I deleted the Dropbox folder but my Documents folder path is now within Dropbox. Any help?

[brats]

Hi there,

I had Dropbox installed on my Mac and selected the Documents folder to be synced a few days ago. I wanted to remove the synced content and deleted the Dropbox folder from my device which also apparently deleted my Documents folder. I tried recovery apps and they can restore anything but that specific folder and noticed that my Documents folder got replaced with a shortcut to Dropbox/syncedsomething/Documents. 

Why would Dropbox move my Documents folder and take ownership of it and more importantly how can I recover my lost data?

Regards,

B.

[Daphne]

Hello @brats, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

The folder path might be appearing like this since you enabled the computer backup feature during the installation of the desktop app.

If you unlinked or uninstalled the desktop app then this should have been reverted. If you've done either of those steps, could you send me a screenshot of what you're referring to with the Documents folder path?

This will allow me to have a better understanding of exactly what you're seeing on your side.

Keep me posted - thanks!

[brats]

Thanks for your response. Unfortunatelly, I have removed eveything now and it's back to how it was but I will try to describe it.

Usually when I click on Documents in Finder, it would open the Documents folder which was under the path /Users/MY_ID/Documents

Finder-Desktop-Default.png

After the dropbox sync got enabled, whenever I clicked on the Documents, it would actually take me to /Users/MY_ID/Dropbox/MySyncsomething.../Documents

I find this very weird as I never checked the path. I just clicked on Documents, saw my documents there so I went to the Dropbox folder, deleted everything there and removed it from the recycle bin. I didn't realise both the default left shortcut for Finder and the Dropbox folder were in fact the same location. I did manage to recuperate most of my data by now and changed back my Documents folder to reflbut am still a bit shook up and cannot understand why an app might want to change the MacOS shortcut to it's own sync folder.

Anyway,

I hope no one goes through this as well.

[Saun]

I am experiencing similar issues. A few days a popup asked me if I wanted to backup the entire laptop, noting that the files will nto be moved. I clicked on yes, thinking that since the files will not actually be in the Dropbox folder, this would not affect the space limitation, but I was wrong, and soon enough I was out of space. I tried deleting the PC path folder in the dropbox, but now all the files were deleted, and I am not beign succesful in restoring the ones in the Documents folder of the PC. The ones in downloads and desktop were restored. I have since figured out the correct way to stop the full PC backup (preferencs>manage backup etc.), but I still don't have those missing files. How do I get the files from documents back?

[Daphne]

Thanks for your updates here!

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with this @Saun.

If you haven't already, please check in your recycling bin to see if you can restore the deleted files from there. Also, I can suggest checking if they can be restored through Dropbox with these steps.

Please bear in mind that if the files were not able to sync to your account, then we wouldn't be able to restore them with that method.

Otherwise, you can look into using a third party app to help restore those files back to your device. While I can't recommend any specific ones, you can do a quick web search for more info on this.

I hope this helps!

[LUCIADAD]

Hi I have the same issue. Did you ever find a fix? I've lost my document folder and my desktop folder on my Mac. This is crazy. Thanks.

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @LUCIADAD.

Can you just confirm for me, did you delete the Dropbox folder from your computer too?

If so, have you tried restoring the folder from the Trash bin?

[RRKKY]

**bleep** IT!!   Same situation here!   I deleted and turned off dropbox locally and now no Documents or Desktop, completely gone from my MAC!  And I had emptied the trash bin.   I see the backup in my Dropbox account but when I download the zipped file I get an error trying to open it.  

[Jay]

Hi @RRKKY, if you get an error when opening the zip file, it could mean that it was corrupt because it didn't download completely. 

Since you've uninstalled the app, and also emptied the trash, could you try downloading the files from the site in smaller batches and let me know how it goes?

[RRKKY]

That is exactly what I am doing, unfortunately, this is going to take my DAYS if not WEEKS.   Should I send Dropbox a bill at my hourly rate for this headache?

Best part is, I did not have SYNC even checked to begin with.