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Alain_P's avatar
Alain_P
Helpful | Level 6
3 months ago

Can't choose my Dropbox folder and cannot see the advanced settings after reinstall

Application Affected
Dropbox  / Windows 11

Device
ASUS Vivobook

Question or Issue
The main issue is that Dropbox/Windows made a serious change and did not inform us. I keep ALL my files on my desktop at all times EXCEPT one "Online" folder. I was managing this fine with per folder sync behavior. The update changed that WITHOUT asking me. So I saw new icons in Windows and realized that a lot of files were missing (only in the could). A random mix. Chaos. 

I set the preferences back to Offline. Then proceded to the folders but hell broke loose. All folder went into a sync mode and thousands of files were being processed. Tried a reinstall in the hope to re-index. Tried many Clean re-install w fresh installer including 237.4.5655 Offline. Cleared AppData, etc. But I never can choose my existing 300Gig C:\Dropbox folder. I never get to the advanced option. I really need help ! 

desktop
Install
windows

12 Replies

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  • Alain_P's avatar
    Alain_P
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 months ago

    Hello Hannah, thanks for your quick reply. 

    My understanding at the time was that Dropbox communication with Win11 was confused/corrupted following the recent update. That's why I tried the fresh installs. 

    I have again uninstalled. So nothing installed at the moment. Just so you know I have two users on that computer: Administrator and Power User. I'm usually logged in as the Power User. I tried reinstalls under every possible combinations of Logged in as Power User w Admin rights, then without, then logged in as Admin, etc. With the online installer and with the offline installer. I cleaned up everything each time between install. (C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Dropbox, etc.) I can never get to the Advanced "Pick your Dropbox folder location" step. I have spent numerous hours on this. Best part of a day. 

    My files are in a confusing state at the moment. Usually I keep all my files physically on drive. Now since the latest DB/Win update that changed the behavior and added the green circle icons, I have 15 main sub-folders with 141 GB of physical data remaining over 153 GB total. So 10GB of random files missing in there !! 

    On the other hand, I have one "ONLINE" Folder where I usually put stuff I want online. Usually there's a few gigs of offline in there day in day out according to the need of the moment but that drive currently weights 55 GB physically on drive !!! (over a total of 242 GB online). It's absolute Chaos ! 

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 months ago

    Hey Alain_P, thanks for your post and sorry to see you're having trouble with the Dropbox desktop app.

    The reinstall of the app at that point wasn't going to help the situation, but I understand that because of it you now have a different issue, so let's see what we can find.

    Can you let me know what state the app is at the moment? At which step of the process are you?

    And can you send us some screenshots of what you see on your end, so we can have a visual and guide you better?

    Thanks in advance!

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