Dropbox saves deleted and previous versions of files for a specific period of time so you can recover them if desired. After this period of time, the deleted files are marked for permanent deletion in our system and are purged from our storage servers. Once they’ve been permanently deleted, they can no longer be recovered or restored.
The file recovery period depends on your Dropbox plan:
- Dropbox Basic, Dropbox Family, and most Dropbox Plus accounts have 30 days
- Dropbox Professional and Dropbox Business accounts have 180 days
Notes:
- If you’re a member of a Dropbox Business team that has purchased extended version history, you can recover any file deleted or changed in the last 10 years.
- Extended version history is no longer available to Dropbox Plus users, but if you previously purchased the extended version history add on, you have one full year to recover previous versions.
- Files may be deleted before the end of the file recovery period if they are part of a data disposition policy.
Permanently deleting files
When you mark files for permanent deletion, you can initiate the purging of your files from our servers immediately.
Learn how to permanently delete files
If you’re a Dropbox Business team member, your team admin may have limited your ability to permanently delete files, including with a data retention policy.
Deleting your Dropbox account
If you delete your Dropbox Basic, Plus, Family, or Professional account, we’ll initiate deletion of the files you store on your account.
See the Retention section of our Privacy Policy for more details
If you’re a Dropbox Business team member, only your admin can disable your account and delete your files.
