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Forum Discussion
JOfE
5 years agoExperienced | Level 11
Folder showing a Share Icon
Why do some folders in Dropbox.com show a sharing icon when the folder is not shared? I am refering to the sharing icon visible on dropbox.com not on the computer version. See the screenshot. ...
Daphne
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years agoHey JOfE!
Could you just check for me, if you select one of these folders and choose the "Share" option, and then click the gear icon in the top right corner, do you see an option to "Unshare folder" in the bottom left of the window?
Could you just check for me, if you select one of these folders and choose the "Share" option, and then click the gear icon in the top right corner, do you see an option to "Unshare folder" in the bottom left of the window?
JOfE
5 years agoExperienced | Level 11
I do. So strange. There was an "unshare folder" option on the bottom left. It unshared the folder (from no one) and the icon returned to blank.
Daphneyou just saved me a LOT of time! Thank you!!
- Daphne5 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
I'm happy to hear that helped JOfE!
Since you mentioned never sharing the folders, if you created them via the website, is it possible you chose to create a new shared folder rather than a normal folder?
Otherwise, I'm quite stumped as to why they appear as a shared folder if you never chose to share them with others.- JOfE5 years agoExperienced | Level 11
I actually think these folders were originally created in a TEAM folder and then at later date moved out to a private folder.
This 'bug' creates a few problems for a business team moving shared files in this way.
We are literally going through thousands of folders and finding hundreds of 'shared' folders like this in our account. We are able to find these problem folders only by syncing the entire business account to a drive. We can pinpoint the problem folders only by their larger than normal file size. Some are buried deep in video file bundles.
A few months ago we notice that some of our dropbox files were not showing ZERO file numbers. We created a ticket with Dropbox tech support to address this issue. It has been 2 months of back and forth and no solution.
Your insight Daphne that the folders are somehow 'shared' and showing a shared icon, I believe, is the key to that problem. We notice that 'unsharing' an unshared folder resulted in the file size being to reset to zero. So good for you @Daphne. You solved a problem the techs could not.
I also noticed you can "unshare" any individual file in Dropbox in the way you described (Share, top-right gear icon, bottom left "unshare") ad Infinitum.
None of us here are impressed by this bug in dropbox and the work it has created for us.
We are also finding files that show a 'shared icon' but are apparently shared with no one.
Happily, your fix Daphne works on these stranded folders also.
- Daphne5 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Apologies for the inconvenience you're having with this JOfE.
Would you mind sharing the ticket number (eg. #1234567) for your case with our Support team with me, so that I can check on this from my side?
Also, in the meantime, perhaps checking from your share tab here to locate the "shared" folders will help with this.
If you're not sure what/where the folder is, you can click the name to open it in another tab, so you can see the contents and full folder path.
From there you can also click the "..." menu, where you'll see the "Share" option to be able to unshare the folder directly from there too.
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