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Forum Discussion
ang133
2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
How do I turn off Dropbox on the free account?
Dropbox is a monster. It's on my desktop and every file goes through it. But when I click on it there are no files in it. I somehow managed to get it not to add files to the online app because I was ...
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years agoHey ang133, are you perhaps referring to files that you had in the Desktop, Downloads, Documents folders of your computer?
If so, you might have enabled our computer backup feature.
Do you see your desktop files on this page?
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years agoHey there ang133 - sorry to jump in, but I just wanted to mention a couple of things here at this point.
Your previous screenshot shows the Dropbox cache folder on your computer - this is not your Dropbox folder where your account's files are stored and is normally hidden.
The second thing I noticed is the date on the files that are located there. Based on those dates, it seems that you might have deleted those files back in last June so if you're unable to restore them from the cache folder, I'm afraid we won't be able to help much since the files were deleted from our servers so long ago.
When it comes to your computer's Downloads and Documents folders, could you take a look at their whole folder paths and let us know if Dropbox is included?
- ang1332 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Here's what happens when I download or save a file--it will revert to desktop/dropbox/file--so it goes through that open file icon. But then I like to drop down to "This PC" and either go to my downloads file--if it's a download, or save it to one of my document files. I'm just trying to circumvent dropbox--but it's not really doing that. On June 16, 2023 I tried to find my deleted files online at dropbox but nothing was there. Nor were they in the recycle folder on my desktop. They are somewhere on my harddrive, but in such a damaged state that a program I bought to find them couldn't open them.
- Walter2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Could you maybe send us a couple of screenshots of what you mentioned in your first sentences so that we can have a visual too ang133?
Also, is the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer at the moment? If so, what is its exact status and version as shown in your system tray?
- ang1332 years agoExplorer | Level 4
It It does not appear on the tray. It only appears in the apps section of my system. Why it has the February date 2024 I don't know.
- ang1332 years agoExplorer | Level 4
The file addresses are what everything defaults to--it goes through the dropbox icon on the desktop--the open file one.
- Walter2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for the screenshots ang133
So it seems that the desktop app is not running at the moment on your computer. Could you please right click on the Documents folder and check its properties and let me know if you're able to fix the folder path from there?
- ang1332 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I can fix the path to bypass the desktop dropbox--but if I go back and check the dropbox path, even if I fix the path, it will end up in the dropbox file. If I delete the open file on the desktop labeled "dropbox" it will delete all my files.
- Megan2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi ang133, if you made sure the app is running, then I'd suggest you follow these specific steps, in order to reset your OS' paths (Downloads & Documents), back to their original location.
Once you do that, your content should return to where it originally was.
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