How do you get Dropbox back into Locations in the sidebar in Finder on a Mac?

Good morning HANNAH-

Thank you so much for your reply and your questions. It was nice just to get a quick response to feel like I was not on my own battling an unknown or going in circles as I did last night with Dropbox chat.

First of all, to be clear the Dropbox icon in the clock tray used to be black but it is now always gray. It never goes back to black only gray. When I have hover it- (see below)

When I clicked on it I get the usual sync history etc. And it showed me that all my files were up-to-date. But that was not the case and I will explain below why I know that for a fact.

I was sort of desperate because all the icons disappeared. It is not that they changed.

I had a long period of never changing icons except some syncing - the reassuring lovely green icons with a checkbox for several weeks and everything was running smoothly.

As we were organizing and cleaning up files I thought I would prefer to have the Dropbox icon in a different location so I believe I used the Dropbox icon in the clock tray and then preferences and then the sync tab or I may have dragged and dropped it from I think favorites or locations where it was installed into my username folder.
However I had found the preferences folder when I was looking on the how to use Dropbox and so I saw that the location wjndows for my dropbox folder was actually shown as my username folder.

I also had elected to have my files be available off-line when I do not have access to Internet and that was working well.

Then I noticed that the icons disappeared I think thought it was a temporary glitch. However when I was talking to my office in Los Angeles we were comparing a file that we’re sending soon to a remote executive assistant and the file structures were different. What I had updated here in France was not showing on his computer in the morning in Los Angeles. So I went out to the server of dropbox on the cloud and saw that it was the same file structure as what was on the computer in Los Angeles - the old file structure.

I went back up to the icon in the clock tray and it said that all my files were up-to-date but I knew they weren’t at all my work that I had done that day that was not going up to the cloud on Dropbox. It was on my Files in the dropbox folder which is within my username folder but it was not going up to the cloud at all on Dropbox.

So I started searching on all the articles which are need to be organized frankly and I have finally found some thing about how to fix syncing.

So I I saw that it discussed for those things but my Internet connection was functioning well and I went to the next step which suggested that you quit Dropbox using the clock tray icon.

It also showed different variations on the icons and it mentioned the grayed out icon is not having a connection to the Internet but I was connected the Internet and zipping around looking up different articles and clicking links to find explanations on things that I did not know about on Dropbox so obviously that was not the case.

So I went up to the icon in the clock tray quit Dropbox and then went down into applications and restarted the application by double clicking it.

This was one of the suggestions in a very long article about how to fix syncing issue problems.

But the icons did not reappear.
What happened only was a very strong different looking blue icon in my menu bar down below appeared when I double clicked on that, I saw was that it was just a link to directly to my dropbox folders. Well I didn’t need that because I already had the link over in my sidebar in finder.

However I was so busy so I thought I will go check again and I saw up on the server of cloud in dropbox that it had the old file structures.

So I asked my associate in Los Angeles who has a very strong Internet connection to go look at the office computer which he does not really use. He saw that on his computer in Los Angeles he also still did not have any icons.

Actually we were quite concerned because we had a huge problem with the server Box. It had cost us a month of time where we had to reconstruct our files from old hard drives and old back ups. So we chose to go back to Dropbox and now we’re thinking oh my goodness Dropbox doesn’t work because we’ve lost all of our icons and it’s obviously not syncing and I don’t know why.

I went back to the grayed icon in the clock tray and it again said that all my files were synced and up-to-date.

So I clicked on of the article to indicate it was not helpful and that’s how I saw the chat support which I have not seen before.

I was on chat so I do not have a support ticket number but his name was Edgar and we went in circles for over 90 minutes.

My questions to him were simple.
I told him about the gray icon for Dropbox in the Clock tray and then I’ve been black before and how do we get it back to being fully operational because your own articles indicated it being grayed out showed that it was not functioning.
He said that Dripbox engineers know there was a problem with a grayed icon and the clock tray but that was not a problem to have a gray icon and it would not affect functionality,

I’m not sure if what he wrote is true because of how the call went.

I told him that the my office computer in Los Angeles now had no Dropbox icon in the clock tray and had actually disappeared. That it had it before and all the green checked icons and now that computer was syncing obviously to the cloud on Dripbox but it had no icon in the clock right and no green icons or any icons on any of the folders.

Then I told him on my laptop which is with me here in France that I have a grayed out icon in the clock tray and it’s showing me that I’m up-to-date but I am not and I have no icons at all next to any of my folders.

He then said that not having any icons means that I’m probably having a problem with my Internet provider and I needed to talk to my Internet provider. I told him my Internet provider was Starlink and it was super fast and I was not having problems connecting the Internet because I was chatting with him and I was able to surf the Internet quickly.

So I asked him to let’s first fix the grade out icon on my M1 Apple MacBook Pro. He said it was not a problem and that they were working on it and it didn’t affect anything. So I guess and told him that all the green icons with the checkmarks are disappeared and I told him that I had moved dropbox to my username folder. My questions were what was the default folder for dropbox to be in and how do we move it back to that default folder using the correct method?

I didn’t want to drag and drop it but use the change of location in preferences and put it back in its default location. That was not accomplished as he did not know the answer and finally he told me it belonged in devices in the side bar in finder on a Mac. There is no section for devices the sections that are offered are favorites…. Or locations.

We went in circles for a long time and I was getting a little bored waiting for him to have answers he asked me to upload a screenshot and I just went on and on and on and on while I was waiting for him I decided I would remove that new blue icon down in the menu bar just remove it from the dock and when I removed it from the dog suddenly the Dropbox icon that is grayed out by the clock prey starts showing messages asking if I want to delete files everywhere that because I had deleted some folders and I kept saying yes yes yes and then suddenly it’s syncing 4000 files. I’m productive during the day but I’m not that productive so obviously the same problem I’ve been going on for sometime and I didn’t even know it there was no warning. That is also concerning so that is why I’m relaying it to you

so it’s only start singing I have no idea why he has no idea why and then I ask my associate in Los Angeles to now go look at the computer and see if it’s as icons and he says no and he still doesn’t have it in the clock tray.

So that’s why I went out into the community and posted a query.

I know this is more information than what you asked for but I want to explain to you the steps because it’s over not very reassuring and rather erratic and I have no idea why removing that icon that suddenly appeared after I quit the clock-tray icon and then double clicked on the application and the application folder it appeared in my dock and all I did was remove it from the dock and suddenly it starts working again so things are popping up and disappearing and not sinking and or no clock trays or grade clock out trays and I I’m hoping you can help us but let’s get started with the laptop first and then I’ll hopefully with your help my associate Who also still has no icons and no Dropbox icon in the clock tray but he does have and he told me just appeared down and thethat blue shiny dropbox icon which had not been there before, is in his dock too.

Also could you please also tell me how you get a support ticket and how you get a hold of SUPPORT as I am a dropbox plus member?

I was writing this as I got a notification when I woke up that you had replied so I wanted to get back to you first thing… As this is important to me - to get both the laptop and the computer fixed. So I went downstairs to my laptop and it’s like a miracle the Dropbox icon is black and when I hover over it it says dropbox 154.4.5363 up-to-date🤩 it’s a miracle - okay So can we continue what I was trying to do on the chat support I need to get The M1 computer working how do we get the icome on back up in the clock tray please and also how do we get him back to getting his green checkbox?

Don’t get me wrong I’m not questioning anything but it just seems perplexing that this is happening‘s erratically.

So what’s left for the laptop is putting the dropbox folder I guess back where it belongs which is in favorites or locations but not iCloud.

For the computer can I ask for your kind assistance and…

Let’s get the icons back on the clock tray icon back on the computer and will just be thankful for miracles?