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Dropbox shares wrong folder
On two separate instances, I've had Dropbox share the wrong folder to someone. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I'm doing something wrong. Here's what's happening:
- I have several clients with whom I share items via their own separate share folders. These are stored in a folder called "Clients-Shared."
- For new clients, I usually set up their folder within my Mac and then share it via Dropbox on my Web browser (Mac Firefox, always latest version).
- In the browser view, I click into the Clients-Shared folder to browse the list of subfolders within it. I then click to highlight (but not open) the folder I want to share (which is usually a new folder I've just created) and go through the prompts to share the folder with the new person.
- Normally, that works fine, but on two different occasions, Dropbox has added the person to the wrong folder.
- The first time, it added the new client to the entire Clients-Shared folder.
- The second time, it added a different new client to another person's share folder within the Clients-Shared folder, at the same level as the one I was trying to share.
- Here's why I don't think user error is likely (though of course anything is possible).
- The first time, the folder I thought I was selecting and the one Dropbox sent were at completely different levels. How could I inadvertently thought I was sending permissions for a file that wasn't even on the list of the ones I was browsing — they were all within it?
- The second time, the folder I selected was at the bottom of the list and the other one it substituted was at the top. They were not close together. It is not likely that I clicked on the "share" icon for the file at the top instead of the bottom.
- I always just click to highlight the file, then select the permissions info on the same line as the file name. I don't "click into" the file to share from it. So I can always see the big picture hierarchy and where my cursor is when I'm clicking/sharing.
Is there any other way I could be making this error myself? After the first issue, I am pretty careful when sharing files so it's not because I'm just not paying attention. That's why I am wondering if it's a bug.
4 Replies
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- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey astuterooster, thanks for reaching out to our Community.
This does sound like a strange issue both in the case of human error and Dropbox error.
To be honest, there's really no way of seeing why this happened, but if you notice this happening again, perhaps you can take some screenshots, or even better a screen recording of it, so our team can investigate further.
Does opening the folder and sharing it from within, instead of just selecting it, help?
Let me know.
I'm having the exact same problem right now.
And I think I figured out what caused it for me - I was looking for a shared folder using Apple's Finder search, and using the results to drop files in and create a link. I'd get a link to the wrong folder this way, and files would end up in the wrong folder.
When I went directly to the folder, and dropped the files in, they were in the right place and I could create a link that actually linked to the correct folder.
Maybe an OS / directory bug?I've been watching for this to happen again and it hasn't for me, though I've been doing everything the same (Hannah, no, I don't open and share from within—it sounds maybe more complicated than my method). However, when I had the issue, I was working via my browser and shared the folder that way. So it wouldn't have been an OS issue for me. However, the reason I use the browser is because the last time I shared a folder via my client finder folder vs. browser, it shared the folder one step above in the hierarchy vs. the folder within that, which I was trying to share. This accidentally gave my client access to other clients' folders—agh! So I never share via Apple Finder anymore after that.
