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Forum Discussion

dropmeinbox's avatar
dropmeinbox
Explorer | Level 3
3 months ago

Every time I move a file btween shared folders it'll recreate the file of 0 bytes in original folder

Say I have this in my Dropbox:

 

  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/foo.txt
  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/

The folder "~/Dropbox/shared/" is shared between 2 Dropbox accounts. Then I move "foo.txt" from "folderA" to "folderB":

 

  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/
  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/foo.txt

The move operation succeeds as expected but after a few seconds "foo.txt" would reappear in "folderA" though its size is 0 bytes:

 

  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/foo.txt (0 bytes)
  • ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/foo.txt

This is 100% reproducible and it happens on both macOS (Dropbox account #1) and win10 (another Dropbox account #2). For now I have to manually remove the 0 bytes file each time I move a file between folders.

 

Any idea?

 

UPDATE 10/08: Just tried and it turned out this can also be reproduced from Web browser (I'm using Chrome) and iPhone's Dropbox app.

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey dropmeinbox - thanks bringing this to our attention.

     

    Just to clarify, are you using a web browser to move the files or are you doing this locally within your Dropbox folder and waiting for the Dropbox desktop app to sync your changes?

     

    Could you also send us a screenshot of how those 0 byte files appear on your end?

     

    Thanks! 

    • dropmeinbox's avatar
      dropmeinbox
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi @Walter ,

       

      I'm moving files locally from within macOS' Finder and Windows' File Explorer.

       

      I dont how to attach a video here. See this screen recording (in my dropbox) I made on macOS: removed

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hey dropmeinbox, let me also jump in here! 

         

        I'm afraid we can't access your link due to security & privacy reasons. Do you think you can try clicking on our camera-button icon, and attaching some screenshots here? 

         

        Also, how long has this been going on for?