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Forum Discussion
Moving My Documents *OUT* of dropbox
The "My Documents" folder under my username on a Windows 7 machine appears to have disappeared and been subsumed by dropbox.
This is a big problem for me as I never store documents in "My Documents" but most applications such as my kindle or adobe reader store all their files in the my documents folder (and this cannot be changed). As the computer seems to think that dropbox is my documents (even though I was never warned this would be the case nor asked if I wanted it to be the case), I have a whole stack of files occupying my dropbox space that I do not want synced or stored on dropbox as I can easily obtain them if I need to.
How should I get back My Documents that has been stolen by Dropbox without my knowledge or permission?
Why did Dropbox do this without asking me?
...there's no other application I can think of that would automatically move the My Documents folder to dropbox.
As I've said, Dropbox has no functionality to do this.
However, you're quite welcome to open a support ticket and have Dropbox Support verify the fact of the matter.
Open your ticket here: https://www.dropbox.com/support
Track your ticket here: https://dropbox.zendesk.com
Replies take approximately 1 - 3 business days with Pro users getting priority (longer for Basic users).
I can find no instructions anywhere to move My Documents back to it's original location...
I'm afraid it's a bit beyond the scope of this forum, but maybe this might provide a starting point:
http://scottiestech.info/2014/11/11/repair-missing-user-folders-in-windows-7/
Sorry that I can't be of more help in this instance.
Thank you for your reply.
Dropbox did move my 'My Documents' folder because there is no folder on my computer called My Documents and when I try to create it, it says it already exists which means that Dropbox created a symbolic link. Also, the location in the registry of My Documents points directly to the Dropbox folder.
Please explain how I can therefore 'just drag it back out'.
Thanks
Dropbox has no such functionality.
I'm sorry but it must have as there's no other application I can think of that would automatically move the My Documents folder to dropbox. I would not be asking this question if I had created a symbolic link or moved My Documents to point to dropbox. Perhaps it was a bug in an older version as I have had dropbox on this laptop for some 2-3 years. My dropbox folder is on my d: drive whereas windows is running from my c: drive.
Thank you for the link. I know how to move it back however in order to do so, you have to be able to right click on the 'My documents' folder which as I mentioned before is nowhere to be found on my compuer! Even my user files folder (shell:UsersFilesFolder) has no My Documents but does have a dropbox folder (whose properties are not available for editing).
Doesn't the above provide proof that dropbox did move the 'My Documents' folder? The only other issue I could think of is if Windows automatically moved My Documents when I added a sub directory of Dropbox to the library but this was a folder within dropbox so how would Windows just move My documents to Dropbox?
I can find no instructions anywhere to move My Documents back to it's original location if you cannot view the properties of the folder.Thanks again
- Robert S.
Super User alumni
...there's no other application I can think of that would automatically move the My Documents folder to dropbox.
As I've said, Dropbox has no functionality to do this.
However, you're quite welcome to open a support ticket and have Dropbox Support verify the fact of the matter.
Open your ticket here: https://www.dropbox.com/support
Track your ticket here: https://dropbox.zendesk.com
Replies take approximately 1 - 3 business days with Pro users getting priority (longer for Basic users).
I can find no instructions anywhere to move My Documents back to it's original location...
I'm afraid it's a bit beyond the scope of this forum, but maybe this might provide a starting point:
http://scottiestech.info/2014/11/11/repair-missing-user-folders-in-windows-7/
Sorry that I can't be of more help in this instance.
- Robert S.
Dropbox did not move your My Documents folder.
If you don't want it in there, just drag it back out.
- Robert S.
Dropbox did move my 'My Documents' folder...
Dropbox has no such functionality.
Dropbox created a symbolic link.
Dropbox has no such functionality.
Please explain how I can...
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/redirect-folder-new-location#1TC=windows-7
