BibDesk appears to be in the Dropbox folder and changes in settings are not saved

[mk9y]

I'm using Dropbox (v189.4.8427) on an Apple M2 Ultra, running Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71).

I have an open-source app called BibDesk. It (and several other open-source apps) are not saving changes in settings, always reverting to the previous settings (such as which file should be opened by default, or font preferences, etc.).

So I looked for the preference file for BibDesk in the ~/Library/Application Support folder. What I found is this: 

BibDesk -> /Users/mk9y/Dropbox/Mackup/Library/Application Support/BibDesk

I assume that "->" is some kind of alias, or symbolic link. Somewhere along the line, I must have given Dropbox permission to screw up my file system, with unknown side effects, and without warning me of the consequences. When I do a search for "Mackup", nothing pops up. But presumably it's a contraction of "Mac" and bac "kup". Perhaps this is Dropbox's way of providing a backup system for system files? Since when would any software muck with the OS without multiple warnings and cautionary notes.

I urgently need to reverse this thing that Dropbox is doing. I hope there's a straightforward remedy. (Needless to say, I'm livid. Every so often it's good to say things that most people would gather anyway.)

Only then will I know if the failure of this and other apps to retain their settings is due to this unwanted feature.

[Mark]

Hi @mk9y 

Dropbox only does this if you actively set up/activate the BackUp feature on a machine. 

You can cancel the Backup features by following https://help.dropbox.com/organize/how-to-manage-dropbox-backup

[mk9y]

Thanks, @Mark.

1. You write, "Dropbox only does this if you actively set up/activate the BackUp feature on a machine." I just looked at the Backups tab in Preferences. When I select Manage backups, I see the option to "protect more files with Dropbox Backup", which three checkboxes for Desktop, Documents, & Downloads. None of them is checked. If I'm using the feature (and indeed I see those three folders in my Dropbox folder), why are they not checked, and how can I fix the problem?
2. Now I looked at the sync tab. So it does seem like I chose to select many "folders to sync to this Mac". Apparently, when I set this up, I hadn't noticed that among them, I had selected the folders, Mac and Mackup (I don't remember having a folder called Mackup. Do you know what it could be?)
3. Having unchecked these two, the Dropbox folder does have either a Desktop, Documents, or Downloads folder. But when I look at ~/Library/Application Support, BibDesk is still connected to Dropbox. I'm going to restart my machine, and see what happens.
4. In your opinion, could this be the cause of the issue I'm experiencing, i.e., open-source software (e.g., Path Finder, BibDesk) not retaining settings between launches? I have a test user set up where this is not happening, so it must be something peculiar to my set-up, and Dropbox is my top suspect.