I am trying to reorganize my dropbox because I literally have thousands of folders, and I need them to be more logically nested. This is no problem with shared folders that I own, but I can't move any shared folders where I am not the owner. This is a nightmare, because it means that every folder anyone has ever shared with me remains in my top level dropbox folder and cannot be filed into the relevant subfolder within dropbox. Because I can't find any information about this issue online, I am assuming that my dropbox is not functioning correctly. Hoping someone can help me to fix this issue? Here is the error message I get when I try to move a shared folder where I am not the owner from my top level dropbox folder to a different subfolder within dropbox (that is not shared with anyone else, in case that is relevant): Couldn't move folder To move this folder, try contacting the owner of FOLDER_NAME If I click on the "more information" link, it just takes me to a generic message about team folders. (Note: These are not dropbox business team folders--they are simply shared folders. I have a regular Dropbox pro account, on Windows 11, desktop version.)

I appreciate your reply Hannah, but I know that this is not correct. There are many comments on the dropbox forums from users who describe organizing their files by moving folders shared with them into other folders. Further, my whole team is able to take folders that I share with them and put them into another folder (in fact, this is the lynchpin of our whole sharing system, since I access to individual folders varies by person--I send everyone a screenshot of what their folder structure should look like and then they create a parent folder to hold all the folders I share with them with the name of the overall project, to ensure consistency across the team. No one else on my team is having this issue. It is also completely unacceptable to suggest that it is reasonable functionality that any folder that someone shares with me should just live in my top level dropbox folder, with me unable to organize it anywhere else--it essentially means that I lose access to these files, as I have hundreds of thousands of files, so files that are not organized simply are not usable to me. I have been using dropbox since the year it started, but these kind of functionality issues are becoming a dealbreaker for me. Almost twenty years down the road, there should be better file organization capabilities for a service whose sole purpose is to sync files. If this can't be properly addressed, I am going to have to look elsewhere for a Dropbox alternative (I already assigned someone on my team to research dropbox alternatives).

Hi Nancy,I appreciate the response, but this issue has nothing to do with moving a shared folder into a shared folder. It is about moving a shared folder into another normal parent folder that is not shared with anyone. Dropbox should allow this, regardless of who owns the shared folder. But Dropbox gives me an error every time I try to do it.

Hannah wrote: ... it seems that this behavior is expected for shared folders that are not owned by the person trying to move them. When did this change, and more importantly, why? It was never like that before as I've moved many shared folders that are owned by other people into a common Shared folder in my Dropbox.

Hey Claire W.3, thanks for reaching out to us. If I understand correctly, you're getting this error when trying to move the folders using your local Dropbox folder; have you tried this from dropbox.com? If you have, can you try from a different browser as well and let us know what you see? Thanks.

Thanks, Hannah, for the reply. I get the same error both online and on my desktop, for all folders owned by someone else.

Cannot move shared folder if I am not the owner

22 Replies

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Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hey Claire W.3, thanks for reaching out to us.

If I understand correctly, you're getting this error when trying to move the folders using your local Dropbox folder; have you tried this from dropbox.com?

If you have, can you try from a different browser as well and let us know what you see?

Thanks.
Claire W.3
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
Thanks, Hannah, for the reply. I get the same error both online and on my desktop, for all folders owned by someone else.
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Thanks, Claire.

I was able to investigate a bit, and it seems that this behavior is expected for shared folders that are not owned by the person trying to move them.

However, I have passed your comments along to our team and if you need anything else, please let us know.
Claire W.3
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
I appreciate your reply Hannah, but I know that this is not correct. There are many comments on the dropbox forums from users who describe organizing their files by moving folders shared with them into other folders. Further, my whole team is able to take folders that I share with them and put them into another folder (in fact, this is the lynchpin of our whole sharing system, since I access to individual folders varies by person--I send everyone a screenshot of what their folder structure should look like and then they create a parent folder to hold all the folders I share with them with the name of the overall project, to ensure consistency across the team. No one else on my team is having this issue.

It is also completely unacceptable to suggest that it is reasonable functionality that any folder that someone shares with me should just live in my top level dropbox folder, with me unable to organize it anywhere else--it essentially means that I lose access to these files, as I have hundreds of thousands of files, so files that are not organized simply are not usable to me.

I have been using dropbox since the year it started, but these kind of functionality issues are becoming a dealbreaker for me. Almost twenty years down the road, there should be better file organization capabilities for a service whose sole purpose is to sync files. If this can't be properly addressed, I am going to have to look elsewhere for a Dropbox alternative (I already assigned someone on my team to research dropbox alternatives).
Rich
Super User II
2 years ago
Hannah wrote:

... it seems that this behavior is expected for shared folders that are not owned by the person trying to move them.

When did this change, and more importantly, why? It was never like that before as I've moved many shared folders that are owned by other people into a common Shared folder in my Dropbox.
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hi everyone, hope you’re all doing well.

Here’s what I could find, after checking with the team, as well; to move a shared folder into another shared folder, you must own the file or folder you’re moving and have edit access to the destination folder (also, mentioned here).

However, if the folder you want to move and the destination folder are owned by the same individual, you should be able to move the folder with no issues.
Claire W.3
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
Hi Nancy,
I appreciate the response, but this issue has nothing to do with moving a shared folder into a shared folder. It is about moving a shared folder into another normal parent folder that is not shared with anyone. Dropbox should allow this, regardless of who owns the shared folder. But Dropbox gives me an error every time I try to do it.
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Apologies for the misunderstanding, Claire W.3! My bad.

If the destination folder isn’t shared with anyone else, then this shouldn’t be happening.

Can you send me a screenshot of this folder’s icon, as it shows on your Dropbox account, so that I can take a look?
Matthew S.50
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago
I'm having the same problem, as of sometime during the past week or two. Can't move a folder owned by someone else into a new top-level folder owned by me and shared with nobody.

I get the message "Ask the owner to move this folder. [Name] owns [foldername] and can move it." As if [Name] could somehow move it around within my dropbox folder structure...?

Clearly a bug, and not something that's working as intended, given that the error message suggests something that isn't possible.
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
HI Matthew S.50, could you clarify exactly the structure of the folders you're mentioning?

Are they a team folder, shared folder, or a subfolder in either of these locations? Is this a Dropbox Business team or a personal account? Are you a team admin on the team, or a member? Is the owner a team admin?