Removing files from my Dropbox account

[Pirate88]

I use my Dropbox account to copy folders of files that are too large to be attachments to e-mails.

At this point in time I have some files and/or folders of files that I want to remove from my Dropbox account.

When I right click on a Dropbox folder and select Delete...it pops up and tells me it will delete those files everywhere.  That's not what I want. I want to keep the files in my PC and on my external hard drive.

How do I just remove them from Dropbox?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

It means that it will delete the files from your Dropbox account and from the Dropbox folders on all linked devices. It cannot delete the files from elsewhere on your comptuer.

Dropbox worded that message very poorly.

[Pirate88]

Thank you very much Rich. I'll give it a try on some small stuff just to make sure and report back.  Thanks again!

[wuggy]

HELP!

I accidentally moved personal  files on my pc and they are stuck in a drop box account. I tried removing them from drop box back to my pc and lost everything. I restored most of the files but now my desk top with personal files are stuck inside of drop box. How can I fix it?

[Lusil]

Hey @wuggy, thanks for joining us on this thread. 

Did you manually move these files to your Dropbox folder, or were they automatically added?

If they were automatically added from your computer, could they be files that were in your Documents/Downloads/Desktop folders?

[wuggy]

Thanks. Im not sure what you mean?

I believe what i did is as follows:

I had two dropbox accounts or one account with two different  emails. I never figured that part out!

I wanted to delete the account attached  to my personal email. So I copied over all the files that were in my personal email  account and moved them to the company account. They were likely duplicated but I didnt want to lose any information for the compnay account. so i just took files that belonged to the  company. I think i cut and pasted them. 

Once i did that I deleted the account under my personal email. So that seemed fine. Then i realized that my peronal files all moved over not just the folders that were part of the company  account. It copied over my desktop and all my documents in my pc. like my kids stuff etc. So I decided  I would delete it but what happended was it deleted all my personal files!!!!!! and the desktop icon was still bute din dropbox. so I had  a friend try to recover the files  and he did but they are all still stuck inside of dropbox. They arent shared but its taken up all my space (think pictures got copied too!) so now i have personal  stuff in a dropbox file and no space so i cant accpet new shared documnts and i lost some stuff and i think I still have  two accounts!!!

When i tried to move the files it said i had no room to sync. This is so frustrating. I think I need a programmer from dropbox  to fix it. 

I just boughta 2tb external hard drive. I wa shtinking of backing up everything on my pc (not dropbox) and saving it to the  external then deleing it on dropbox. but i am still missing files. sooooo can you help me?

[Lusil]

Generally, each Dropbox account is associated with a unique email address, so it sounds like you had two separate accounts. 

However, since you mention that your Documents and Desktop files were copied across, it seems like you have computer backup enabled. 

If so, follow the instructions mentioned in this article to turning the feature off. 

When you do that, you'll be given the option to move the files back to their original locations on your computer.

[Samf]

How do I delete my account on Dropbox and have all those files deleted at the same time so there are no remnants of those files on Dropbox?

[Walter]

If you'd like to completely delete your account and its content, you'll need to follow the steps outlined here. 

Let us know if you have any other questions @Samf

[Beckydundee]

How do I get Drop Box files to download on my computers