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luispedroferreira
2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I don't see the option to unshare a folder, even though I'm the owner
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.
46 Replies
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- JSLK-2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
As seen - only me, as owner. Else completly empty..
- Walter2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
And what options do you get when you click on the cogwheel or the 'settings' options shown in your screenshot JSLK- ?
Have you tried deleting the folder by the way?
- JSLK-2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
The seetings option I get - is the one I already have uploaded - and that is missing the "unshare link".
Deleting the folder is just removing me as member. The folder is still there, as shown belowe.
There is clearly an error - please correct!
- Megan2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
At that point, can I send you an email in order for us to have a closer look into this JSLK-?
- JSLK-2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Yes - just sent to the account email - I have access to the inbox.
- Megan2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
I just sent you the email, I'll see you there JSLK-!
- arktis2 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Hi, I have exactly the same problem as you. Did you manage to find a solution to this? Many thanks.
- Megan2 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey arktis, I hope you're doing well!
Have you checked my message here? If you’re trying to unshare a shared folder and the unshare button isn’t present, then there is a chance that the folder is or contains a nested shared folder.
In these cases, it isn’t possible to unshare the shared folder, without first moving the nested shared folder(s) out of the folder tree.
Have you checked to make sure this isn't the case?
Let me know more, and we'll take it from there!
- Claire W.311 months agoHelpful | Level 6
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.)
- Hannah11 months ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
We really appreciate your feedback here, Claire W.3. Rest assured that your comments will be passed along to our team.
Can you also please give us the ticket number to your communication with our support team?
Thanks in advance.
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