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Forum Discussion
Folder showing a Share Icon
Why do some folders in Dropbox.com show a sharing icon when the folder is not shared? I am refering to the sharing icon visible on dropbox.com not on the computer version. See the screenshot. ...
Hi JOfE,
🤔 Hm... That's really strange. Is there any chance you have received that directory by somebody as a shared folder and after that the owner has got out of share without transfer ownership to you? 🧐 In such a case you would been the only person referring particular directory without being owner, so it's shared still, but you are already the only referring to. 🤷
This is the only I can think of.
I'm stumped also. I have many folders like this in my dropbox account. I have never shared them. I am not sharing them now. These appear on dropbox.com so I can't assume this is a problem with Apple or Windows.
I'm not a programmer for a billion dollar tech company but I think the icon should read 'blank' when I folder is not shared- whether I was the original owner of the folder or not.
JOfE wrote:... I have never shared them. ...
Hi JOfE,
Are you sure you "have never shared them"? 🧐 🙂 I'm sure in just opposite.
At some moment you have shared the folders, in focus, to some people. Later the share recipient(s) remove their-self from the sharing. Finally as a result (most probably a bug) the folder(s) remain "shared" while they are NOT actually. 🤷 That's it.
It could be easily reproduced:
The weird thing here is you cannot unshare a folder non shared actually, but still labeled as a such. In my reproductions is a difference. Such a folder appear everywhere as a shared, not just on Dropbox site, like in your case. On my mobile, for example:
On mobile I can cancel sharing (ellipsis menu). It's really strange why the same can't be done on the Dropbox web site. 🤷
The only other workaround, I can think of, is following the steps (folder name "Test" is used as an example) below:
- Rename folder "Test" to something like "Test.tmp".
- Create new folder "Test".
- Move entire content of "Test.tmp" into "Test".
- Remove "Test.tmp".
Now, there is a same folder "Test" without any "share" label. 😉 If you are disturbed by the "labeling", can repeat the same for all incorrectly labeled folders. The share status get removed only when you unshare file/folder yourself, not by other parties (the actual bug). You can wait for the bug be fixed, but I wont encourage you cause Dropbox will ignore it (I'm pretty sure). The choice is yours.
Hope this helps to some extent.
- Mark
Super User II
One thing to just check JOfE is that you've not accidentally shared them with yourself.... when you go to www.dropbox.com/home and find the folder that will tell you how many are in the share and let you remove things etc.
One thing to note is that if you stop a folder being shared you lose all file version history of it - so if you remove it even if its only shared to you it will start 'from scratch'.
