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How to delete files in Dropbox without deleting them from my hard drive
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I'm on a Windows 11 laptop, but can't find the dropbox version number but I assume i...
Rich
Super User II
Super User II... all the suggestions (move the folder from dropbox to your hard drive) will also result in deletion of my original folder on my laptop.
That won't result in the folder being deleted from your laptop. If you move a file or folder out of the Dropbox folder to another location on your local hard drive, such as Documents or Downloads, that file or folder will still be on your laptop. It just won't be in your Dropbox account anymore.
Now you may get a prompt that asks something along the lines of "Do you want to delete this file/folder from everywhere?" That doesn't mean the file or folder will be deleted from other locations on your laptop. What that message does a bad job of asking is if you want to delete the file or folder from all other devices that you may be syncing with. In other words, if you delete a file from your Dropbox folder, it will be deleted from the Dropbox folder on ALL devices you sync with, but not from other locations outside of the Dropbox folder.
That said, there is a supported way to do what you want without losing your files. Selective Sync.
That would be the opposite of what Lin wants. They want to remove the files from Dropbox while keeping them on their laptop. Simply moving the files out of the Dropbox folder to another location on the local drive will accomplish that.
