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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Syncing Without My Permission
Hi! I am running into a potential problem with Dropbox. When I started up my Windows 10 PC this evening, the Dropbox desktop app on my screen immediately started syncing, even though I had not prompted it to do so. I quickly clicked "Pause syncing", and then selected "Indefinitely". Now, the Dropbox desktop app on the lower right corner of my screen has a little yellow circle on it with a pair of vertical lines indicating that syncing has paused and is still in pause mode. I want to do a reset so that the app will no longer be in pause mode, but I do not want it to resume syncing, either. How do I do this?
- The Dropbox desktop application would only sync other computer folders (namely Desktop, Documents and Downloads) if you enabled the computer backup feature.
If it's disabled, all that would be synced are the files in the Dropbox folder itself. It doesn't sync your entire computer, as this feature isn't available on Dropbox.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey Cendrillon; thanks for posting on our Community and happy Friday!
To directly get to the chase, instead of pausing the syncing process, you can quit the app instead.
For future reference, if you don't want the desktop app to automatically start upon booting your computer, you can turn the relevant option off through the app's preferences.
Let me know if this helped!Hi, Walter! Thank you so much for your reply! I followed your advice. I first went to the desktop app Preferences and made sure that "Start Dropbox on system startup" and "Open the desktop app when starting Dropbox" were unchecked. Then, I quit Dropbox.
Being the experimenter I am, I reopened the Dropbox desktop app to ensure that I had done everything necessary, but the little yellow circle with the pair of lines is still there. How do I do a reset so that my Dropbox desktop app isn't going to forever be in "Pause syncing" mode?
- JayHi Cendrillon, you could resume syncing in the desktop app, and then immediately quit the app.
This way the only way files will sync to your account is when the app is running.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't want the app to sync automatically, and only when you choose to have the app running?
I've hit preferences, I go to 'back-up' and everything is UNchecked- I try hitting the 'backup downloads' and it says I don't have permission. I want DB to STOP saving certain PC files- but how can I if it's already unchecked? I keep erasing this PC folder it's making automatically, yet it still comes back whenever I download something, and saves it to my DB- again, NOTHING in backup is checked. All blank boxes...
DB also appears to have hijacked my desktop and docs file from my Mac running Sonoma 14.3., MY DB app was not working so per emailed instructions I downloaded fresh copy after dumping previous db desktop app. NO luck. No icon in menu bar so no access to preferences. It gets worse. My files are in db deleted. According to db I do not have permission to download my files from deleted. Again emailed to db support. Anyone else have the download permission problem? Or the problem that any dowloaded file becomes "read only?"
- Walter
Hey jasonspiano, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
When you say you don't have permission, can you send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a look too?
Also, do you see any backed up folders on your backups page?
- Hannah
Hey jasonspiano, do you have admin privileges on the PC?
DB had my desktop and doc files in "deleted files " but I could not download them because I do not have "sufficient permissions" . A fresh new db app does not appear to work.
I am unable to solve the problem by getting 1 question or 1 suggestion every 24 hours. DB has all of my desktop and doc files and I have none left on my computer. I have been a db user for more than 10 years. This db is not working on Sonoma 14.3 for my computer. Please tell me how to get my files back to my computer.
