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Forum Discussion
Deleted folders keep reappearing
I'm hoping someone can help with this problem. I have been using Dropbox for a few years across a number of devices (2 desktop Macs, a laptop, an iPhone and an iPad). This last week, when I try to de...
The web interface should only recreate the folder if a device connected instructs it to.
So one of your devices must not be selectively synced, or has some greater issue.
(1) Check each device to see if the folder is present on the device, and remove it. If it comes back its not that device that ordered it created. If it wont delete then thats the device that cant delete it so orders it recreated. Fix that device.
(2) Failing that, take all devices off line, delete the folder via the web, then bring devices online one by one, and watch for the folder being created, when it is, it was the device you just brought online.
Think I found an answer for this. Log on to the browser version. Go to Settings (on the dropdown under your sign in). Click on Security tab. Scroll down until you see your devices. I had several devices listed that I don't use anymore. Once I removed those devices, the delete function started working, both online and on my desktop. You will be able to see if you have such a problem by looking at the last time the device was accessed.
Did not work for me. The only devises that show are accurate.
I have had the same issue.
The problem was that the folder on Dropbox (web) contained a file that not existed in the folder on my pc (because of an old selective sync).
I have manually deleted that file from the web and then I have succesfully deleted the folder from the pc (without it being reappeared).
P.S.: you could argue that selective sync doesn't work on single files, but it is not completely true...
@maxfactor's solution solved it for me:
The problem was that the folder on Dropbox (web) contained a file that not existed in the folder on my pc (because of an old selective sync).
I have manually deleted that file from the web and then I have succesfully deleted the folder from the pc (without it being reappeared).
- This did not work for my case. Deleted all the old devices and the files still kept reappearing.
I tried both Travel R. and Janet H.4's solutions and they didn't work, or they worked in combination with signing in to my account online and delete the second folder manually, but be careful, I noticed online that the duplicate folder had a folder that the original folder didn't have, maybe there was some glitch or corruption going on there, so I selected that folder inside the duplicate folder I was trying to delete and moved over to the original folder I am trying to keep. After that I deleted the duplicate folder online and now Dropbox works fine! No more duplicate folder keep popping up. So idk if it was a combination of these three solution or what, maybe try my solution deleting the duplicate online (MAKE SURE folders are all same you don't want to lose anything), if that doesn't work try Travel R and Janet H.4's solutions. I think deleting old devices that Janet H.4 suggested should be done anyways.
Would be nice if one of the staff members could say something about this issue.
My main problem was dragging files from the internet browser to my dropbox – mostly .weblog or image-files which contains a character like «|» or «:».
What makes this really bad is that the Dropbox App does not complain. If I sync a folder which contains files with bad characters (which somehow were uploaded to Dropbox anyway) the folder on my Mac looks like it was empty, the green iocn symbolizes that it is synced correctly and that there are no files left to be synced. I deleted a lot of these empty folders from my Dropbox, so I deleted a lot of my files accidentally, because on my computer it showed up as empty, but in reality the folder was not empty.
DROPBOX TEAM: This is serious!!
If it where not for selective syncing and tag-support I would leave Dropbox because of this now.
For others – this seems to work:
- Go to Dropbox Bad Files Check
- Manually rename all reported files on the Dropbox website
- Check again if all errors have been corrected
This is a tedious process when you have thousands of bad files. So prepare for hours of manual renaming :(
Nope. This didn't work either.
