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Shared folder not visible to shared user
The office where I work has a Dropbox business account with 2TB of storage available. That account is under the office manager's name. Folders in her account are shared to my personal account.
About a week ago, our largest (2.26. GB) records folder got moved to be a subfolder of another folder. I thought for a minute it had been deleted, but I found it and moved it back where it was as a top level folder. It now shows up online in Dropbox, and is still shared with my account, but it does not appear in my File Explorer list. The folders from my own Dropbox account and other folders shared with the office manager's account are there, but the big folder (and the one I use most often) is missing. A search for it in File Explorer comes up dry.
The only other clue I have that something might be sideways is that the Dropbox icon in my task tray has a red something showing over it. I'd be more detailed, but it's too small for me to make out. Here is a screencap:
In a pinch, I can always access files in the online folder via the web interface (logging onto Dropbox with the office manager's account), but I would much prefer to access files via File Explorer, as I have done for the past ten years or so.
I searched other posts on this forum before starting a new discussion.
I have tried rebooting the computer, re-installing the Dropbox app, sharing it again from the office manager's account, and ensuring that Dropbox is synced with the online files. I'm running Windows 11 Home and version 186.4.6207 of Dropbox.
In that case, could you check if this folder is listed in your sharing tab to add it back to your account copwriter?
Also, can you double check your selective sync settings for the folder in the app's preferences while logged into your personal account?
While we're at it, could you maybe navigate to your events page and try to restore the folder from there?
26 Replies
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- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi copwriter, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
The notification in your desktop appears to by an 8, meaning you have unread notifications in the desktop app. You can clear this by clicking the bell icon in the desktop app when you open that icon, and marking all as read.
Was the folder previously visible on your computer? Is it possible that the folder has incompatible characters for Windows, such as a : or | symbol in it?
This will help me to assist further!
Thank you for the quick reply.
>>The notification in your desktop appears to by an 8, meaning you have unread notifications in the desktop app. You can clear this by clicking the bell icon in the desktop app when you open that icon, and marking all as read.<<
I opened the desktop app and marked all unread messages as "read," but the red icon is still showing in the taskbar.
>>Was the folder previously visible on your computer? Is it possible that the folder has incompatible characters for Windows, such as a : or | symbol in it?<<
The folder name is "patient records" with no special characters. It was previously visible in File Explorer running on several desktop and laptop computers I use and have configured for me. The file names all follow the naming convention Lastname Firstname-file topic-yyyy-mm-dd. Most of the files are PDFs.
- Jay
Is it possible that the folder was moved to a folder not syncing to your machine due to selective sync?
If there isn't any personal info in the folder names, could you attach a screenshot showing the folder on the site (including the parent folder), and the location as it appears in Explorer?
>>Is it possible that the folder was moved to a folder not syncing to your machine due to selective sync?<<
The folder "patient records" was unintentionally moved to a subfolder of "Patient Tracking." I moved it back where it was. That's when it couldn't be viewed in File Explorer. "Patient tracking" is also a shared folder. It still appears in File Explorer.
>>If there isn't any personal info in the folder names, could you attach a screenshot showing the folder on the site (including the parent folder), and the location as it appears in Explorer?<<
Here is how the file list appears on the Dropbox website:
Here is how it looks in File Explorer:
Note that "patient tracking" shows up, while "patient records" doesn't.
Here is a shot of the folder as it appears on the Dropbox website. I had to redact some names for this one:
Let me know if there is any other information you need. I appreciate your attempts to help.
- Jay
It seems that the sync icons you have in the Dropbox folder aren't the same as the normal icons. You have some yellow icons and half green icons.
Are you certain this is your official Dropbox folder? Is the Dropbox desktop application currently running and syncing normally when you click the icon, according to the message in the bottom left?
Do you have any other cloud services running on your machine?
>>It seems that the sync icons you have in the Dropbox folder aren't the same as the normal icons. You have some yellow icons and half green icons. <<
I am unaware of what the colors on the icons signify. The only icon symbol I recognize is the one with two human figures, which indicates a shared folder.
>>Are you certain this is your official Dropbox folder? Is the Dropbox desktop application currently running and syncing normally when you click the icon, according to the message in the bottom left?<<
I'm unsure of what constitutes my "official" Dropbox folder. The Dropbox folder I see in File Explorer resides at D:\Users\Tim\Documents\My Dropbox (I'm Tim). If I navigate to that folder by clicking on D:, then Users, etc., I see a list of Dropbox folders in my account, but none that are shared with me. The shared folders include the "patient records" folder presently missing in action. If I view my Dropbox folder via the listing that appears in the left pane of File Explorer with other cloud service icons, I see both my folders and the shared folders. See screencap below.
>>Do you have any other cloud services running on your machine?<<
Yes. I have Amazon Drive, iCloud, and OneDrive installed and running. I'm not having any difficulty with those services.
- I got a notice that this topic had been updated, but I’m not seeing any new posts.
- Jay
After some investigation, it appears that your sync icons belong to Carbonite, which is another cloud service.
Could you try quitting that app entirely to see what is the current status of the folders in the Dropbox folder?
I quit Carbonite via Task Manager, and brought up the Dropbox folder in File Manager. The folder icons all appear without any overlay/status indicator. The "patient records" folder still does not appear.
- Hannah
Sorry to jump in here, copwriter.
To go back to a question that Jay asked you, is the Dropbox application working correctly and syncing files as normal?
Because there are no Dropbox syncing icons on the files at the moment, which could indicate that the application is not running.
If you hover over the Dropbox icon in your system tray, what do you see, please?
