What happens when I delete a file from my Dropbox account?

When you delete a file from Dropbox, it's no longer visible in any of the folders you see in your account. However, the file isn’t deleted until after your recovery window:

• Dropbox Basic, Plus, and Family accounts can recover deleted files for 30 days.
• Dropbox Professional and team Standard accounts can recover deleted files for 180 days.
  
• Team Advanced and Enterprise accounts can recover deleted files for 365 days.

What happens when I permanently delete a file or folder?

When you permanently delete a file or folder, it’s no longer visible in any of your folders and you can't recover it. 

What happens when I delete a shared folder?

When you delete a file from a shared folder, any member of the folder can restore the file.

If you own the shared folder

• After you permanently delete it, the folder is deleted from the Dropbox accounts of all members and their access is permanently removed.
• If you want to leave members with a copy of the folder, you can just unshare it instead.

If you don’t own the shared folder

• Permanently deleting it removes the folder from your Dropbox account.
• All other members of the folder still have access.

Data destruction mechanisms

Dropbox uses a secure deletion process to delete data from our servers. Additionally, when a Dropbox storage disk has reached the end of its useful life or is damaged, we follow a decommissioning process that is designed to physically or logically destroy the disk to the point data can't be recovered. Our third-party service providers also follow secure protection processes for media they control.

Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox makes file recovery and history easy.