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Forum Discussion

katief's avatar
katief
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago

Duplicate Dropbox locations after update

The Dropbox accounts at our office updated last week and made a new Dropbox directory with all our files, but the old location and files still remain.  The folders in the old location will sync to Dropbox when changed but do not have any of the Dropbox menu options (ie: Version History, Copy Dropbox Link, ect).  How can I disconnect the old location when it's not recognized as connected?

  • Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Katie!

     

    I'm glad that with Jay's help we were able to figure this out.

     

    You can read more about symlinks and this hidden Dropbox folder and instructions on what to do, here.

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

    Hey katief, thanks for letting us know about this. 

     

    Can you please click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar and then click on the folder icon next to your initials/profile pic?

     

    This should open the actual Dropbox folder that is syncing to your account. Is that the old Dropbox folder?

     

    If so, are the context menu items missing from all the files in the Dropbox folder or just from the backup (PC/Mac) folder for example? If you have enabled backup, that is.

     

    Keep me posted.

    • katief's avatar
      katief
      Explorer | Level 3

      Thanks Hannah.  When I open my Dropbox folder via the system tray, it opens to the new location.  All the folders in the new location have the contextual menu items.  We don't have any backup enabled.

      Let me explain it this way maybe - We have location A, where the original Dropbox folder is located.  Dropbox updated and created location B, with a new Dropbox folder.  Both A and B are still syncing.  A does not have the contextual menus, B does.  There are two updating sets of every folder and file in our Dropbox account on my machine now. 

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

        Thanks for the update here, Katie. This does sound super strange. 

         

        So, if you add a test file to the old Dropbox folder, does that file sync to your account? Do you see it when you go to dropbox.com?

    • tjacka's avatar
      tjacka
      Explorer | Level 3

      `hi Hannah, I have this same problem I think, but on a Mac. I've looked at https://help.dropbox.com/installs/hidden-folder to deal with the duplication issue, but this doesn't help. The pre-existing Dropbox Folder, the one that's not syncing does not update and does not have a contextual menu, whereas the Dropbox folder, which only shows when I select the folder Icon from under the Dropbox icon in the menu bar syncs and provides a contextual menu in the paper way, but I cannot even locate except by revealing it this way. This all seemed to happen when I migrated computers recently (from an earlier MacMini) and/or re-installed the updated Dropbox. Help!

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

        Hey tjacka, thanks for the nudge here.

         

        If you open your Dropbox application preferences and go to the 'sync' tab, you should be able to find the location of the syncing Dropbox folder there.

         

        I hope this helps!

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