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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 delete a folder it reappears a moment later. If I move it into another folder, the same thing happens. I have checked and all my other devices are switched off or not trying to sync while I am doing this. Any advice on how to stop it?
Thanks!
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.
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I think I finally figured this out for my situation. My folders had brackets [ ] around it so it appeared at the top of my folders list on my PC. Once I removed the brackets and had no special characters in the folder name it deleted fine. Hopefully it sticks.
@maxfactor's solution solved it for me:
The problem was that the folder on Dropbox (web) contained a file that not existed in the folder on my pc (because of an old selective sync).
I have manually deleted that file from the web and then I have succesfully deleted the folder from the pc (without it being reappeared).
- Sure "Selective Sync" is giving trouble.. Go to the Dropbox icon in your Taskbar and open it up. Top right you'll find the little cog-wheel. Go to Preferences and open up the second tab: Account. Find the "Selective synchronisation" box . You'll see a list of Folders with tickboxes. Untick the "naughty" box for the folder that keeps reappearing even though empty. Apply and go back to your local or web interface and remove the "naughty" box. Ready and done!!
- ...and do not forget to remove the folder from ALL your fixed or mobile devices as it will otherwise stay there "unsynced" forever.
- This did not work for my case. Deleted all the old devices and the files still kept reappearing.
- Didn't work on mine. Nothing has worked
- Worked for me! Thanks, it was driving me crazy, that file had been in the wrong place for 2 months.
- Zed
Dropbox Staff
Hello everyone,
Though rare, occasionally old or deleted files may reappear in your Dropbox. If this is the case, we can roll back your account to the point before this event occurred, or undo the individual addition events.
- To roll back your entire account, please carefully follow the instructions in this earlier section of the article
- To undo individual addition events, please carefully follow the instructions in this article
Otherwise, you can simply review those reappearing files and remove them from your Dropbox by navigating to the website and delete them.
if you have files on your Dropbox but you do not want them to appear on your Computer or some folder re appear on your device, you can review your Selective Sync settings.
Please review this Help Center article regarding missing, reappearing and corrupted files and in case none of the options help you, so that our support team can investigate more on this, please go to www.dropbox.com/support and submit a ticket request.
Thank you! I moved a lot of files and folders around and now empty folders are popping up everywhere. I just spend hours trying to fix this. Tried all the suggestions in the comments before, nothing worked.
I’m on macOS 10.12, with latest Dropbox installed.
This problem is super annoying, I am thinking about switching my Dropbox Pro to an iCloud account, I just spend way too much time trying to fix this, which seems to be an existing error since 2015, so probably they won’t fix it quickly.
Edit:
I just noticed, that the folder showed up with a green check mark on my local Dropbox folder, but in the cloud it contains files, I guess this is the issue. So seems like I cannot trust the green check marks.
- Zed
Hey tsp,
It sounds like the syncing issues you are experiencing could be occuring bacause you may have symlinks in your Dropbox.
Please check this article out, scroll down to the Symlinks section and perfrorm the steps outlined in the article. If you keep experiencing issues, raise a ticket with our support team and they'll be more than happy to investigate and assist!
Thank you!
