DropBox Takes over the Documents folder

[iTechnology]

i am having this issue with a mac mini M1 - i am running the beta software that is supposed to work with the M1.  I migrated data only using the migration assistant built into macs.   Dropbox takes over my documents folder as soon as a sign in and the path changes showing it is now a dropbox folder - after doing a migration that folder is empty and if i restore to that folder the files disappear within a few minutes.

I am likely saying goodbye as i am fed up with poor mac support and poor support in general.  I spent 4 hours chatting with their support people BEFORE i did the migration because i anticipated issues and sure enough the issues are real. 

[sturdy]

I already checked from the web, i have no devices linked to the account.. This is just frustrating even after doing a complete restore of my mac, DB still appear to be in the path and when i go into library to delete anything related to DB including DBtoolhelper, my desktop, download and document folder is gone. But when i re-install my OS and did not do a restore from backup machine, DB is no longer in the path and that is not helpful at all, as all my major documents and contents are in my backup drive and once i enter time machine and access them, DB finds its way back and appear in the path. What kind of program is that? DB working like some kinda of virus sneaking its way back. 

[sturdy]

Before you responded to my query, i have done and six-tuple check; from backups, to re-install, quit, un-install, unlink and so forth. I realised like many, my Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Music folder were "missing" (could not click on them and had files were gone). They names of the icon were still there, but the original icon was gone (the arrow pointing down for Downloads, for example), and upon clicking them, they showed: "The operation can’t be completed because the original item for “Downloads” can’t be found." i have even scoured my entire library and deleted Dropboxhelpertool' and multiple folders with Dropbox name and above is the result

[Hannah · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to me, @sturdy.

I understand your frustration, so let's see if we can manually revert the locations of your desktop folders. Please follow these steps:

1) Firstly, check that computer backup has been disabled successfully for each folder.

• Go to Finder. In the top bar, click Go —> Home.
• If you see shortcuts of the folders (Icons with arrows), select them, right-click, and Move to Trash. If you don't see the shortcut arrows, then move to step 2.
• Click Continue on this prompt > "Item Desktop is locked. Do you want to move it to the Trash anyway?"
• When they are removed, right-click New Folder and create one for each item that you deleted in the previous step, for example, Desktop, Documents, and Downloads.
• To restore your Favorites entries, in the top bar, click Finder —> Preferences —> Sidebar, and check each item. You can also remove any unwanted entries via right-click—> ‘Remove from Sidebar.’
• To fix the Downloads dock entry:
  • Right-click on it —> Options —> "Remove from Dock".
  • In the Finder sidebar, right-click Downloads —> "Add to Dock".
• Click the Apple icon —> Force Quit —> Finder —> Relaunch.
• Now, you can move any files from Dropbox back to their respective original locations.

2) If the computer backup has been successful, then you should be able to simply open Finder, go to your Dropbox folder, and click on the Mac folder. 

3) Click into the folder, for example, Documents, where you want to revert your files back to.
 

4) Copy or move those files back to the original folders, which you can open from the Favorites in the left pane of Finder.

[MarcelloSax64]

Hi, I've tried to follow the steps you advised me to do. I thank YOU so much. Now i've got my desktop and my folders again in the right place. 

Next step is to understand how many copies of the folders i've have now in my Mac. But no problem. Thank YOU so much