Dropbox bug causes user files to be deleted

A Dropbox bug has left a number of users with missing files that may never be recovered. The issue, which affected those who enabled the Selective Sync feature, is now fixed, but Dropbox has conceded that it may not be able to rescue everything that has been lost. “Unfortunately, some of your files were deleted when the Dropbox desktop application was shut down or restarted while you were applying Selective Sync settings,” Dropbox told users in an email today. “Our team worked hard to restore files that were deleted from your account.”

Cautious types will frequently tell you not to rely on cloud storage as your only backup, and a handful of internet denizens have just learned this the hard way. Dropbox has confirmed that a bug in some older versions of its desktop apps deleted the files of some people who turned on Selective Sync, which limits cloud syncing to certain folders. Typically, this would happen after a crash or forced reboot, making a bad problem worse — at least a few users found that they’d lost years’ worth of content through no fault of their own. The good news? Most of this (though not all) is now past tense. Dropbox says that it’s restoring files when it can; it’s also releasing fixed versions of its apps, preventing older apps from working and putting extra safeguards in place to prevent this kind of error from happening again.