Uninstalled Dropbox on Mac. It was set for Backup. How to restore Downloads, Desktop and Documents?

[Gadgetfan]

Problem

• On a friend’s M1 MacBook running Monterey 12.4, she had the Dropbox app, which she thought she was not using, and she did not believe she had an account (It turned out she had at least two, because she had thought she should just log into this thing that was nagging her, and she had instead guessed at her credentials and wound up creating accounts.) The App was nagging her to log in all the time. She wanted it uninstalled since she thought she was not using it. We looked and the Dropbox folder was empty, seemingly confirming her belief that she was not using it. (We were naive.)
• We uninstalled Dropbox, not realizing that it was set to do Backup of Desktop, Documents, Downloads 
• Followed Dropbox’s instructions to uninstall (which sadly failed to mention that there is a different set of instructions if you have it set to Backup, which _might_ have prompted us to dig further just to check on that. Might not.)
• Quit Dropbox App
• We Told it to keep files on the Mac
• Move Dropbox App from Applications to Trash 
• Drag the empty Dropbox Folder to Trash (That folder appeared to be “empty”)
• Problems
• Files on Desktop showed icons, but could not be opened. Said they were in Trash. The penny started to drop. There were hidden files in the Dropbox app.
• So we moved the “empty” Dropbox folder (which Dropbox had renamed in the form “Dropbox 10255” when we uninstalled the app and said to keep the files on the Mac) back to the Home folder
• Files now available again in Desktop, Documents, Downloads
• Looked and saw that in Home folder, the Desktop, Documents, Downloads folders were actually Aliases to folders under the renamed Dropbox folder. 
• Used the command to show hidden files and now could see the Desktop, Documents, Downloads folders under “Dropbox 10255”.  These folders’ paths looked like ~/Dropbox 10255/Mac/Desktop, and that matched where the aliases were pointing
• Found Dropbox instructions on what to do to put the three important folders back into the Home Folder. The instructions were to 
• reinstall the Dropbox app (I restored it from Trash to Applications), 
• then run Dropbox and go into Dropbox Settings and turning off the Backup feature. The idea being that Dropbox would restore the Desktop, Downloads and Documents folders to their correct Apple-designed location and functions, once the backup feature was turned off. Unfortunately, the moment I ran the Dropbox app, it broke the aliases in the Home folder linking to the “~/Dropbox 10255/Mac/Desktop” folders, so they pointed elsewhere. The result was to 
• make all Desktop, Documents, Downloads folders and the contents unavailable (except by navigating to where they were hidden under ~/Dropbox 10255/Mac/Desktop
• break normal Desktop functions, such as being able to connect an external SSD drive and have it show up to the OS, drag files to the desktop, or display a desktop photo. [Very Bad because we wanted to connect an external SSD and perform a backup before getting into worse trouble. This is impossible with the non-functional Desktop. The drive will not show up on the Desktop (obviously), nor in Finder, nor in Disk Utility. It connects normally to another Mac.]
• Break normal Downloads functions such as downloading from Browsers.
• Firefox still shows its Settings function to designate a different folder for Downloads, but neither that function nor the checkbox that says to “always ask where to download” will work. So all downloads using Firefox simply announce that they have failed.
• Safari did allow the designation of a replacement for the Downloads folder, fortunately.

Questions

• What are the steps to restore the pre-Dropbox functionality of this MacBook?
• Restore normal, folders in Home of Desktop, Documents, and Downloads, with their usual superpowers intact. In addition to just having all the files back where they belong in correct Apple-approved locations:
• Downloads working again with apps that do not actually have functionality to designate a different target folder.
• Desktop 
• Allowing the attachment of external drives, and showing them on the desktop
• able to show a Desktop image,
• Showing the files in the Desktop folderDocuments doing whatever I am not currently yet aware we have broken.
• Put the documents that are in the “hidden” Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folders back into the newly restored Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folders under the Home directory. I know how to drag them, but…
• My concern here is I have no idea if Dropbox has also added, deleted, set/unset flags that will interfere with normal Mac functions in future, such as 
• backup with  apps such as TimeMachine, SuperDuper, or Carbon Copy Cloner
• moving Desktop and Documents to iCloud Drive.

[Jay]

Hi @Gadgetfan, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Just for clarification, is the Dropbox desktop application currently installed on your machine, or did you uninstall it after disabling the backup failed?

This will help me to assist further!

[Gadgetfan]

Still installed. Not logged in, though, because not even sure which of her two (or more) accounts was active.

[Jay]

Thanks for the info, could you open the Dropbox desktop application preferences and go to the Accounts tab. Press Option+H and then choose Reset OS folders.

Keep me updated with any progress!