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Hundreds of "Selective Sync conflict" folders created in my Dropbox folder
MacBook Pro M1 16" 2021
Dropbox version 230.4.8797
"Everything is up to date"
This was most likely triggered by recently using an old computer that hasn’t been used for a while. But regardless of that, I don't understand why Dropbox would create empty copies of online-only folders on my (current) machine.
The most obnoxious thing is that they've been created at the top level, so new copies of folders that should be nicely tidied away in multiple sub-folders are suddenly mixed in with actual top level folders (that have content in them).
Please tell me I can just delete them since they’re all EMPTY. Obviously, if this will affect the online copies (specifically their actual contents), that’s not acceptable and I need to find another solution. Preferably one that doesn't involve going into each of these folders online.
Thanks folks.
Hey SC A., thanks for reaching out to our community and sorry to hear about your issue.
Generally, selective sync conflicts happen when you've removed folders from your Dropbox folder with selective sync and then you create new folders with the same names in the same location the original folders were in.
Nonetheless, your files are safe, so as long as your Dropbox app is "up to date", you can simply delete the selective sync conflict folders, especially if they're empty.
Just make sure that you check all selective sync conflict folders for any files you might need before deleting them.
You can read more about this situation and how to resolve it here.
Let me know if you have any questions!
4 Replies
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- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey SC A., thanks for reaching out to our community and sorry to hear about your issue.
Generally, selective sync conflicts happen when you've removed folders from your Dropbox folder with selective sync and then you create new folders with the same names in the same location the original folders were in.
Nonetheless, your files are safe, so as long as your Dropbox app is "up to date", you can simply delete the selective sync conflict folders, especially if they're empty.
Just make sure that you check all selective sync conflict folders for any files you might need before deleting them.
You can read more about this situation and how to resolve it here.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Hi Hannah --
sounds good, thanks! I did find that page, but "Consolidate the files you need from both folders into one of the folders" gave me pause. I’ll go ahead and delete. ...Maybe I’ll back up my machine first, lol.
For anyone else on a Mac with this problem, one tip: if you open a new finder window in list view (Cmd-2) from one of the Selective Sync Conflict folders, then select the top-most folder, hit option-right arrow. That's the shortcut to open ALL of the subfolders, so you can make sure they’re all empty.
👍
- Theresa
Community Manager
Hi there SC A. and welcome back to the Dropbox Community. I’m so pleased to hear everything’s running smoothly again. And thank you so much for coming back to share your update. Posts like yours are what help make this community such a valuable space for everyone 🤗.
By the way, I’m Theresa, one of the community managers here at Dropbox HQ 👩💻. Since you’ve been working through selective sync issues, I’d love to know... how do you typically use Dropbox in your day to day? Whether it’s for work, personal projects, or a bit of both, I’m always curious to hear how people are putting Dropbox to work in their lives.
Looking forward to hearing more,
T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)
