Every time I move a file btween shared folders it'll recreate the file of 0 bytes in original folder

[dropmeinbox]

Say I have this in my Dropbox:

• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/foo.txt
• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/

The folder "~/Dropbox/shared/" is shared between 2 Dropbox accounts. Then I move "foo.txt" from "folderA" to "folderB":

• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/
• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/foo.txt

The move operation succeeds as expected but after a few seconds "foo.txt" would reappear in "folderA" though its size is 0 bytes:

• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderA/foo.txt (0 bytes)
• ~/Dropbox/shared/folderB/foo.txt

This is 100% reproducible and it happens on both macOS (Dropbox account #1) and win10 (another Dropbox account #2). For now I have to manually remove the 0 bytes file each time I move a file between folders.

Any idea?

UPDATE 10/08: Just tried and it turned out this can also be reproduced from Web browser (I'm using Chrome) and iPhone's Dropbox app.

[Rich]

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@dropmeinbox wrote:

... it's very consitent that it's Account_2 who added back the zero-byte file.

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Zero-byte issue aside, when a file keeps returning it's usually because there's a device that's unable to delete it. Look at it like this...

You move or delete a file out of a folder on your computer. Dropbox syncs that change up to the cloud, and the cloud notifies all other connected devices about the change. The other devices proceed to delete the file but one of them is unable to. Either the file is open or otherwise has a lock on it that prevents it from being deleted. Dropbox on that computer sees that there's still a file there and proceeds to upload it back to the cloud, which then notifies all the other clients to download it again.

Several others have had this issue and it's always been a problem deleting the file at the client level, though I don't think I've seen anyone mention that the returning file had a size of zero bytes.

[dropmeinbox]

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@Rich wrote:

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Either the file is open or otherwise has a lock on it that prevents it from being deleted.

The issue can be reproduced with any types of files. I can manually create a new .txt file and repro it. It's not likely all files are being opened/locked by some apps. And only file move can repro the issue, file delete cannot. Weird.

[Hannah]

Hey @dropmeinbox, if you quit the Dropbox app and try to reproduce this, does the issue persist with the app closed?