I'm facing some problems when trying to stop sharing several folders I'm the owner. The share icon is present, but I am the only member of this folder. I understand that until I remove myself from the shared folder, it will remains shared; however, I can neither find the option to remove myself from the folder nor the option to "unshare folder". What should I do?? It seems that the issue of unsharing folders is very common on this forum, perhaps indicating that this feature isn't as easy to use as the Dropbox team thinks, or the documentation is not explicit as it should be.

I have the exact same problem here. Should I make a separate support request or is there a more expeditious way to bump this up to 'bug' status?

I am having exactly this same problem. The folders where the "unshare" button does not appear are both folders where 1) I am the owner; 2) there are no nested shared folders; and 3) the folders themselves are not nested within shared folders. I have tried dropbox support to no avail (they repeatedly asked me to do things I had already clearly told them I had already done, asked me to repeat information about 3 or 4 times, and then marked the ticket as "solved" despite never addressing my issue at all). (Beyond this issue, allowing us to share folders within shared folders, but then never able to unshare either folder again in future, is horrible design and something that every user should be warned about BEFORE they share any folder within a shared folder. I recently had to redo my dropbox and lost literally dozens of hours of my time "unsharing" folders because every time I had to 1) click every single subfolder of a subfolder of a subfolder of a subfolder subfolder in a series of thousands of nested files to find the shared ones (there is no way for dropbox to tell you which subfolder is the problem preventing unsharing); 2) drag the child folder elsewhere, completely destroying my folder structure, and wait minutes or hours for it to sync completely; 3) note down by hand where the folder goes back to when I am done so that I don't lose track; 4) unshare the child folder in its new temporary location, waiting minutes or hours for this change to fully sync; 5) drag that child folder back to its original location, waiting minutes or hours for it to fully sync. And then even after doing all of that, dropbox would often duplicate the folder so that I now had two separate (complete? incomplete? identical? one with missing files? no way to tell!) identically named folders, one in the "new" (original) location, and one in the place I had temporarily dragged it to in order to unshare it--so then I had to manually delete this duplicate copy and hope I had not lost any files in the process. This is a complete and total disaster--a huge waste of my time, and now I have no idea if all my files made it back to where they belong, or got lost during the copy process. This process is equally bad whether using the desktop app, the mobile app, or the online web interface inside the browser [I tried them all]. I am now seriously thinking, after almost two decades as a dropbox user, of jumping ship to another platform.)

Hi Mark. That's the problem, there is no "Unshare Folder" at the bottom of the popup. I still didn't understand quite well how shared folders work in Dropbox. That "Unshare Folder" option you mention, I see it in some folders, but some other times I don't even tho the folder is shared (with the 2 people icon), and that's why I'm saying that Dropbox should explain better how shared folders work. What are my options to unshare a shared folder with no "unshare folder" option?

The link "unshare folder" is missing.I have unshared all users one by one but I cannot unshare the folder itself

The unshare link does not appear in the desktop appThe unshare link does not appear in the ChromeThe unshare link does not appear in the Edge as well

I don't see the option to unshare a folder, even though I'm the owner

46 Replies

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Mark
Super User II
2 years ago
You can unshare it without you leaving - unsharing does that.

Go to the folder, click on 'Share Folder', then click Settings and tap 'Unshare Folder' at the bottom of the popup.
luispedroferreira
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
Hi Mark. That's the problem, there is no "Unshare Folder" at the bottom of the popup. I still didn't understand quite well how shared folders work in Dropbox. That "Unshare Folder" option you mention, I see it in some folders, but some other times I don't even tho the folder is shared (with the 2 people icon), and that's why I'm saying that Dropbox should explain better how shared folders work.

What are my options to unshare a shared folder with no "unshare folder" option?
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hi from me too, luispedroferreira. “Shared”, in this case, is mostly referring to the status of a folder vs “unshared”. So, even if you can only access a shared folder and no one else, it still remains shared until its status has been changed and it’s been unshared by the owner (in this scenario you).

Since you’re still not seeing the Unshare button though, can you send me a screenshot of the options you’re getting on your end, so that I can have a look?
ilanalter
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
The link "unshare folder" is missing.
I have unshared all users one by one but I cannot unshare the folder itself
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
ilanalter, is this folder located within another shared folder perhaps? If yes, are you able to unshare the parent folder?

Are you seeing the same thing on different browsers?
ilanalter
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
NO - this is the parent folder
To make it clear - I have 2 folders in the same location
OA-XXX and OY-YYY - One of them I can Unshare and the second one I cannot Unshare
ilanalter
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
The unshare link does not appear in the desktop app
The unshare link does not appear in the Chrome
The unshare link does not appear in the Edge as well
Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hey ilanalter, it might sound trivial, but if you check the folder's members are you certain that you're the owner there?

I know that in the screenshot you sent it says you are, but I just want to double-check.
ilanalter
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
I am certain that I am the owner there
ilanalter
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago
See above - There are more people complaining on the same issue....
Dropbox - you hava a bug!