Dropbox bug left some users without their stored files

Popular file cloud hosting service Dropbox has been sending out emails to a “small number” of its customers, explaining that some of their files have been irretrievably lost because of a bug in its Selective Sync feature.

“We received several reports from users who used a Dropbox feature called Selective Sync and couldn’t locate certain files they’d saved in Dropbox,” the company’s support team explained.

“When we took a closer look, we discovered that older versions of the Dropbox client had introduced an issue affecting a small number of users whose Dropbox application shut down or restarted while users were applying Selective Sync settings.”

The desktop client has been patched in the meantime and pushed out to users, and older affected versions have been retired, they added.

Dropbox worked on restoring the deleted files, but they weren’t completely successful. Those users who were affected have been notified via email and directed to a personalized web page that indicated which of their files were affected and/or were ultimately impossible to restore.

In order to make it up to the affected users, the company is offering them Dropbox Pro for free for one year.

I’m guessing that users who will accept the offer will be those that didn’t use Dropbox as their only backup option.