How to restore deleted users on Dropbox team accounts
The information in this article applies to certain types of admins on Dropbox Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise.
This article discusses how Dropbox team admins can restore deleted team members. If you aren’t on a Dropbox team account, learn how to recover your deleted files or restore an inactive account.
If a Dropbox team admin accidentally deleted a team member, they have seven days to restore the user. Restoring a member reactivates the account with the same files and permissions, so the account is exactly as it was before deletion. Team admins and user management admins can restore deleted users.
How to restore a team member
- Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
- Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
- Click Members.
- Click Removed filter and select Deleted.
- Click the “…” (ellipsis) beside the name of the member you want to restore. If you don't see their name, it means they cannot be restored.
- Click Restore.
- Click Restore in the pop-up window.
Why am I not seeing the option to restore a team member?
There are a few reasons why an admin may not see the option to restore a team member. These include:
- The member was deleted more than seven days ago. After seven days, an admin can use account transfer to transfer files to a new team member account.
- An admin already used account transfer on the deleted member's account.
- An admin chose to permanently delete the member.
- The member was restored by Dropbox Support.
- The member was invited, but never actually joined your team.
- The member was deleted by an app that uses the v.1 of the Dropbox API.
What is restored when a team member is restored?
When you restore a deleted team member, their account should be restored to its previous state, including shared folders, files, Paper docs, groups, and all user settings. However, deleted member restoration should only be used as a backup measure.
If you're unsure whether to delete a member or not, consider suspending them first.
What is not restored when a team member is restored?
Restored team members won’t be added back to exception lists for some features. For example, if a member was in an exception list for enterprise mobility management (EMM), you'll need to re-add them to the exception list after restoring their account.
How to restore multiple team members with the Dropbox API
To restore a large number of team members at once, use the Dropbox API. There are two ways to do this:
- Use your own script to restore members with the Dropbox API
- Use the Dropbox restoration tool
