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I have folders that are only showing on my web account and not the Dropbox app on my Mac.
Hi,
I have existing folders in Dropbox that are not showing in my MAC Finder (OS 15.1 Sequoia). I have checked articles in this Help section, without success. The MBP is a few months old. I installed and configured access to my long-lived Dropbox Plus account. The lack of folder access and functionality has just been discovered, because some folders are not accessed frequently.
- The Dropbox icon on my MBP Menu Bar confirms that Dropbox is up to date.
- When logged into my Chrome browser's Dropbox tab there is an icon (to the far right, just before the '...' More option, which is greyed-out. Where this icon is available for other folders, a hover-over says "Open Folder in Finder".
- My default Browser (Chrome) shows all my Dropbox Folders & Files (both Online & Offline).
- The MBP Finder App in Locations \ Dropbox, only shows a subset of all the folders (both Online & Offline) that can be seen in my browser ; the folders are the same ones that also have a greyed-out icon that permits the "Open Folder in Finder" action in my Browser.
Likely my lack of understanding is the nub of the problem here, but am struggling to make good.
I have existing folders in Dropbox that are not showing in my MAC Finder
You likely have some folders unchecked in your Selective Sync settings. Unchecking a folder removes it from your local drive so that it only exists in your account online.
Go into Selective Sync in Preferences and make sure all of these folders are checked.
6 Replies
- Rich
Super User II
I have existing folders in Dropbox that are not showing in my MAC Finder
You likely have some folders unchecked in your Selective Sync settings. Unchecking a folder removes it from your local drive so that it only exists in your account online.
Go into Selective Sync in Preferences and make sure all of these folders are checked.
Thanks Rich, but I could not see Selective Sync in Preferences, see my screenshot. It was not obvious to me that any scrolling was required
I have now found Selective Sync, which in itself uses ambiguous English, see partial screenshot:
Dropbox suggesting that Folder will "live" on this computer and unselected folders will "appear" only on Dropbox, suggests to me that checked folders will download and use this computer storage space; ie. "live" there.
In my simple mind, checked and unchecked folders actually "live" in the Dropbox cloud, and only "appear" on this computer until such time folders are made available off-line, ie. downloaded and "live" on this computer. Perhaps pass this viewpoint on.
Anyhoo, thank you for taking the time to reply and hopeyfully all sorted now
- T_theresa_A
Community Manager
Hi there 👋 and welcome to the Dropbox Community. Thanks so much for sharing how things turned out and letting us know what did the trick. That kind of follow-up really helps others who might be scratching their heads over the same issue – your input makes a big difference 🙌.
I’m Theresa 👩💻, one of the Community Managers here, and you’ll often see me exploring threads or dropping into conversations across the forum.
Since you’re clearly a Dropbox-savvy user, do you have a favourite feature that you find especially useful day to day? I’d love to hear what works best for you.
Looking forward to your reply,
T😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)
I had the same problem as Rich, except that all of my online folders were selected in Selective Sync and they still aren't all showing in my dropbox folder on my Mac. So I'm not able to access all of my dropbox folders directly from my finder window which I would like to do. Can you help please?
- Mark
What does Dropbox say if you mouse over its icon?
