Getting terminal errors during advanced reinstall after Dropbox was unlinked

[peteypeteypete]

Hi All, 

I use dropbox to archive and share files between my iphone, home macbook and work mac. I decided to do an advanced reinstall 4 weeks ago when I had a glitch on my work computer (sync arrow on the menu bar wouldn't stop spinning, even when there were no files to sync). 

My dropbox library (user/library/CloudDrive/dropbox) is unlinked. The dropbox folder in my sidebar (user/dropbox) , which is missing the dropbox icon, will accept files, but I don't have any options for sharing links, setting files from off-line to online -- the basic features that are why I've been a paying subscriber of Dropbox for the past decade. 

I've run the "advanced reinstall" at least 10 times in the past month. When I run the 6 terminal commands I get a "directory not empty" error on the 4th and 6th commands: 

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

I see this issue has been raised before on this forum 6 years ago and wasn't solved. Email support has been very slow and unable to help. I've been in touch with several members of the email support team, and had multiple support tickets closed, even though the issue was and remains unresolved. 

Can anyone help me here? Thanks!

Pete

[Hannah]

Sorry to see that you're having this issue, @peteypeteypete.

If your Dropbox folder was previously located in ~/Library/CloudStorage, it means you were previously using the Dropbox for macOS on File Provider version of the app.

However, if the computer got unlinked, it might be possible that you're back to the non-File Provider version.

Can you open your Dropbox preferences and check the location of your Dropbox folder in the "sync" tab?

Also, can you please give me the ticket number of your most recent communication with our support team, so I can take a look?

Thanks in advance.

[peteypeteypete]

Hi Hannah, 

Thanks for the response. I don't remember upgrading to "File Provider" but it's possible I was using it. Currently I'm not using it and it offers the option to upgrade but haven't chosen to do so thinking (correctly or not) that it might cause more problems. 

Under preferences my dropbox folder location is: user/dropbox, which is the same as the folder in my sidebar. 

Best, 

Pete

[Hannah]

Thanks for the update here, Pete!

Do you see a Dropbox icon in your menu bar at the moment?

What is the sync status and version number of the app, when hovering over this icon?

[peteypeteypete]

Hi Hannah, 

I do have it in the menu bar, and it says 206.4.6505 "up to date" -- it's the most recent version. 

Also my most recent support ticket is 24171978, forgot to include this last time! 

Per your previous response, none of the support agents I've emailed with have mentioned File Provider. I'm curious if that is part of the issue. Thanks. 

[Hannah]

Thanks for the ticket number and the additional info, Pete!

From what I can see, you're actually in contact with our team that specializes in these kinds of issues.

This team has access to account specific info, unlike us here on the Community, so whatever the root cause of the issue is, they will be able to figure it out.

So, I would suggest keeping an eye on your ticket, for any further updates.

[peteypeteypete]

Hi Hannah, 

I've been waiting since last Thursday morning (8 days ago) for an answer from the support team. That's why I am writing here. 

When I initially brought up this issue 4 weeks ago, after several emails I was told that email support couldn't fix this and I had to contact Apple, which I did, which was a waste of three hours on the phone. Without fixing it, the Specialist email support team marked that ticket as "solved" and stopped responding to it, so I had to start the process over again. 

To be blunt, again, email support is not helping, that's why I am asking here. 

[Hannah]

I understand where you're coming from, Pete.

I can see that the team is still investigating, though, and these investigations usually take some time to complete.

I've notified the team that you've reached out here as well, so they'll get back to you with more info as soon as possible.

Do let us know once you have more info.

[peteypeteypete]

Thanks for your help, Hannah, but I shouldn't have to wait over a week for a response on this, especially when I've had this issue for almost a month. 

Has anyone else in the community faced this issue and/or know Terminal well enough to know how I can avoid these errors? Should I manually be moving, deleting (and if so do I need to empty trash?), or re-naming these folders? Does "File Provider" have anything to do with this?