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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.
I have had this happen a few times over several years of using Dropbox. The solutions on this page did not work for me unfortunately - i tried them all. Then i figured I would try saving a new folder with exactly the same name on my desktop, drag it into the Dropbox folder and when prompted 'An item named “_______” already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you’re moving?' I chose to 'Replace'.
This allows Dropbox to re-synchronise with a new non corrupted/ non problematic version of the folder, and can be deleted without issue. Hope this helps.
- Other strategies didn't work for me. This one did. Thanks.
- Didn't work on mine. Nothing has worked
- Worked for me! Thanks, it was driving me crazy, that file had been in the wrong place for 2 months.
- Zed
Dropbox Staff
Hello everyone,
Though rare, occasionally old or deleted files may reappear in your Dropbox. If this is the case, we can roll back your account to the point before this event occurred, or undo the individual addition events.
- To roll back your entire account, please carefully follow the instructions in this earlier section of the article
- To undo individual addition events, please carefully follow the instructions in this article
Otherwise, you can simply review those reappearing files and remove them from your Dropbox by navigating to the website and delete them.
if you have files on your Dropbox but you do not want them to appear on your Computer or some folder re appear on your device, you can review your Selective Sync settings.
Please review this Help Center article regarding missing, reappearing and corrupted files and in case none of the options help you, so that our support team can investigate more on this, please go to www.dropbox.com/support and submit a ticket request.
Thank you!I moved a lot of files and folders around and now empty folders are popping up everywhere. I just spend hours trying to fix this. Tried all the suggestions in the comments before, nothing worked.
I’m on macOS 10.12, with latest Dropbox installed.
This problem is super annoying, I am thinking about switching my Dropbox Pro to an iCloud account, I just spend way too much time trying to fix this, which seems to be an existing error since 2015, so probably they won’t fix it quickly.
Edit:
I just noticed, that the folder showed up with a green check mark on my local Dropbox folder, but in the cloud it contains files, I guess this is the issue. So seems like I cannot trust the green check marks.
Tried this too. It allowed me to delete the original but then when I wanted to delete the empty copy I just made it kept reappearing like the old one did.
I had this problem for 6 months. I had 2 Dropbox logins for the same business and I logged out as one and logged in on the other via the web version, not the desktop one. I discovered that my laptop hadn't synced for 6 months on that email login and once I left it to sort itself out, the problem finally rectified. Try to login in on every device you have via the web version and allow them all time to sync completely, then delete the files if they turn up anywhere. Sorry, not a very techo reply I know but that's what finally worked for me!
