For the last couple of days, whenever I have saved a Photoshop or an Illustrator document to Dropbox, I have received a pop-up message right afterwards that says: "Remove "name of document" from your Dropbox account and all devices? If you move this file to $Deleted, it won't be available in Dropbox or on any devices." I want to know how 'save' is being translated into 'delete'. I don't feel comfortable saving to Dropbox now, because I don't want to lose what I'm working on. Yes, I click on Cancel, but I have no guarantee that this will work every time (after all, I'm saving the documents and I'm getting "do you want to delete"). Does it possibly have anything to do with Dropbox telling me it will take 2 days for my files to sync? (BTW, I have the fastest internet I can buy and have checked the "Don't Limit" bandwidth option on my desktop. On my laptops, I have "Limit to" checked and put in a huge number just so I can get a couple kb Word doc to upload in under a day. I've been fighting this poor upload speed for months, and find it very frustrating since I don't have this difficulty with any other service I subscribe to).

I'm going to add my two cents just to bump up this issue again. I think Jerry is exactly right, it has to do with apps that are creating temporary files and sqlite files, etc. I'm using FL Studio (a music production app) and I recently moved one of my folders into my dropbox directory. The app creates temporary files and when it's done it deletes files and renames them all without the user being aware of it. And dropbox is freaking out over this, giving me this same error message. I checked and indeed my files *are* present, so at least I'm not losing them -- SO FAR. But Dropbox needs to work on this -- test with FL Studio, Photoshop, other "big" apps that do this kind of thing -- and find a way to (a) prevent the annoying error message and (b) *NOT* lose any actual files, and (c) *preferably* not upload and track the temporary files. I'm a software dev by day, so I know how this works, and it's not that difficult: Unit test with these apps I mentioned above, and make sure the QA/test team does the same. Please?

Hello! This is a screenshot of the message: [IMAGE LINK IS BROKEN AND CANNOT BE DISPLAYED] I am using Dropbox v88.4.172 on all my devices. Thank you. dimalique

I can't help feeling that none of the Dropbox folks who have addressed this thread truly understand what users are reporting. The file giving the funny message is probably not the file the user is editing. It's probably a temporary file created by and then deleted by a third party app. So it's not a file that the users even see, but it generates the message. But that's not the only scenario. Another scenario seems to be a File>Save kind of operation where Dropbox sees (or thinks it sees) a delete followed immediately by the creation of a new file with the same name. Finally there is a third symptom where third party software is using a database file - NOT A SEQUENTIAL FILE - as a temporary work file. In my case, I have three totally unrelated third party apps, each of which uses an SQLite file in this manner. Dropbox will try to backup the file while it's in use. Even though Dropbox is only reading the file, the fact that Dropbox is reading the file (or maybe the way that Dropbox is reading the file) seems to prevent the third party app from writing the file when it needs to do so, thereby causing the third party app to crash. This is totally unacceptable. At least one Dropbox competitor, namely OneDrive, appears to have solved this problem. All of these problems have in common that they can be solved by pausing Dropbox while the user is working and resuming Dropbox after user completes processing. Users should not have to do that. Rather, Dropbox should take measures to deal with these problems in such a way that Dropbox's operation is transparent to the user instead of creating bogus error messages or crashing third party apps. Dropbox didn't used to do these things. I can only suspect that Dropbox has been "improved" by being made "smarter" and now Dropbox is too clever for its own good. Another "too smart for it's own good" thing is that RM follows file renames when I think it shouldn't. I often rename a file to make a historical, point-in-time backup and then I make a new copy of the file with the original name. This seems to wreak havoc with Dropbox's logic to provide the version history for a file. I probably should copy the file instead of renaming it, but renaming it seems so much more natural and is so much easier.Jerry Bryan

Hey dimalique, thanks for reporting. Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Can you post a screenshot of the error message you described please? I will also need to know what version of Dropbox you have installed on the device giving you the error. Thank you!

Hi! I just want to see if I have this right. When I open an Adobe file from my Dropbox folder on my local machine, make changes, and press save, Dropbox believes I'm dragging that file out of the local Dropbox folder and wants to delete it from all other folders? I'm not changing the folder in which I am saving the document. I'm simply saving the changes I have made to the file itself.dimalique

Dropbox asks if I want to remove a document right after I save it

53 Replies

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Fiona
Dropbox Staff
6 years ago
Hey dimalique, thanks for reporting.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Can you post a screenshot of the error message you described please?

I will also need to know what version of Dropbox you have installed on the device giving you the error.

Thank you!
dimalique
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago
Hello! This is a screenshot of the message:

[IMAGE LINK IS BROKEN AND CANNOT BE DISPLAYED]

I am using Dropbox v88.4.172 on all my devices.

Thank you.

dimalique
Fiona
Dropbox Staff
6 years ago
I understand what is going on now! :slight_smile:

Thanks for posting this screenshot Dimalique.

So, this message is a security notification that informs you, that dragging a file out of the local Dropbox folder, will sync as a deletion of this file for all of your devices and the Dropbox cloud.

The file will still exist in the location that you will drop it. Outside of Dropbox. Did you try to move this file out of your local Dropbox folder?

Get back to me with any questions or concerns.
dimalique
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago
Hi! I just want to see if I have this right. When I open an Adobe file from my Dropbox folder on my local machine, make changes, and press save, Dropbox believes I'm dragging that file out of the local Dropbox folder and wants to delete it from all other folders? I'm not changing the folder in which I am saving the document. I'm simply saving the changes I have made to the file itself.
dimalique
Fiona
Dropbox Staff
6 years ago
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought you were moving the file out to edit it for some reason.:hear_no_evil:

This is an unexpected behavior that I really want to investigate and help with. Sending you an email right now. If you can record a screenscast for me, I would be grateful.

To create a screencast on Windows please follow the steps below:
1. Open “Problem Steps Recorder” by clicking the Start button and then typing psr.
2. Click Start Record and replicate the steps to show your problem
3. Once you’ve replicated the steps, click Stop Record
4. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save (the file is saved with the .zip file name extension)

Thank you for your patience. We'll get to the bottom of this.
dimalique
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago
OK. Will send this as soon as I can.
dimalique
dbhvp
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago
Since 88.4.172 I get continuous file access problems. Is anyone else having the problem?
Detail, I have a build programs in a directory in my dropbox. Previously this has not been a problem.
But since 88.4.172 istalled yesterday, if I click Build before it has finished uploading last changes I get errors from the build system - "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" and from Dropbox - "Remove [filename] from your Dropbox account and all devices? ...". The build one even happes after Dropbox has uploaed changes.
It's very disruptive & annoying, at this stage I have to run with dropbox paused.
Fiona
Dropbox Staff
6 years ago
Hello dbhvp. Thanks for reporting.

Merge your topic here, because I believe you are reporting the same issue.

Let me know if the error message in this thread is the error message you are getting and if you specifically get this with a specific file type, or all your files.

You don't get the error if the Dropbox desktop application is not working. Correct?

Thank you!
dbhvp
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago
Yes, looks like the same error.
the .ilk file mentioned is updated with each build.
At the same time the build system says
C:\Users\david\Dropbox\Current\SoDSI\ScanSort\RapidKRLB\MainWindow.cpp:-1: error: C1083: Cannot open compiler generated file: 'C:\Users\david\Dropbox\Current\SoDSI\ScanSort\RapidKRLB\debug\RapidKRLB.ilk: Permission denied
dbhvp
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago
PS Several file types *.obj, *.ilk, *.pdb - all the ones (re)generated by the build system, but not all of them every time, just one or two.

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Dropbox asks if I want to remove a document right after I save it

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