleasure to hear back from you in the future. Happy syncing & take care until we talk again! 
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago
    Hey mrswilliam, thanks for posting your syncing concern on our Dropbox Community & for all the time you devoted to send us such a detailed post I’ll do my best to address your inquiries as closely as possible!
     
    Let me quickly rephrase your description, in order to make sure we’re on the same page. At a certain point you linked a Win10 machine to your Dropbox account & it retrieved an older version of your files (probably via an older Dropbox folder left on that device), that was then synced to your second Win8 device. It seems that upon realizing that, you unlinked your Win10 device, though you’d like to prevent this from re-occurring. Am I on the right track? 
     
    If so, then you may keep in mind that this is expected, since upon re-linking your Win10 device, Dropbox realized that it was offline & tried to resync (that is because file changes made on an offline device will sync back to Dropbox as soon as the device is online again).
     
    Spoiler
    You may keep in mind that to keep your Dropbox in sync, we use a local database maintained by the Dropbox application on the computer to keep track of file and folder changes. File and folder changes are logged in this database, and the Dropbox application will match this local database with what is found on dropbox.com and on other computers. These logs are generated even when the computer is offline so it can sync when it comes back online.
    For that reason, I’d suggest taking a different course of action to get this fixed. You may unlink your device from this account> delete the Dropbox folder you have on your Win10 device (don’t worry- all your files are safe online) & relink anew. This should do the trick for you (by recreating the local database), as it will download the most recent version of your files from your account online. 
     
    Let me know how you get on with that or in case you have further questions & I’ll make sure to reach out to you asap mrswilliam. Thanks again for reaching out to us! 
    • Wilu's avatar
      Wilu
      Explorer | Level 4
      7 years ago

      Hi, I have a similar problem:

      when both my Computers are online, I have no problem to synchronize: I change a file on one CP, a few seconds later I get the new version A on the second CP and vice versa. If one CP is offline (Dropbox off) I get a mess: I can change my document to version B, save on Dropbox and later, when I open Dropbox on the second CP it will sync my document to old version A on both CP, losing the new version B totally.

      How can I prevent this?

      • Jane's avatar
        Jane
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        7 years ago
        Hey Wilu, let me clarify a bit for you below! 
         
        If one CP is offline (Dropbox off) I get a mess: I can change my document to version B, save on Dropbox and later, when I open Dropbox on the second CP it will sync my document to old version A on both CP, losing the new version B totally.
         
        Based on your description, it seems that both devices are intermittently disconnected, therefore the issue you’re facing with files reverting to an earlier version may have to do with an incorrect installation. I’d suggest starting off from there, in order to understand what could have possibly gone wrong. 
         
        Here are the initial recommended checks to tackle this discrepancy: 
         
        • Can you confirm that you’re running the latest Stable version of the application on your computers (57.4.89) :arrows_counterclockwise:/ :white_check_mark:, you’ve made all OS updates & you’re not using Symlinks nor referenced files? (Based on your description, it’s my understanding that you’ve only installed Dropbox on these two devices, which you can easily check on your Security tab online.)  
        • From there, you may running a brief test by syncing a newer version of a file after toggling your WiFi to Off> Update locally & Sync, which will indicate what happened. (Note: It would be best if you could repeat on each device.) 
        • Last but not least, in case you suspect that something similar may occur, you could use the Web Uploader to update your files, which will replace the older version with the new one. 
        Let me know of how you get on with these pointers or in case you have any update & I’ll do my best to check back with you more closely! 

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