We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.

Forum Discussion

paulpeterson's avatar
paulpeterson
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Alias Folders

I had to re-sync Dropbox recently and when I sync the app on my iMac Dropbox creates locked alias folders for Desktop, Downloads and Documents. Do I have to wait for the files to sync and the localiz...
Computer Backup
Desktop
Download
Sync
Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hey paulpeterson, thanks for posting on our Community today!

It seems that when you re-synced the Dropbox application, you enabled the computer backup feature.

If you don't want these desktop folders to be backed up to Dropbox, you can disable it by following the steps here.

Just make sure that syncing is finished before you disable the feature.

Let me know if you have any questions.
paulpeterson's avatar
paulpeterson
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Thanks for your response @hannah 

 

I definitely do want these backed up to Dropbox but not sure like with other Dropbox folders that are backed up they are alias folders and not local folders?

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    4 years ago
    Oh, it's great that you'd like the desktop folders to be backed up!

    And that's kind of how the backup feature works. 

    Your actual desktop folders are in your Dropbox folder and the original folders serve as shortcuts to the folders in the Dropbox folder. 

    If you ever want to disable the feature and move the folders back to their original locations, you can follow the steps in the article I gave you above. 
    • paulpeterson's avatar
      paulpeterson
      Explorer | Level 3
      4 years ago

      Thanks 🙂

       

      I am still confused by this - that u can't have the OG files and still update to Dropbox. 

      If I logout of Dropbox or am not online where are the files to these folders - they should display on the computer not as alias folders

       

       

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        4 years ago
        Thanks for the feedback about this, Paul, I will definitely pass it along.

        As for the files, they are still on your computer, they're just in Dropbox. So, even if you're offline, you can still access them from there.

About View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!