Dropbox asks if I want to remove a document right after I save it

I got into this thread in the first place because suddenly I was receiving the message that Dropbox was wanting to delete a file from all my devices. Then the thread sort of morphed into a discussion of problems with certain files where the problems seemed to be caused by Dropbox's syncing activity - hence the need to pause Dropbox.

I'm obviously much more concerned about the second issue than the first one. But unless I have missed it, I have not seen an answer to the first issue. When Dropbox sends me a message that asks for permission to remove a file from all my devices, what does that even mean? Why is it doing that?

Both of my applications that run into problems associated with Dropbox syncing activity have in common that they are using an SQLite database and that the database is being updated on an ongoing and somewhat continuous basis rather than being updated with a File>Save at the end of a session with the software. One of my applications with the problem is the genealogy application RootsMagic and my other application with the problem Microsoft's Visual Studio which I use to develop C++ programs.

I haven't seen this issue arise on any VS forums, but there have been active discussions on the RM forums for years about problems associated with using RM with Dropbox and about the need for to pause Dropbox while using RM. Just recently, a very skilled RM user has reported that OneDrive seems to avoid syncing an RM database that is is actively being updated whereas Dropbox does not. I'm sensitive to discussion a competitive produce on a Dropbox platform, but it does make me curious what OneDrive is doing to solve this problem that Dropbox is not. It also makes me curious if perhaps Microsoft had to introduce support into OneDrive to avoid syncing any databases while they were being actively updated because they introduced the use of SQLite into VS in 2015. So perhaps Microsoft identified a problem with OneDrive syncing an SQLite database that was being used by VS, and perhaps that was the motivation for Microsoft to address the problem.

Me too. The dreaded:

"Remove " FILE NAME" fomr your Dropbox account and all devices?

Er, no! I'm just trying to save the file, as per normal!

I'm having it in Excel and Chief Architect when I save a file I'm working on, or when the software tries to do a background save. It's scary - is Dropbox about to delete an invaluable file on "all devices" and crash my business?! I pay Dropbox to get more security, not LESS, not to delete all my work!!

This has only happened in the last few weeks, never happened in the past with Dropbox. I'm using Dropbox 90.4.307.

I've sent a help email to Dropbox, really hoping this can be sorted with an update asap.

Scratching my head as to how this can be allowed to be released as an update....

Any advice gratefully received.

Hi! Same issue here for several people in our office - when saving a PPT, the message Remove this file to $deleted pops up?

Dropbox version  v90.4.307

Any updates on this why this keeps happening?

Best,

Kristin 

Dropbox has been working with me for a month now. The only thing that seems to work for the intereim, is to turn off sync until you are done editing your document, then turn it back on. 

dimalique

Thanks for updating the thread with what seems to work for you dimalique!

For all the others in this thread, if you're still having issues with this, I'd suggest opening up a ticket so our Support team can assist further with account and device specific information. 

In the meantime, you can try pausing sync and resuming it after you're done with your edits while working on 3rd party apps. 

I know it's not much, but I sure hope this helps to some extent. 

I do the "pause Dropbox and then resume later" thing. But I still wish someone would answer the question of what does the message about "remove this file?" means? What is Dropbox asking me and why is it asking me? Until relatively recently, this message never appeared and I have been a very happy Dropbox user for many years. So I would like to know what the message means. It shouldn't matter when the message appears or what the filename is. The message has to mean something or it wouldn't be there.

I found it necessary to do the "pause Dropbox and then resume later" thing long before this strange message started appearing. So I think there are two separate issues. This second issue is that Dropbox is trying to sync SQLite databases that are being actively updated, and I don't think Dropbox should be doing that.

Thanks,
Jerry

Hi thejerrybryan,

You give the answer to your second question. About the first: Didn't my first comment here (second page , at the end) gives enough information to you (for the issue nature, at least)? About the reason: Probably, customer support peoples here don't have any idea too. :laughing:

Hi all!

I wanted to clear this up a tad and let you know that the message you are seeing is a feature of our desktop application.

This message is a system warning that lets you know an unsupported action was being performed (usually by a 3rd party app) and helps prevent unexpected consequences from this action.

If you have feedback about this feature, you can let me know here and I'll make sure to pass it over to the developer team.

Thanks for the update. This response is very helpful, but I think it is still is only a partial answer. What sort of unsupported action might an application be doing?

It sort of sounds like an application is creating a termporary file and then deleting the temporary file or else moving the temporary file to a different folder. That's the same sort of thing I can do as a user from Windows File Explorer. Does the fact that it's being done by an application instead of by me as the user mean that Dropbox can't support the action? And more importantly, how am I as a user supposed to make an informed response to the pop-up message from Dropbox. I still don't under stand what it's asking me and whether I should respond yes or no.

Jerry

From what I've gathered, the way Windows works, is that when you save a file, the old copy is deleted and a new copy is saved in its place. The changes you made and want to save are not added, so to speak. The entire file is deleted, then saved over. What is happening, is that when the file is 'deleted' in preparation for the save, Dropbox thinks you are deleting the file from Dropbox and wants to know if you want to delete it from all your devices. I always click cancel, because I don't want my files deleted, and I feel this is the safest option.

My husband just told me he's getting the same error message when saving output from his synths to Dropbox--but only on Windows. He's never had the error pop up when he's using the Linux side of his devices. I wonder how many Mac users are getting the same error, or if this is just a Windows thing.

Thanks for the info Walter.

I do appreciate this feature.  These are confusing false positives though--we ask a program to save (or it autosaves), and we get a scary notification that something important is being permanently deleted.  I know the intentions are good, but the customer experience is pretty poor in this common use case.  And the solution is equally poor: disable sync, which isn't an option for me since I have editors and IDEs always open, or disable the feature entirely.

I don't know what the technical constraints are, but asking Dropbox to trust specific applications would be ideal here, so I can whitelist my editors and IDEs to perform these common actions on my behalf, but still get the notification otherwise.  At the very least, a note about this scenario in the popup window would be helpful so that users could understand that it's often not as scary as it sounds.