After the client restarts again, it only sees there are some files missing and syncs this new state with the server. Consequently, if the client crashes or is killed before the server is contacted, the files remain deleted without any trace. All good.įrom all this information it seems that Dropbox client first deletes files locally before it informs the server about the new selective sync settings. Everything worked well, the directories disappeared from the local hard drive, but they were still available on Dropbox’s website. These directories are large and they might be too big of a bite for Dropbox, I thought, and unsynced them one by one instead. After that, the Dropbox client froze and didn't show any sign of life for a couple of minutes, so I decided to kill it and restart it again. On 29th April 2014, I opened the Selective Sync dialog, unchecked directories called 2003, 2004, …, 2014 from the Photos folder (and few other directories) and clicked the ‘Update’ button. Because there was never any problem with the service and also because it’s already the year 2014, I thought it might be about time that one can trust a cloud-based storage service and use them as a sole backup of their files. In April of this year, a hard drive in my laptop was running low on space so I decided to use the Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature to unsync some large directories from the laptop. In particular, I moved there all of my photos in order to be able to view/share them on-line and also to have them backed up. Over time, I kept moving more and more files to my Dropbox folder and eventually had to upgrade to the Pro plan to keep up with the space requirements. I started using Dropbox back in 2009 and have always loved the service. Without making a mistake, you might lose your files.

TL DR: If you are using Dropbox as a sole backup of your files, think again. How a bug in Dropbox permanently deleted my 8000 photos

Recover files deleted from dropbox