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I can't delete a locked shared folder on my Mac device, which I've been removed by the owner
Hi, I have a shared folder in my mac dropbox that is locked by the person who shared it with me. Some time ago I asked him to remove me from the shared list which he did however I am unable to delete the folder from my dropbox app on my mac.
The folder is not in my dropbox online or on my iPhone or iPad, only on my MacBook. The file won't sync; consequently, the dropbox app won't upgrade or update. It is always trying to sync this locked folder. I've tried following the instructions on deleting a shared folder by holding the option key down while deleting from the finder but the option to delete is greyed out. Any help is greatly appreciated. If I can't get this resolved I'm ready to dump dropbox and move to another provider.
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Hi @owunsch, Megan was the support person I dealt with and was very helpful. She hooked me up with a senior tech named Craig who resolved the issue for me. In an earlier post, you asked me to post the terminal directions I was given but I'm not going to do this, it's pretty easy to screw things up by loading that kind of info if it's not related to your issue. I'm very sure that the support you're about to receive will resolve your issue. Good luck.
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi owunsch, thanks for letting me know!
And that folder is still within your Dropbox folder, right? Is the app's syncing status up to date?
- Yes, it’s still in the Dropbox folder on my computer. The sync is up to date except there is an error for that one folder saying it can’t sync.
It's in my Home folder. There is no CloudStorage folder on this machine. In fact, I tried to update to Dropbox for Mac on File Provider, but I got a message saying that I couldn't do the update because there were still files waiting to sync (Dropbox keeps trying to sync this shared folder).
- Jay
Thanks for the info. Could you try fixing the permissions of the files in your Dropbox folder by following these steps:
1. Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
- Click on the Dropbox icon.
- Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
2. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3. Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER. You'll know that these instructions complete normally once the initial line of text (called prompt) comes up again:
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
Please note that once the prompt displays, the instruction completed the requested task, and is ready for the next command. If the command returns an error, or does not respond after an hour, you may want to try restarting your computer and try these steps again.
If you have any questions before you do this, or if you see an error after running one of these commands, please let me know.
4. Restart Dropbox from Applications
Keep me updated with any progress.
It worked! Thanks so much for the help.
- Jay
No worries, glad to have helped out!
Hello, I am having this identical issue. Shared dropbox folder is locked and removing myself from sharing, uninstalling the app, re-logging in, and everything else mentioned in this thread haven't worked. I just tried this code in the terminal and am getting an error after entering my password:
"[my username] is not in the sudoers file.
This incident has been reported to the administrator."
There might be a block from my organization from entering these codes? But when I brought my computer to our IT department they couldnt seem to help with this problem. Do you have any other workarounds to this problem? Thanks for the help!
- Nancy
Sorry to hear the same thing’s happening to you, Kimberly5111.
Do you mind sending a screenshot of how this folder appears within your Dropbox folder, and what you see exactly when trying to delete it?
Also, out of curiosity, are you able to delete the files that are stored within?
