Files/folders added from another device failed to appear in the Files app on my iPad

native files.app integration is still downright dangerous.  When files/folders added to Dropbox from another device failed to appear on my iPad, I tried numerous remedies (none of which worked) culminatinig in reinstalling the Dropbox app and then clearing the cache under "Files.app settings". Clearing the cache resulted in the more recently added folders and their contents being deleted from my Dropbox, even though they were uploaded from a different device.  The integration evidently concluded that, since they weren't on my iPad, they didn't belong in the cloud either.