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Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago

Dropbox deleted all my files!

No, we didn’t.   Now that the clickbait worked, let’s get into the meat of the article.   I know there’s a lot of frustration about how ‘Dropbox deleted all my files’. I accept it’s hard to l...
Delete
Restore
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    7 years ago

    But, how can my file be deleted?

     

    A few ways actually…
     
    Firstly, if you install your Dropbox folder to an external drive, then there are always deletion risks, and I have listed them in a separate thread, which can be found here. However, I’ll repeat them in this thread later for the sake of convenience.
     
    Secondly, when I talk about deletions, I literally mean this definition: “Dropbox cannot see the file any more, so the file is deleted”.
     
    The question you should be asking is, “Why cannot Dropbox see the file? Where did it go?”
     
    Deletions to Dropbox mean any deletions done on the site, the mobile app, third party apps, and of course the desktop app.
     
    All of these versions connect to Dropbox in more-or-less same way, meaning that they detect changes, and then change the files on the site, which then syncs to all devices.
     
    I know you’ve heard this all before, but this is an incredibly important thing to understand.
     
    Syncing only acts if there is something to sync. 
     
    The app doesn’t do things on its own because it feels like it. If you’re staring at an empty spreadsheet, it’s not going to suddenly populate with your numbers and bar charts. A blank Word document doesn’t begin typing out your final year dissertation without your input.
     
    The opposite is also true, a document doesn’t slowly delete characters until you’ve lost all your writing, or formulas, without you touching the keyboard.
     
    This is just how Dropbox works, except for entire files and folders. If you’re staring at your Finder or Windows Explorer window blankly for an hour, even outside the Dropbox folder, (almost) nothing will change in front of your eyes, since you’re not using the computer.
     
    I mention the ‘almost’ part, since this is the crux of the matter. Narrowing down what made this ‘almost nothing’ to ‘definitely something’ is the goal of this post.
URog2023's avatar
URog2023
New member | Level 2

Hi all,

It appears DropBox deleted all my files in 2016 and I was not aware 😞

Is there any way possible to recover my files?
Thanks

Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
2 years ago

Hey URog2023, sorry to hear that your files are gone.

 

Just for clarification, Dropbox doesn't really delete your files, but there are many reasons why a deletion might happen.

 

I moved your post to a thread where Jay has listed all the possible reasons why a file might get deleted.

 

That being said, if the files were deleted back in 2016, I'm afraid they cannot be restored, as they are long gone from our servers.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but if you have any more questions, please let us know.

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