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.

How long does Dropbox keep deleted files?

Your default file recovery period depends on your Dropbox plan:

• Dropbox Basic, Plus, and Family customers have 30 days.
• Dropbox Professional, Standard, Essentials, and Business users have 180 days.
• Dropbox Advanced, Enterprise, Education, and Dropbox Business Plus users have 365 days.

Learn more about the Dropbox data retention policy.

After this recovery window, all files will be deleted within 90 days in the normal course of operations. It may take several additional days to complete the deletion depending on the number of files selected for deletion.

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 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.

What does Dropbox do with deleted files?

Dropbox uses a secure deletion process to delete data from our servers. Additionally, when a Dropbox storage disk reaches the end of its useful life or is damaged, we follow a decommissioning process 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.