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TuiAllen's avatar
TuiAllen
Explorer | Level 3
6 years ago

When I delete a file, why do I receive a message that it will be "deleted from all devices"?

I hope this is in the right place. Not sure. It is probably the stupidest question but has puzzled me for ages.

I sometimes have a file on dropbox I want to delete because it is now out of date. I just want to replace that one file with the up-to-date version. So I try to delete it. Then I get a message from dropbox asking me if I want it deleted on all my devices. Of course I do not because then it would delete the up-to-date one on my own computer. I only want to delete the out-of-date one on dropbox, so I can put the latest version in its place. So I did complicated things like re-naming the newer version on my computer to stop dropbox recognising and deleting it. That worked. But I got sick of that.
So I tested it with a file that did not matter. I found that dropbox does not in fact delete it from my home computer. Only from dropbox. So why does it give me this alarming message warning that it is going to delete it everywhere?

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  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    6 years ago
    Hey there TuiAllen,
     
    The notification is just to clarify that removing the file from the Dropbox folder will in turn delete the file from your account, so it will also be removed from your other devices.
     
    The Dropbox desktop app doesn’t have the ability to read the files outside of the Dropbox folder so it wouldn’t be able to delete anything outside that folder either. The method you want to use doesn’t need any more steps than simply deleting the old file and then adding the new one to your Dropbox folder in its place.
     
    Hope this helps clarify the matter, let me know if you have any other questions - Thanks!
  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago
    Hey there TuiAllen,
     
    The notification is just to clarify that removing the file from the Dropbox folder will in turn delete the file from your account, so it will also be removed from your other devices.
     
    The Dropbox desktop app doesn’t have the ability to read the files outside of the Dropbox folder so it wouldn’t be able to delete anything outside that folder either. The method you want to use doesn’t need any more steps than simply deleting the old file and then adding the new one to your Dropbox folder in its place.
     
    Hope this helps clarify the matter, let me know if you have any other questions - Thanks!
    • Intact 's avatar
      Intact
      New member | Level 2
      5 years ago

      Hi 

      I have accidentally selected for this message not to come up anymore, anyone knows how can i make DropBox ask me this question everytime?

      Thanks 

      • Daphne's avatar
        Daphne
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        5 years ago

        Thanks for joining us here @Intact!

         

        Can you try the steps below and let me know if that does the trick?

        1. Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar.
        2. Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
        3. Choose "Preferences..."
        4. Go to the "Account" tab.
        5. Hold the Alt+H (Windows) keys or the Space bar (Mac).
        6. Click the option "Reset file system warnings".

        Keep me posted!

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