A Dropbox bug is wiping some user files

As useful as cloud storage is for making automatic backups of our files and data, it’s not a perfect system and should never be used as the only backup you have. This latest Dropbox bug is a very clear indicator of that.

Dropbox has confirmed that there is a bug in older versions of its desktop software that’s affecting the selective sync function. The problem being that it’s just deleting people’s files. The issue would usually happen after a crash or reboot, and people have found that up to a year’s worth of files have vanished.

For those of you who don’t know, Selective Syncing is a system that limited Dropbox syncing to specific folders. Unless you have a rather small computer to back-up, or you don’t have automatic syncing turned on at all, it’s likely that you use this, or a similar system, if you use cloud storage.

The good news is that this problem is almost solved. Dropbox has been updating its software and preventing older versions of its desktop client from working in order to prevent this from happening again. The company is also trying to restore lost files where it can to minimise user loss. Moral of the story? Make a backup of your backup.