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Forum Discussion
Deleted files due to external drive getting disconnected
1. It looks like the external drive where I keep the local copies of my Dropbox files got disconnected. 2. This caused a number of files to get deleted from the Dropbox server and from all local cop...
Hi dragomirradev, unfortunately when working with your Dropbox folder on an external drive that's always a possibility.
We can’t guarantee perfect functionality of the Dropbox app if you’re running it on an external drive. For the Dropbox application to work properly, I’d recommend that you install it on the hard drive of your Operating System.
This is because Dropbox can’t always work correctly if the Dropbox folder becomes inaccessible, and this can happen if it's located on an external drive.
I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.
I was talking to Jared in Support about a recent problem and he suggested this info be directed to you instead of him:
The problem is that when there is a power outage in my area the drive with my dropbox folder will power down before the computer will. Then the dropbox app to will start wholesale deleting files because the drive is no longer available. This is a ridiculous conclusion for the software to arrive at.
Would it not make way more sense for the app to throw up a dialog box saying ‘dropbox cannot find your dropbox folder, please relink your folder” rather than just wholesale deleting files because of a technical glitch?
I have been through this three times now because the power grid where my home is located is unstable. If I turn that computer off I have to wait for hours for things to be updated before I can work at home. If I leave it on at home then this happens.
The first time this happened the dropbox support person told me that there was no way that the dropbox app could delete my files. The last two times I have had this problem I have bought new hard drives thinking my catalog file had become corrupt and dropbox was not able to read files off the drive and so it started deleting them in the cloud.
I have used dropbox for my work flow since 2011. This change in behavior is something that hasn’t happened before last year. I strongly suggest that your programming team review the reasons for having the app behave the way it currently does and consider that you are doing more harm than good to your users.
I cannot image a circumstance where a user would want their entire dropbox account wiped out because their external drive became disconnected from the computer.
I lost an entire days worth of work because over 160,000 files in my dropbox folder were removed before I figured out what was going on. Even files I had currently open were deleted so that when I went to save them the computer errored out saying that the folder and the file itself no longer existed on my computer.
I am a one man shop and I rely on dropbox solely as my cloud solution so that I can work regardless of my location. Please consider the applications current behavior very detrimental to my companies workflow.
- Mark
Super User II
There are already such measures in Dropbox Joe2-0 , however, they arent really very reliable. Dropbox obviously try and make it more and more reliable over time BUT this is why they dont really suggest you move the folder to external drives. It just isnt the point of Dropbox and the risks are huge.
