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Horace-Hedgehog's avatar
Horace-Hedgehog
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

The dreaded grey minus

I see how this works. Folder FRED has a grey minus. When I enable selective sync on FRED it creates a new folder on my PC called FRED (selective sync...)

But the original folder FRED still keeps the grey minus. How do I return to a synchronised folder called FRED? On my system the folder names do matter...

Desktop
Sync
  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    6 years ago
    Hi there, Horace-Hedgehog. 
     
    The gray circle with the minus sign may appear on a file or folder when you're using the selective sync feature (meaning you've opted not to sync this file or folder on your computer).
     
    In general, selectively synced files and folders won't appear in the Dropbox folder on your computer. However, if you create two files or folders with the same name, the gray icon will appear, indicating that one of the files isn’t being synced.
     
    In such a case, you may have a selective sync conflict, which occurs when you create a folder with the same name and in the same location as an unsynced folder. For more info on how to tackle this, I’d recommend checking this article out.
     
    Let me know how it goes!
  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago
    Hi there, Horace-Hedgehog. 
     
    The gray circle with the minus sign may appear on a file or folder when you're using the selective sync feature (meaning you've opted not to sync this file or folder on your computer).
     
    In general, selectively synced files and folders won't appear in the Dropbox folder on your computer. However, if you create two files or folders with the same name, the gray icon will appear, indicating that one of the files isn’t being synced.
     
    In such a case, you may have a selective sync conflict, which occurs when you create a folder with the same name and in the same location as an unsynced folder. For more info on how to tackle this, I’d recommend checking this article out.
     
    Let me know how it goes!
    • Randyhd's avatar
      Randyhd
      New member | Level 2
      6 years ago

      I have the same problem, and all the answers say "the problem occurs when you create 2 folders with the same name"). WELL,  it is not me that is doing the creating.

      I need to free up space on the hard drive. So,  before running out of space, and I make sure everything is synced. Then I go into Selective Sync and uncheck a large folder (like one with lots of videos).

      What I am noticing Next is that the folder that gets unchecked now has the Grey Minus, and I also now have a same-Named folder with the (Selective cync conflict) appended in the folder name. Only some of the files in the new folder appear, but because they are big video files, I now have a worse problem with harddrive space.

       

      HELP PLEASE! I have tried hard reboots, and having Dropbox start with startup and not with startup and cannot figure this out.

       

      • Lusil's avatar
        Lusil
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        6 years ago
        Hi there Randyhd!
         
        Initially, I wanted to clarify that a selective sync conflict occurs when you sync a folder back to your Dropbox folder but there’s already a folder in that location/path with the same name.
         
        Having said that, there are a few ways mentioned in this article on how to tackle a selective sync conflict.
         
        Let me know if you have any other questions!

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