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getho
3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
You removed your access to the shared folder
Dropbox event > you removed your access to the shared folder.
I didn't. I took screen shots to prove it was a shared folder, owned by me.
I added a test folder online
Moments later dropbox sent a notification that one of the folders in that folder had been deleted. It hadn't. It was still there, both online and locally.
I checked events and saw that access had been removed. Sure enough the folder had lost its share icon locally and permission online were "only you"
Trying to get this sorted via chat and tickets, but I'm continually getting the "you must be holding it wrong" level of tech support. Its maddening.
Last week I booted the PC with the drive containing the dropbox folder offline. Since then it's been a total nightmare. I'm not saying its cause, but its correlated. If that is the cause, dropbox needs some robustness added to it's systems.
Why Am I losing these shares? Is there a way to restore it? Many of my clients are not tech-savvy. I literally had to install and configure dropbox at their premises. This isn't a small problem, its going to cost me days of faff.
24 Replies
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- Rich3 years ago
Super User II
getho wrote:
Dropbox event > you removed your access to the shared folder.
I didn't.Are you the owner of the shared folder? If not, your access may have been removed by the owner of the folder and the message you see would still say that you removed your access. You may be able to rejoin the folder from your Sharing page. If not, you would need to contact the owner and ask to be re-invited.
Last week I booted the PC with the drive containing the dropbox folder offline. Since then it's been a total nightmare.And this is the exact reason why it's strongly not recommended to store the Dropbox folder on an external or removable drive. If the drive is disconnected while Dropbox is running or if Dropbox is started before the drive is connected, data loss can occur. Dropbox could read it as a mass deletion which it would start to sync to your account online. Dropbox was simply not meant to be stored on a removable drive.
I'm guessing that this was the cause. Dropbox was started without the drive so it couldn't see your files, thought they were deleted and started to sync that change to the cloud. Your shared folder was likely one of those folders deleted which could result in you removing your own access to the folder.
Is the share still in your account online? If not, is it still available on your Sharing page?
- Megan3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi getho, sorry to hear about that!
If you check your Sharing page for this particular folder, can you locate it there? If you're unable to, then I'd suggest contacting another member (or another one) of the folder in question and have them re-invite you, so you can get access to them.
You mentioned you've contacted our Support too. Can I ask for a ticket number reference if you have one?
Keep me posted!
- getho3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Ticket #21958395
you'll find more info there with screengrabs
Sharing page does not show anything unshared for that date
If my client shares the folder with me wont they then be the owner of that folder? - getho3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I am the owner
the drive is not removable. I installed a new drive that hijacked the drive letter briefly
If the dropbox app can't deal with its folder being briefly unavailable then it's poorly written.The share has been removed online. It now says "only you". This 100% was not a change made by clients. Unless they all conspired to do it on the same day.
- getho3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
the most frustrating thing about this is being told "it must be something you've done", and failing to get any useful suggestions to fix it. What about rolling back the entire dropbox? Restoring permissions? Resetting the local dropbox settings/cache/ whatever so that it stops sending spurious messages to the cloud. There must be someone there with the technical knowledge to at least make vaguely helpful gestures.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Sorry to jump in here, getho.
If you didn't manually remove your access, then I think Rich is on to something here.
If you were the owner of the folder (owner is the person who initially created the folder, not someone who just adds files to it), then the other members wouldn't be able to remove you from it.
So, if you didn't manually do it, it must have something to do with storing Dropbox on an external drive.
If the folder is still in your account online, simply re-share it with the other members and you should be good to go.
- getho3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
What part of "it's not on an external drive" was hard to understand? I'm sorry but the level of support from dropbox is infuriating. This will happen with every folder in dropbox. "simply sharing it" is going to waste me days of time.
to quote myself:
What about rolling back the entire dropbox? Restoring permissions? Resetting the local dropbox settings/cache/ whatever so that it stops sending spurious messages to the cloud. There must be someone there with the technical knowledge to at least make vaguely helpful gestures. - Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
My apologies, getho, I must have missed that in your reply, sorry about that.
In any case, rolling the account or the folder back, won't restore the sharing permissions.
If someone removes their own access, or if the folder is unshared, or someone removes a member from the folder, the only way to regain access is for the owner to re-share the folder.
I hope this clarifies things.
- getho3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Nobody did any of those things. I feel like I've been repeating myself ad nauseam.
Something has *gone wrong*. It *is broken*.
To ask me to believe that this is user error, is to ask me to believe that disparate clients all decided to remove access at the same time.
It is not possible.Why does nobody at dropbox entertain the idea that there is an error here for one second.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
I do understand where you're coming from, getho and we definitely also want to help figure this out.
I also took another look at your ticket and I can see you're pursuing this over there as well.
Reaching out to our support team directly is the best way to go in this case, as they're the ones who have the means of accessing specific account info, so I'm sure they'll be able to clarify things 100%.
If you don't mind, once you know more, please come back to the thread to let us know what you found.
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