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I can't disable the backup of my Mac
Hello community,
Please I need urgent help on this, I have mistakably done a backup of my Mac for Dropbox and I can't access my Desktop on my Mac anymore after doing this it says, "Desktop can't be opened because the original item can't be found" I tried to disable backup from the Adjust settings but I get an error saying "Coulnd't stop backup because My mac was renamed, deleted or moved" besides, I checked the available documents of my desktop in the online backup available in the dropbox website and many is missing!! basically because my storage is full, now how can restore my whole desktop without any missing files??
Hi there, israa_abuelezz, let's try something. Can you follow these steps?
Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Click your profile picture or initials.
Click on Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab.
Press the "alt+H" keys and at the same time, click the "Reset OS folder locations" button.
Click Continue to proceed.
Keep me posted.
22 Replies
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Hello Megan, I tried doing this yesterday, but kept getting greeted with this message -
Now, whenever I try and move anything around on my desktop, or place things into folders it brings up another error code -
I'm unsure on what to do now, as it would appear that anything that was stored in those folders is now "non-existant".
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi saambampton, I hope you're doing well!
When you disabled the feature, did you choose to "leave content in Dropbox"? Are you still able to see the content in your Dropbox folder?
If so, can you try to drag-and-drop those files from the Dropbox folder back to their original folders?
Keep me posted!
Hello there, I've followed this step by step guide as I was having the same issues. I've now followed the reseting of my desktop, download, and document folders back to my finder tab, but from there I've lost all folders and contents that were on my desktop, and have been left with a folder in each called 'My files in Dropbox' but nothing in any of the folders that are back in my finder tab.
Any information would be hugely helpful!
- Megan
- Megan
Hi there, israa_abuelezz, let's try something. Can you follow these steps?
Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Click your profile picture or initials.
Click on Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab.
Press the "alt+H" keys and at the same time, click the "Reset OS folder locations" button.
Click Continue to proceed.
Keep me posted. Hello Jay
I pressed on cmd+shift+H to see the elements under my root username and this is what i got when i clicked on get info for the desktop, "Original" location should be in my dropbox folder not under my the root user, is this what is causing the probem? if so, how can i move them back to the original location?
Hello Jay
Thanks for your reply. I am unable to disable backup as i get prompt that the folders are not in default location as soon as i click on Manage backups. Please see the screenshot below.
- Jay
Since the Dropbox folder has a specific name, most likely you're part of a Dropbox Business team as well.
You'd need to disable the computer backup feature if it is still enabled by following these steps.
Hello Jay ,
Thanks for your reply. Fortunately, i restarted my Mac and i was able to see my Desktop files, now i want to stop backing up my folders to dropbox and remove the desktop application. I have signed out to stop syncing my files, but I think my Mac folders (Desktop, Downloads, and Documents) are still linked to the dropbox folder as the path for the Desktop, for example, is still under my dropbox folder (CDS dropbox) ( as shown in the "Desktop" info attached). And i believe it is still linked to dropbox as the original icon for desktop (e.g., the Desktop icon for a Mac laptop) is not restored, I still have the Desktop, Documents, and Downloads as folders (not as default Mac folder icons). How can i restore my Mac environment as it was before i set up the backup to dropbox? am I missing any additional step?
Thanks,
