Lost access to Desktop folder on Mac when I downloaded Dropbox, and now can't access.

[amberprawn]

I've lost access to the Desktop, Documents and Downloads file on my mac - help??

I just set up a new Dropbox account with a different email. When it asked whether I wanted to sync/back-up Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders, I said no, because when I did this with a previous account, this caused problems. I thought that this would mean that my Desktop files etc would just remain on my hard drive, and I would have a Dropbox folder with things I wanted to back up to the cloud.

But this has caused all the icons to disappear from my Desktop!

Luckily the files are still there when I search for them. When I got to Desktop folder in Finder and click on it, a message says 'The operation can’t be completed because the original item for “Desktop” can’t be found.'

 

Logging out of Dropbox didn't help.

 

Help???

[Megan]

Hi @amberprawn, let's jump right into this! 

Can you have a look at these steps, and check if the feature is enabled on your device? If it is, can you disable it? 

Also, feel free to send me some  screenshots of the error you receive on your end, since that'd be interesting to see. 

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

[Drpdmc]

Help! Downloaded Dropbox and promptly lost everything on my desktop! I'm using a MacBook Pro with up to date Monterey OS. Now I remember why I previously vowed never to use dropbox again - it steals everything and the customer support is abysmal!

Please help, my desktop items show up under Finder but my desktop screen is blank

Paul

[Megan]

Hi @Drpdmc, I'd be happy to help! 

It seems you might have enabled Computer backup. Can you follow these steps, in order to disable it? 

Let me know how it goes! 

[bahartug]

Hi, couple days ago while i was working on my laptop, out of hell all my desktop and documents was gone. I did nothing but everything disappeared. 

I have a macbook, so a talked about 3 hours now with apple support, and end the end they told me that this is a dropbox problem. 

Alltough I don't use dropbox so often, it is installed on my macbook. On my dropbox itself I have very old data which is just saved there since years. For my laptop I don't have a back up there. 

Nevertheless, now I can open my documents file nor my desktop. I can't save anything there everything is locked. Even the alias. 

As I wrote above, we tried everything and it should be a dropbox problem. I want my data back which deleted themselfes out of nothing.

Kindly,

Bahar

[Megan]

Hi @bahartug, let's look into this! 

It sounds like you have enabled our Computer Backup at some point, and time. If you check your Backup page online, what do you see there? 

Also, just to make sure we're on the same page, are you now able to see the Documents, Desktop and Downloads paths at their original places on your device? 

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there. 

[bahartug]

Hi Megan, first of all thank you for helping.

Do you need me to disable the Dropbox Backup? 

Attached I've made some screenshots, where you can see that the desktop is locked. 

In the finder, I can't enable Desktop and Dokuments, also a screenshot.

[Megan]

Hi @bahartug, thank you so much for the screenshots! 

Can I trouble you, and ask what the first screenshot reads?  Also, are you able to see Documents, Desktop and Downloads only in Dropbox or in the original paths on your Mac? 

Also, what do you wish to achieve here? To disable Backup?

[bahartug]

Hi Megan, sorry for my late reply, I had a workday.

So, attached I have sent you another screenshot. It is the backup page - it is empty and the button says: test dropbox backup

my first screenshot says: The operation could not be completed because the original desktop object was not found.

As I said, I need my documents which are just saved on my macbook. Due to apple support this problem causes dropbox.

best

[Walter]

Hey @bahartug, sorry to jump in here.

It's not quite clear what you're trying to accomplish; could you clarify if you'd like to enable the Dropbox Backup feature and you're getting an error or if you're trying to disable it instead?

Any additional information is more than welcome!