Accidentally lost major data on Dropbox and want to recover it? Or want to restore the major changes done at any specific period in a file or folder? All you need for it is the Dropbox Rewind.
It lets you rewind the whole account or specific folders/files back to a timeframe in the last 30 days (the time period can vary for various plans). The feature is available for the following dropbox plans:
- Dropbox Backup Plan
- Dropbox Plus Plan
- Dropbox Family Plan
- Dropbox Professional, Standard & Advanced Plan
- Dropbox Enterprise Plan
Contents
What Can You Do With Dropbox Rewind?
The Dropbox Rewind feature is handy in case of major data loss due to a virus attack or other technical glitches. Here is what all you can recover and restore with this tool and what not:
Data Dropbox Rewind can undo
With this feature, you can rewind the following data to restore or recover:
- Edits made to a file or folder like renaming, deletions, additions, etc.
- Rewind or recover dropbox deleted files or folders
- Actions taken within a shared folder by its owners or editors.
- Actions taken in files or folders on the Dropbox Business team account of which you are a member or have contributor access.
Data Dropbox Rewind cannot undo
However, the feature cannot undo or rewind the following data:
- Changes occurred in a file or folder before your account’s version history.
- Files or Folders that are permanently deleted from dropbox
- Any edits or changes made in Dropbox Paper (if you are using a version before 2020)
- Edits in the files or folders owned by other people & not you
- File History
- Membership changes occur in any file or folder. For example: If your access is removed from any file/folder, rewinding it won’t give you the access back.
How To Use Dropbox Rewind Tool on Dropbox.com?
You can access the rewind feature directly on dropbox.com using any web browser if you already have any of the plans mentioned above.
Using this feature, you can recover deleted dropbox account, files or specific folders. To use the rewind feature for the entire account or for specific folders, log into your dropbox account and follow these steps:
- To rewind the entire account, Click on the “three-dots icon or ellipsis” next to the “create” option and choose the “rewind this folder” option.
(Alternatively, to rewind the specific folder, go to that folder and click on the three-dots icon next to its name) and Choose the rewind option.Note: If you use the rewind whole account option for the dropbox business team account, it will only rewind your personal and shared folders. If you wish to rewind a team folder, choose that specific folder and use the option for that folder only. - Click on the “Get Started” option. A graph will appear showing day to day activity of the selected folder.
- Hover to the graph to pick a date to which you want to rewind. Ideally, you should go for a date just before the incident to rewind to the most recent version (which usually appears as a spike in the graph) unless you have a specific period in mind).
- Go to the “Fine Tune” list, pick the earliest changes you wish to rewind, and click on the blue line below them. The changes that appear in gray above the blue line will be rewound after this action.
- Tap on the Continue option and then click on the Rewind option. You will be notified via email once the rewind process is completed for the selected file/folder.
How To Recover or Restore Files/Folders Using Dropbox Rewind Tool On Your PC?
Similarly, if you have any dropbox files or folders on your PC (Windows or Mac) to rewind to a specific period, you can do it directly from your device without heading to dropbox.com. Here is how to do it.
- Go to Windows File Explorer or Mac’s Finder to search for that particular dropbox file or folder you wish to rewind.
- Once found, right-click on that file or folder and choose the “Rewind” option.
Now follow the same steps mentioned in the dropbox.com guide.
How To Use Dropbox Rewind Tool in Dropbox Backups?
If you are using Dropbox backup, here is how to access and use the rewind tool feature for that:
- Go to your Dropbox desktop preferences by clicking on the taskbar icon (in Windows) or the menu icon (in macOS) and then the “Preferences” option under Profile avatar in the screen’s top right corner.
- Under the Preferences section, go for the “Backups” tab and choose the option “Setup”.
- Choose the “Manage Backup” option and select the backup you wish to rewind or manage.
- Select the “Rewind backup” option to restore the earlier version of it.
- Tap on the “Try rewind” option in the right sidebar.
- Choose a specific day or period from the graph to rewind the backup and tap on “continue.”
- From the fine tune list, select the changes/activities to rewind, click on continue, and rewind.
How To Allow Team Members on Business Team Accounts To Use Dropbox Rewind Tool?
If you are an admin of a Dropbox Business team account, you have access to the rewind tool to restore the previous changes or data. However, your team members cannot do the same until you change your account’s settings to give access to them.
Follow these steps to change your Dropbox team account’s admin settings to allow team members to use the rewind feature:
- Log into your dropbox account with admin credentials, go to the Admin console in the left sidebar and Click on the “Settings” option.
- Go to the “Content” tab under Settings and choose the “rewind” option.
- Hover to the dropdown menu next to the “Set who can rewind folders” and choose either the “Only Team Admins” or “Everyone on Your Team” option.
- Through the “Everyone on Your Team” option, all the team members will get the right to rewind team folders, shared folders, and their personal folders.
- On the other hand, the “Only Team Admins” won’t allow other team members to rewind any folders in their accounts.
Note: As an admin, you can only allow other team members to rewind their accounts, but you cannot log in as a team member to rewind their accounts.
What To Do After Dropbox Rewind?
After using the Dropbox rewind feature, here are a few things you must check to see whether the data you have restored is complete or not:
- Go to dropbox.com and log into your account to check if the changes you have made using the rewind feature are correct and visible or not.
- Wait for some time to sync the rewind content/data on all devices, and then make any changes in it if you want.
- If any file or folder is missing in the restored data, go to your “deleted files” section on the left sidebar to find it.
- If you have restored any wrong file version, go to the file version history and restore the correct version.
Things to keep in mind while using the Dropbox Rewind feature
- You can undo changes done by Dropbox rewind by rewinding the account or folder to a time before the first rewind occurred.
- You can only view dropbox logs and undo changes in them in your or team account till its version history and not outside it.
- The changes made by Dropbox rewind on shared or team folders will be visible to all team members or contributors.
- You can restore deleted dropbox files or folders to their existing locations only using the rewind feature and not to any new location.
- Only admins can rewind the team folders unless they change their admin settings to provide access to the feature to other team members.
- It is impossible to rewind multiple folders using the rewind feature (even for team admins). You have to select folders one by one and apply the feature on each of them separately.
- You can see parenthesis or numbers like “(1)” or “(2)” after some filenames in your account, which happens if:
- You make changes during the file restoration
- You add another folder or file with the same name during the restoration.
FAQs
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How To Recover Deleted Files From Dropbox?
To recover deleted files from dropbox, follow these steps:
- Head to the “deleted files” section on the left sidebar of your account’s homepage.
- Choose the relevant files/folders and tap on the “Restore” option.
However, you can only recover files from the deleted files section that are not permanently deleted.
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How Long Does Dropbox Keep Deleted Files?
The deleted files remain in dropbox for a specific recovery window period that depends upon your current plan. For various plans, the recovery window period is as follows:
- For basic/plus plans: 30 days
- For Enterprise or advanced plans: 180 days
After the recovery period, the data gets removed from dropbox within 60 days.
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How Do I Use Dropbox As A Beginner?
- To start using Dropbox as a beginner, sign up here for a free dropbox basic account with 2 GB of storage.
- Log into your dropbox account using your credentials by dropbox.com, desktop app, or mobile app.
- Click on the “Add” option to create new folders and add files to them.
- To share or delete any folder or access other settings of a folder, click on the three-dots icon next to that file/folder’s name and choose the relevant option.
- To recover deleted dropbox files or data, go to the deleted files section and restore the data.
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Why can I not see certain files/folders after rewinding?
If, after using the rewind feature, you are not able to see certain files or folders, the possible reasons behind it could be:
- Those files or folders are permanently deleted.
- Those files or folders have “view only” permission, and thus, you cannot rewind them until you have “can edit” permission.
- Those folders are not shared with you by the owner or team admins.
Conclusion
Dropbox rewind feature syncs the recovered data on all your linked devices. Using this guide, you can easily do dropbox file recovery on your device, PC, or directly from the dropbox website.
If you have a Dropbox Plus plan, you can rewind the data of the last 30 days on your account; however, for professional users, the window is of 180 days. For any further queries related to this feature, connect with us in the comments.
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