How to use Dropbox Rewind

Dropbox Rewind is a tool that lets you undo many changes at once. It’s most useful when a major data-loss incident occurs, like if a virus infects your account.
 

If you don't need to undo many changes, there are other steps you can take:

• If you’re missing any files, check your deleted files page or learn how to recover deleted files and folders.
• If a file is the wrong version, check its version history.
• If a virus has infected your account, learn what to do before and after you use Dropbox Rewind.

What does Dropbox Rewind do?

Dropbox Rewind will undo:

• File edits, renames, additions, and deletions.
• Actions taken in shared folders, including those owned by other people.
• Actions taken in Dropbox team folders that you’re a member of and have edit access to.

Dropbox Rewind won't undo:

• Changes made earlier than your account’s version history.
• Permanently deleted files.
• Changes made to Paper docs (unless you’re using the 2020 release of Dropbox Paper).
• Changes to files or folders owned by other teams.
• File history (the rewind will just be added to your history).
  
• File or folder membership changes—for example, if you were removed from a shared folder, using Dropbox Rewind won't add you back to that folder.
  • If you’d like to rewind a folder that you unshared, contact support.

How to use Dropbox Rewind

On dropbox.com

To use Rewind on dropbox.com:

1. Log in to dropbox.com.
2. Rewind your folders:
   • To rewind your entire Dropbox account, go to All files, click the gear icon, then click Rewind this folder.
   • To rewind a specific folder, hover over the name of the folder and click "..." (ellipsis) next to Activity, then click Rewind this folder. This will also rewind all folders within that specific folder.
3. Click Try Rewind.
4. Click on the graph to pick a day.
   • We recommend you pick a day immediately before the incident happened, which will usually appear as a spike on the graph.
5. Click Continue.
6. From the Fine tune list, find the earliest change you want to undo and click the blue line below it.
   • All file changes above the blue line will appear grayed out—this means they’ll be undone after the rewind.
7. Click Continue.
8. Click Rewind. You'll receive an email once the rewind is complete.

In Dropbox Backup

To use Rewind in Dropbox Backup:

1. Click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac).
   •  Learn what to do if you don’t see the Dropbox icon.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the top-right corner.
3. Click Preferences.
4. Click the Backups tab.
5. Click Manage backups.
6. Select the backup you’d like to manage on the left.
7. Click Rewind backup to restore a previous version of your backup.
8. Click Try Rewind in the right sidebar.
9. Click on the graph to pick a day.
   • We recommend you pick a day immediately before the incident occured, which will usually appear as a spike on the graph.
10. Click Continue.
11. From the Fine tune list, find the earliest change you want to undo and click the blue line below it.
    • All file changes above the blue line will appear grayed out—this means they’ll be undone after the rewind.
12. Click Continue.
13. Click Rewind. You'll receive an email once the rewind is complete.

Learn how to check which version of Dropbox Backup you’re using.

How to manage Dropbox Rewind settings as a team admin

By default, only admins on Dropbox team accounts can use Dropbox Rewind. However, admins can change this setting to allow team members to use Dropbox Rewind. To do so:

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Content, click Rewind.
5. Click the dropdown menu next to Set who can rewind folders, and select Everyone in your team or Only team admins.
   • If you choose Everyone in your team, team members will be able to rewind their personal and shared folders, as well as team folders.
   • If you choose Only team admins, team members won’t be able to rewind any folders in their account.