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Adam L.4's avatar
Adam L.4
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
Solved

Deleted folders keep reappearing

I'm hoping someone can help with this problem. I have been using Dropbox for a few years across a number of devices (2 desktop Macs, a laptop, an iPhone and an iPad). This last week, when I try to de...
Delete
sync
  • DaveC2's avatar
    DaveC2
    11 years ago

    The web interface should only recreate the folder if a device connected instructs it to.

    So one of your devices must not be selectively synced, or has some greater issue.

    (1) Check each device to see if the folder is present on the device, and remove it. If it comes back its not that device that ordered it created. If it wont delete then thats the device that cant delete it so orders it recreated. Fix that device.

    (2) Failing that, take all devices off line, delete the folder via the web, then bring devices online one by one, and watch for the folder being created, when it is, it was the device you just brought online.

     

tsp's avatar
tsp
Explorer | Level 4
9 years ago

Would be nice if one of the staff members could say something about this issue.

My main problem was dragging files from the internet browser to my dropbox – mostly .weblog or image-files which contains a character like «|» or «:».

What makes this really bad is that the Dropbox App does not complain. If I sync a folder which contains files with bad characters (which somehow were uploaded to Dropbox anyway) the folder on my Mac looks like it was empty, the green iocn symbolizes that it is synced correctly and that there are no files left to be synced. I deleted a lot of these empty folders from my Dropbox, so I deleted a lot of my files accidentally, because on my computer it showed up as empty, but in reality the folder was not empty.

 

DROPBOX TEAM: This is serious!!

 

If it where not for selective syncing and tag-support I would leave Dropbox because of this now.

tsp's avatar
tsp
Explorer | Level 4
9 years ago

For others – this seems to work:

 

- Go to Dropbox Bad Files Check

- Manually rename all reported files on the Dropbox website

- Check again if all errors have been corrected

 

This is a tedious process when you have thousands of bad files. So prepare for hours of manual renaming :(

  • tsp's avatar
    tsp
    Explorer | Level 4
    9 years ago

    I just noticed that even after I renamed all files listed in the bad-filename-checker on the Dropbox website the folders still show up empty in macOS Finder, but with a green mark that they are synced. The green synced-indicator-icons cannot be trusted anymore :(

     

    I just tried to contact the support, when I clicked on «Send» a new page showed up where I can enter a question – I have no idea if my support ticket made it to the developers or not. Really bad usability here. I fear all the text I wrote is lost.

     

    So disappointed in Dropbox!

     

    • AmosMoses's avatar
      AmosMoses
      Explorer | Level 4
      9 years ago

      Hi TSP.

       

      Have you tried Dave C.2'sreply on the first page?

      1.

    • AmosMoses's avatar
      AmosMoses
      Explorer | Level 4
      9 years ago

      Hi TSP.

       

      Have you tried Dave C.2's reply on the first page?  He added a file to the folder to delete it.  Someone else suggested that there may be some previous versions of a file in a folder stopping it being deleted. 

       

      I hope this helps you. 

       

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