Dropbox Folder randomly disappears from the MacOS Finder. If I force quit it shows up.

I have reported this problem previously but I think it was my fault. I have been dragging Dropbox from ~/Library/CloudStorage and it remains there for a few days but I have just discovered that Finder Settings/Sidebar has an entry for Locations Cloud Storage that was unticked. I have ticked it and will let you know if the problem reoccurs.

I updated to MacOS Ventura in July.  Thanks to Dropbox, I keep all of my work in the cloud in dropbox folders and have about a dozen of them in my finder sidebar.  Yesterday, for the 2nd time since I set this up, all of the dropbox folders in the sidebar disappeared.  In yesterday's instance, they were missing from new finder windows, but still appeared and were functional in the finder windows that were previously opened.  I shut the computer all the way down, and the main dropbox folder was still in the sidebar, but all of the sub-folders were missing.   I was a long Mojave holdout (until July) and this never happened on Mojave.

Same problem here. I see lots of users have been suffering same issue. Looking for a way to fix it. Thanks. 

Eureka! I think you have fixed my issue with your helpful post, thank you! 

When I looked in Finder Settings/Sidebar, my entry for Locations Cloud Storage was in an interim state (blue box with a dash). Clicking on that once or twice gave me the normal blue box with a tick and suddenly Dropbox re-appeared for the first time since I first reported this issue.

Hi dnlrobles, thanks for posting here today! 

If you could try out the steps provided by marktb1961, and then let us know if this worked for you, that'd be amazing.

Keep me posted!

Checked on the finder sidebar settings and this isn't a factor for me (all checked).  The dropbox folders haven't disappeared from the sidebar in the month since I posted, but would still love to understand why this has happened twice to avoid future events.   Thank you.

I have not had the issue for several weeks and thought that it might be fixed, but it came back again today. I used the Finder 'Goto' to get to the /Users/bobr/Library/CloudStorage dropbox entry then dragged it to the sidebar to fix.

I'm still running 10.13.x.  My Mac Pro 5,1 is still a work horse.  I love it.  But unfortunately, 10.13.x is the latest I can install on it.  If I had a Metal Compatible GPU, I can upgrade it to 10.14.x.  So I make do.

I think my issue is related to this issue.  My Dropbox folder has always been synced to my account.  You know, because you can see green check-marks on all the files saved in that folder.  Everything was working great.  Then one day, about a couple of years ago, those green check marks disappeared.  So I could no longer do a right-click to get all the the Dropbox contextual options.  However, the folder was still synced, as I can still upload and download from it.  And the only way to get it back to normal, was to force quit the Finder.  But at some point, I will lose the contextual menu again.  Step and repeat. 

I've uninstalled, and reinstalled Dropbox a few times (as per the suggestion of support).  But still kept happening.  I've even had to reinstall 10.13 again (for other reasons), and everything that was installed, including Dropbox.  You'd think that would fix any hidden issues.  But still happens. 

I think it's Mac OS (whatever version) not playing nice with Dropbox app, or Network (or vice versa).  Causing it to disconnect one way or another.  And the only way to re-establish full connection, is to force quit the Finder.  Which, as the OP said, is very inconvenient.

Mac OS Ventura 13.6.6
I feel your pain.  Same is happening to me.  May 2024, a year and a half since you reported.  It's super maddening when the only way to save work is save to desktop and then add to dropbox via a browser.