Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

hjhworks's avatar
hjhworks
Helpful | Level 5
2 months ago

Suddenly cant create multiple folders at once

I use dropbox online for work. We have to create multiple folders a day for multiple clients. For years now, the easiest thing to do has been to click "Create Folder" and then use /'s to tack on the rest of the folders within. So for example

Client Name/Current Policies/Address/Policy Name

In doing so, the Policy Name folder would be created inside the Address folder, and so on with the Client Name folder being the main folder in the tree. This was working for me just yesterday. Today, when I try to create folders in that manner, I get this error:

The following characters are not allowed: \ /

I'm assuming this is some new implementation, though I cannot for the life of me figure out why they feel it would be necessary to do so. Creating each folder in the tree one by one is tedious and time-consuming and cannot possibly go over well with the plethora of businesses that do their work through dropbox and have to regularly create multiple client folders.

Anyway, my question is, is there a workaround, or another way to create multiple folders that I'm missing? For reference, I cannot use the app version on my computer; I have to use the online version. 

6 Replies

  • CaraDBX's avatar
    CaraDBX
    Icon for Dropbox Engineer rankDropbox Engineer
    4 days ago

    Thanks all for the feedback. We're looking into this.

  • DMarket08's avatar
    DMarket08
    New member | Level 2
    17 days ago

    Adding more support to the OP's need for a work around for creating multiple folders at once or a new "create multiple subfolders at once" feature needs created for the online version!!  

    I have to make many, many folder structures to save out files for clients and this will greatly impede my ability to do that efficiently! 😩

  • VietD's avatar
    VietD
    Explorer | Level 4
    29 days ago

    I previously used this useful functionality too to create multiple subfolders at once while naming folders. Hoping to find a workaround or solution to this as well. I'm having the same exact issue as OP.

  • hjhworks's avatar
    hjhworks
    Helpful | Level 5
    2 months ago

    Hello,

    Yes, I use the dropbox online version in the browser, not the desktop app. 

    I believe the plan is "Dropbox Advanced" but I cannot give you much more information than that. As previously stated, this is used through my job, so I do not personally have access to all of the plan information.

    This is the error I am receiving. 

    Previously, when creating a folder, I was able to do Client Name/Folder/Folder to create multiple folders within one another. I have never gotten this error until today.

  • Dell_Dropbox's avatar
    Dell_Dropbox
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 months ago

    Welcome to the community hjhworks​ 

    Just want to make sure I understand things clearly. 

    First, this is happening on the Dropbox website, and not in the desktop app, correct?

    Secondly, what kind of account/plan are you using specifically?

    Can you take a screenshot of the error you're receiving?

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!