Can I break the connection between my Dropbox account and local Dropbox folder?

roblaw wrote:

When I delete those duplicate fils in Dropbox, they are deleted from my computer. How do I stop that from happening and just delete them from Dropbox?

I think you're misunderstanding what Dropbox is and how it works.

Dropbox is not a backup solution. Yes, it has a backup feature, but that's separate from the normal operation. At its core, Dropbox is a file sync service. The entire point of Dropbox is to keep your local Dropbox folder in sync with your account online, and with the Dropbox folder on your other devices, if any.

When you place files in your local Dropbox folder, they sync (i.e. copy) to your account online. From then on, any changes you make to that file will also sync. Edit a file on your computer, the edits are saved online. Move a file online, that file is moved in your local Dropbox folder. Delete a file, and it's deleted everywhere.

If you have a file in your account online that you want to delete, but you want to keep it on your local drive, just move that file out of your local Dropbox folder to a new location on your computer. Dropbox will see that as a deletion (the file no longer exists in your local Dropbox folder) so it will sync that change and delete the file in your account.

I did not plan to use it as a backup solution, my plan was to temporarily put the files in Dropbox, then remove them later; not realizing that if I removed them from Dropbox, they are removed from my local drive as well.  I will try creating a folder and move the files from Dropbox to that folder, them delete that folder.

Thanks very much for your reply.