Beware, for this could happen to you.
I’ve lately realized that I (like most people) may be paying for more website/app subscriptions than I really need. Thus, these days when I get an email notifying me about an upcoming renewal, I often think it over and then visit the company website to cancel my subscription.
So last week, when I got an email from Dropbox about an upcoming renewal, I did the same thing. Fifteen years ago, when I first started my web design business, I often used Dropbox for my clients to send me files for their website i.e. photos, videos, and text docs. However, these days we have so many free options like Google Drive, WeTransfer, etc. – I rarely use Dropbox anymore for this purpose. So after looking up how much storage space comes with a free plan, I deleted enough files to get myself down within that range, and downgraded my plan to the free version.
Done and done!
A few hours later, after taking a nap and walking my dog, I went to my laptop to work on a client project. Oddly, when I looked for my Clients folder (you know, the folder that literally holds all the files related to client work for my business going back 15 years), it was not there.
Of course, I immediately thought of all those files I’d deleted on Dropbox. I vaguely remembered some years ago moving my client files to Dropbox so I could easily open and edit them from either of my computers.
Whoops.
I quickly did a Google search for “Dropbox recover deleted files” and was beyond relieved to learn that Dropbox keeps all deleted files for 30 days before permanently removing them. So after several highly stressful hours trying to figure out how to use their “Rewind” feature and waiting for the process to run (it takes a long time for 100,000+ files to restore), I had my files back.
And you can bet my restored my premium Dropbox plan faster than you can say “What were you thinking?!”
So, here we are. After our scary story’s happy ending, I’d like to share with you some advice for making sure this doesn’t happen to you. It’s simple advice, but it will require some work and due diligence. And it’ll be worth it. Trust me.
Make a list of every online subscription you have for your business and personal life. After you’ve made this list, make sure you understand utterly and completely what you are using that subscription for, and keep this information documented.
For when you don’t fully understand what you’re using each subscription for…
Your website might go down.
Your email might stop working.
Or you might inadvertently delete all of your client files 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
This story shows us that this stuff can happen to anyone, even the very best of us 😉
So please, heed my advice, and don’t let this happen to you.
