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pcunger1's avatar
pcunger1
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

accidentally dragged a folder to Dropbox

I accidentally dragged a folder to my Dropbox folder. How can I "unshare" it without deleting it (which I have done [and restored, thankfully] two different ways already)? Maddeningly confused, P...
Desktop
Share
Sync
  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    6 years ago
    Hey again, pcunger1. 
     
    Initially, I wanted to add to what Rich mentions and clarify: when you drag the folder in question into the Dropbox folder, before deleting it, did the Dropbox icon report as up to date? 
     
    As mentioned earlier, a drag & drop into the Dropbox folder would translate to cut & paste, but if the folder you placed in the Dropbox folder is large, you need to give it some time to ensure that it’s moved all its contents across. 
     
    In other words if a drag & drop translates to a cut & paste, that means that the folder would be removed from the original location, and if you delete it from the Dropbox folder, it would be removed from there as well, which would explain why you see the folder being removed from both locations. 
     
    If you’re still experiencing this behavior though nonetheless, I’d kindly recommend contacting our Support team for a more in-depth investigation on the matter. 
     
    In the meantime, I’d be more than happy to pass your comments along to the dev team concerning the Forum layout. Cheers!
Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hey again, pcunger1. 
 
Initially, I wanted to add to what Rich mentions and clarify: when you drag the folder in question into the Dropbox folder, before deleting it, did the Dropbox icon report as up to date? 
 
As mentioned earlier, a drag & drop into the Dropbox folder would translate to cut & paste, but if the folder you placed in the Dropbox folder is large, you need to give it some time to ensure that it’s moved all its contents across. 
 
In other words if a drag & drop translates to a cut & paste, that means that the folder would be removed from the original location, and if you delete it from the Dropbox folder, it would be removed from there as well, which would explain why you see the folder being removed from both locations. 
 
If you’re still experiencing this behavior though nonetheless, I’d kindly recommend contacting our Support team for a more in-depth investigation on the matter. 
 
In the meantime, I’d be more than happy to pass your comments along to the dev team concerning the Forum layout. Cheers!
pcunger1's avatar
pcunger1
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

Thanks Lusil. I have to accept that this is how Dropbox manages folders, so I have accepted your answer as the solution. I confess, I still don't understand how Dropbox manages 'sync' operations when things only exist in one location. I would be much more comfortable if Dropbox only held a mirror of my data rather than holding the only "copy" of it--I'd much rather that was on my machine!

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago
    Hey pcunger1, if you’d like a folder to exist in the original location and in the Dropbox folder, you can manually choose to copy-paste (or Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V) the folder from its location and add it into the Dropbox folder. That way, you can have it in both locations. 
     
    If you’d like to check out more info about the Dropbox folder, you can have a look at this article. Hope this helps to some extent! :grin:

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