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Forum Discussion
I accidentally synced my desktop folder into my Dropbox folder
Hello. I have used a synced Dropbox folder for years on my Windows 7 computer. Today, when moving files on my desktop, I accidentally synced my Desktop to Dropbox. I'm not even sure how it happene...
Hmm... okay. It looks like I misunderstood what Selective Sync means. I thought it would remove it from the list of folders that sync to Dropbox, but it actually deleted anything stored locally... which I guess is why that one document disappeared. (I thought it was from deleted the folder on the Dropbox website.)
The Desktop folder is no longer listed when I look under Selective Sync.
It is also gone from the list on the Dropbox website.
But the grey circle with a dash is still on all the desktop documents. I would like to know how to get rid of that, still.
Thank you!
So, I found a Desktop folder in my local computer Dropbox folder. It seems to be a copy of my Desktop folder. But when I deleted it, I could no longer save anything to my Desktop. I got an error saying that the path doesn't exist.
I may have to do a system restore to fix this mess. It's very frustrating.
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Thank you very much for your reply, Lusil. Like I posted above, I realized that I misunderstood what the Selective Sync meant.
And, as mentioned, after I deleted the Desktop folder from my Online Dropbox account, I found a Desktop folder in my local computer Dropbox folder. It seemed to be a copy of my Desktop folder. I deleted it, but then I could no longer save anything to my Desktop. I got an error saying that the path doesn't exist.
The Desktop folder kept reappearing in my Dropbox folder. I tried to move the Desktop folder back to the desktop, I got an error warning. (I think it was something like it was already a sub folder of the destination folder.)
I continued to be unable to save anything to my Desktop. Even more unnerving, I was now unable to save anything to My Documents, also! (I kept getting the same error message.)
I ended up having to do a System Restore to get everything back to normal. Thank goodness it worked.
After that was all resolved... I was still trying to understand how it all happened in the first place. I then realized that I must have accidentally clicked on the "Move to Dropbox" option that is listed in the Context Menu. (While I was deleting and organizing files on my desktop.)
I have never, ever used that Context Menu option, and never will.
I realized that it is much too dangerous to leave in the Context Menu because of the possibility of accidentally clicking it and making a mess like I did.
I ended up spending many frustrating hours trying to figure out how to remove it permanently. (One of the suggestions I found on the web didn't work, I think because the dll file name has been changed since the suggestion was made.)
I ended up having to install CC Cleaner (which I really didn't want to do) in order to remove it, which was very agravating!
Dropbox should really make it optional to have "Move to Dropbox" in the Context Menu. I found a lot of posts by people who were incredibly upset by the problems caused by it after an errant click.
It's way too easy to click on it accidentally, which makes it an unnecessary vulnerability for those of us who never use it. I should not have needed to spend hours trying to remove it, never mind the hours of frustration fixing the problems caused by having what for me was a forced, useless Context Menu option.
