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copwriter
3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
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?
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- copwriter3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
This is a screencap of the Dropbox icon in the task tray:
- Jay3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
There seems to be two further issues I've noticed. Without sync icons, we can't be certain that this is the Dropbox folder. Since Windows has a 15 icon limit on overlay, please could you quit all open cloud services and backup services. This should bring back the Dropbox icons in that folder.
Another matter is that you mentioned it was in a location called Documents/My Dropbox. The Dropbox folder cannot be called 'My Dropbox' by default, nor can is be changed to that name, as it must be 'Dropbox' on its own.
Are you certain this is the correct folder location? Have you made any junction points or symlinks to the folder? If you add a file in that folder, does it appear on the site, and vice versa?
- copwriter3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
>>There seems to be two further issues I've noticed. Without sync icons, we can't be certain that this is the Dropbox folder. Since Windows has a 15 icon limit on overlay, please could you quit all open cloud services and backup services. This should bring back the Dropbox icons in that folder.<<
After quitting Amazon Drive, iCloud, and OneDrive, this is what my Dropbox folder looks like in File Explorer:
>>Another matter is that you mentioned it was in a location called Documents/My Dropbox. The Dropbox folder cannot be called 'My Dropbox' by default, nor can is be changed to that name, as it must be 'Dropbox' on its own. <<
I don't recall ever renaming or moving the Dropbox folder. When I went looking for it just now, I dioscovered what may be a relevant issue: the Dropbox folder is actually a subfolder of "My Dropbox," which is a subfolder of Documents. If I click on the Dropbox icon in File Manager shortcuts (not sure that is the proper name for this--it's the list of folders that appears above the full FM list in the left pane), the file path in the command line says just "Dropbox."
If I navigate to the Dropbox folder itself, the command line reflects a different file path:
I haven't moved the Dropbox folder or renamed it since the "patient records" folder disappeared, but it occurs to me that this may be part of the problem. If so, how do I fix it?
>>Are you certain this is the correct folder location? Have you made any junction points or symlinks to the folder? If you add a file in that folder, does it appear on the site, and vice versa?<<
No junctions or symlinks that I'm aware of. I used to use those, but they had a knack for corrupting my entire Windows installation and I abandoned them with a new OS install. I just tested loading files into a Dropbox folder from the Drobbox website and from File Explorer. If I save a file in the Dropbox desktop folder, it appears in the online version, and vice versa.
- Jay3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for the clarificaiton about the location of the folder, this would be fine to have it stored in a subfolder like that.
I can see that you still have the Carbonite syncing icons visible, since there is no yellow sync icon for Dropbox. Could you try quitting that application as well to see the Dropbox icons?
- copwriter3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Here is a File Manager screencap after quitting Carbonite:
- Walter3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey copwriter - sorry to jump in here, but I just wanted to mention that the icons on your files are still coming from Carbonite, not Dropbox.
Are you 100% sure that you quit that app on the affected machine?
If you did and this persists, you might need to uninstall it completely.
While we're at it, you might wanna give these steps a go too.
- copwriter3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Okay. I disabled Carbonite, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Amazon Drive in the startups folder on Task Manager, then rebooted the machine. This is a screenshot of my Dropbox folder:
As for the other suggestion regarding the Registry keys, the Dropbox overlay icons appear in the list starting at position 18. I saw the advice that higher priority overlay icons have to be disabled so that Dropbox appears in the first 15 entries, but I have no idea how to do that without potentially pranging my Windows installation. I don't make Registry changes without knowing what they're going to do. Here is what the Registry entries look like:
I'd like to get back to the original issue of regaining access to the "patient records" folder that shows online in Dropbox but not in my File Manager list. I get the impression that the presence or absence of a file icon is relevant to this problem, but I'm wondering if we can resolve it without chasing down every folder icon in the Windows universe.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey copwriter, I understand your hesitance in regards to the registry keys, however, we basically first need to make sure that Dropbox works as it's supposed to, which is part of the troubleshooting of your original issue, that's why we're insisting on this.
I'd suggest you follow the steps that Walter linked in his reply, about the 15 icons and let us know if that brings back the Dropbox icons.
And can you please also check one more thing? If you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray and then on the folder icon next to your initials/profile pic, are you taken to the same Dropbox folder we see in your screenshots?
- copwriter3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
>>Hey @copwriter, I understand your hesitance in regards to the registry keys, however, we basically first need to make sure that Dropbox works as it's supposed to, which is part of the troubleshooting of your original issue, that's why we're insisting on this.<<
I have some appointments today. I will come back afterward and see if I can edit the Registry to get the folder icons to appear.
>>And can you please also check one more thing? If you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray and then on the folder icon next to your initials/profile pic, are you taken to the same Dropbox folder we see in your screenshots?<<
Yes, it brings up the same folder. The folder's true path is D:\Users\Tim\Documents\My Dropbox\Dropbox.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for the update, copwriter, get back to us whenever you can and we can continue working on this together!
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