Dropbox is trying to fix the issue for its users

Oct 13, 2014 14:41 GMT  ·  By

Dropbox has some issues these days and it has admitted that some people’s files got deleted due to a bug littering its system.

The bug they’ve discovered was embedded in some older versions of its desktop apps. Some of the people using these versions and who turned on Selective Sync discovered that some of the apps they uploaded to the cloud vanished into nothing.

Selective Sync, as you may know, limits cloud syncing to certain folders. Sometimes, after a crash or a forced reboot, the documents that were being synced disappeared. Some people discovered that years’ worth of content disappeared, which makes the situation that much more nasty for Dropbox as a company.

Dropbox has admitted that the issue is in the past and that things have been fixed in the latest versions of its apps. The company has also prevented older apps from working and put in safeguards to prevent this kind of error from happening again.

If you’ve been hit by the bug and you don’t even know it, well, the company will know it for you and you should expect to see an email in your inbox.

“We’re reaching out to let you know about a Selective Sync issue that affected a small number of Dropbox users. Unfortunately, some of your files were deleted when the Dropbox desktop application was shut down or restarted while you were applying Selective Sync settings,” the email starts off.

Some people got their files back

The company has already worked to restore files that were deleted from people’s accounts, but hasn’t been successful in all cases. People will get access to a special web page where they can see which of their files were affected and whether or not Dropbox has been able to restore them.

“We’re very sorry about what happened. There’s nothing more important to us than making sure your information is safe and always available. Our team has fixed the issue and put additional tests in place to prevent this from happening in the future,” the message reads.

Despite of these problems, Dropbox is hoping to make it up to users. People who were affected by the bug are getting access to Dropbox Pro for free for one year. They admit that it may not make up for falling short on their users’ expectations, but Dropbox wants to thank users for bearing through these times.

Well, it’s not going to make things right, but little can be done at this point. Hopefully, this won’t happen again in the future.

You can download the updated Dropbox app from Softpedia, for Windows, Mac, and Linux.