You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
paulsimongb
3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Error 0x80070780 when copying a file out of Dropbox folder even with Dropbox uninstalled
I have just got a new Windows 11 laptop and was trying to move files to it and re-organise and everything has gone wrong. The standard folders of Documents, Pictures, Music and Video are now either i...
- 3 years ago
Hi,
I found that I could not open, copy, or move any files under the DropBox folder. The only thing I could do was delete. It must be a very curious security setting that would allow you to delete a file but not to read it (Open or Copy are effectively a read option - Move is effectively a Read and Delete operation).
I had already uninstalled DropBox.
I have deleted everything under the DropBox folder and then the DropBox folder itself.
I have changed references from the standard system short cuts such as documents back to their original locations eg C:\user\<me>\Documents
I have then recovered my data from an external hard drive.
I am sure that you might want me to work with Microsoft and Dropbox to get to the bottom of what caused this. However, you can also probably understand why I am not going to risk using Dropbox again.
I have already lost 1.5 days of my time
I have lost a small amount of data, but fortunately as it was a new laptop I had only changed a few files since the last backup was taken, and all my email is on an Exchange Server.
paulsimongb
Helpful | Level 5
Hi Megan
Yes I have re-booted the laptop several times
I didn't explicitly disable backups before uninstalling Dropbox. However, I had set Dropbox not to load at startup and I had re-booted before I uninstalled it, so it was definitely disabled.
It seems that this error can be caused by Dropbox, OneDrive, and various other pieces of software. Possibly more a question for Microsoft, but my assumption would be that if I am an Administrator, then I have full control over my files, however, it seems that this is not always the case.
This problem is only affecting files under the DropBox folder, which why I think it is related to DropBox.
Regards
Paul
paulsimongb
3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Do I need to re-installed Dropbox, turn off backups, and then uninstall again?
- paulsimongb3 years agoHelpful | Level 5
One thing I am not clear about, is whether the files do actually exist on my hard drive. Eg if it says the file is 92KB, is it possible that this is only a placeholder and the file only exists in the DropBox cloud? I don't think that is the case as the folder containing the file does not exist in DropBox.com.
If I try to open any file it will not open. It says that the file format is corrupt. So, the file does not exist in DropBox.com and cannot be accessed on my new laptop's hard drive.
Fortunately, I can still access it on my old laptop and on an external hard drive.
I am going to try raising this on a Microsoft forum as well
Regards
Paul SImon
About Apps and Installations
Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!