Cloud burst: Dropbox confirms bug deleted user files

There have been various headlines recently about cloud security breaches -- including the celebrity 'event' that shall not be named -- and the latest problem to hit the cloud affects Dropbox users.

This time around it's not a security problem, but it does involve losing control of one's files. A problem with the Selective Sync feature of some older versions of the Dropbox desktop app meant that files were deleted rather than synced. It's a problem that Dropbox users have been complaining about for a little while but the cloud storage provider has now confirmed the bug and issued assurances that the problem has been addressed.

The problem seems to arise when the Dropbox application shut down or restarted whilst Selective Sync settings were being applied, but steps have been taken to wipe out the issue. Dropbox has confirmed that the problem stems from older versions of the desktop sync app.

Users on Hacker News quote Dropbox support as saying that "older versions of the Dropbox client had introduced an issue" that led to the deletion of files. The cloud storage company goes on to explain that it has "patched our desktop client so this issue doesn't exist in Dropbox anymore", "made sure all our users are running an updated version of the Dropbox client", and "retired all affected versions of the Dropbox client so no one can use them".

Steps have been taken to recover files that were deleted, but there is no word yet on the number of files that could not be recovered by Dropbox. One user, Michael Armogan, received an email from the company that includes an apology and the news that the problem has been fixed:

We're reaching out to let you know about a Selective Sync issue that affected a small number of Dropbox users. Unfortunately, some of your files were deleted when the Dropbox desktop application was shut down or restarted while you were applying Selective Sync settings.

Our team worked hard to restore files that were deleted from your account. You can see which of your files were affected and whether or not we've been able to restore them on this personalized web page.

We're very sorry about what happened. There's nothing more important to us than making sure your information is safe and always available. Our team has fixed the issue and put additional tests in place to prevent this from happening in the future.

For some Dropbox users, email such as this will be the first they knew of the file deletion problem.

Were you affected by the Dropbox file deletion problem? Did you lose many files or were they successfully restored for you?