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I keep getting selective sync conflicts by Dropbox?

I keep getting selective sync conflicts by Dropbox?

kelos-01
Helpful | Level 5
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I have a major issue with sync conflicts at the moment, which i'm trying to resolve. Although what I find happening is that files are being moved by drop box into my private folder.

 

I've tested this. I moved everything out of my private folder into the root "dropbox" location after the sync took place it moved a whole bunch of folders back into my private folder with "selective Sync Conflict" in the name.

 

Why is it moving my files folders back into the private folder?

 

PS I did this:

To remove the "Selective sync conflict" folder

  1. Move any files you need from the "Selective Sync conflict" folder to the original folder.
  2. Delete the conflicted folder.

https://help.dropbox.com/syncing-uploads/select-files-to-sync

But as I explained it moves it back into the private folder.

26 Replies 26

karen007
Explorer | Level 4
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Hi, 

I have no problem leaving the conflict folder on my local drive but DB kept uploading them to my cloud! It's really confusing and makes my DB huge. Also, DB creates a conflict folder for EVERY folder. I stopped synching before it gets viral. Anyways, I think DB should fix this. There could be "conflict" files if DB cannot decide which is the new version but it shouldn't have the whole folder as "conflict".

Karen

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
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Thanks for your feedback, @karen007

I've shared your thoughts on this with the dev team for review, so if you have any other ideas or comments you'd like us to forward, don't hesitate to get back to us. 

Cheers!


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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ArtNDzine
New member | Level 2
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I am also having the same issue after updat iOS on Mac to Catalina, however I do not have any duplicate files/folders that I can see. Can you help?

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
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Hey @ArtNDzine, let's see what we can do here. 

From what I understand, you're seeing some folders with Selective Sync Conflict but you don't have any duplicates, is that right?

As a first step, could you please ensure that folders with the same name are not selectively synced in your desktop app's settings?

If you don't find any, could you let me know what you see when you hover over your Dropbox icon on your menu bar?

Thanks in advance!


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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b9chris
Helpful | Level 6
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This bug is awful.

1. Get tired of Dropbox relentlessly syncing scratch file folders, like the ones Visual Studio uses to store temp files in a Project's folder - you want the important Project files to be backed up continuously, but not the needless, frequently-modified temp files.

2. Remove those folders from Selective Sync.

3. Dropbox does the opposite of what you wanted - it keeps them in the cloud and deletes them, needlessly, from your machine - the exact opposite of what you were really asking, but whatever as long as it stops syncing useless folders.

4. It makes things much worse. A cascade of (Selective Sync Conflict) folders appear recursively on your machine, forever.

I'm really tired of getting prompted to pay more for Dropbox when they can't give us basic features like Ignore Folder. The feature request was on the Dropbox community and seen by Dropbox staff over 5 years ago. Embarrassing.

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
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Hey @b9chris, thanks for checking in with us and for the time you took to share your feedback here. 

At first, please note that when you uncheck a folder from the selective sync settings, you choose to remove that folder from your hard drive while keeping it in your account online and any other connected device. If you want to keep the folder locally, please make sure that you mark it with a tick. 

It sounds like you’re using an application that creates temporary files which are necessary for its processes. Selectively syncing those files may cause syncing issues due to their nature and/or the third party app may generate further files to fill in the broken pathways caused by selective sync. 

If you’d like a workaround on this, what might work is to pause syncing, open the file with the third party app, save the changes, resync the desktop app.

I understand if this isn’t the ideal reply you were looking for, but I hope it helps to some extent. 


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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kenjura
Explorer | Level 4
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This is still happening.

Steps:

  • Create a folder, let's call it foo
  • In foo, create a folder called "node_modules"
  • Go to Dropbox client, Selective Sync settings, and uncheck node_modules
  • Wait for sync
  • Verify on Dropbox.com that "node_modules" exists and is empty. Verify on local machine that folder no longer exists and Dropbox is 100% up to date and done syncing.
  • Create a folder called "node_modules".

Expected:

  • Folder exists locally, but does not sync because of Selective Sync settings. Files in that folder also do not sync.

Observed:

  • Dropbox forcibly renames folder to "node_modules (Selective Sync Conflict)" no matter how many times you try to name it "node_modules".

 

This behavior is completely blocking my flow. It is contrary to the way Dropbox has worked for years. It was always incredibly annoying to have to go through all these steps every time I make a new project to avoid needless syncing...but at least it worked. And now, suddenly, it doesn't.

Your suggestion to "rename the conflict folder" is vague. Rename the local folder? It must be "node_modules" and your software is preventing that. Rename the destination folder? Then Selective Sync won't know not to sync node_modules. Rename it to node_modules after the forced rename? Wish I could, but you, Dropbox, are preventing that.

 

If this isn't fixed, I'm done with Dropbox. It's been a nice decade, but you guys are obviously not interested in supporting your customers. It's one thing to not implement features like wildcard ignore that have been asked for for years, and another to break the one (terrible, but functional) workaround for your own application's shortcomings.

kenjura
Explorer | Level 4
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Also, new member, created 30 seconds ago? I signed up during the beta in 2008. I've made posts on the Dropbox forums that are almost old enough to get their own Dropbox accounts. Get your act together.

karen007
Explorer | Level 4
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I agree - on DB has no interest to serve the customers. Last week I asked the support team whether they could add a function to lock the Dropbox while I am away from my desk, or even create a "personal vault" like OneDrive so that others cannot get to some of my sensitive information. The answer is "no" because this is local folders that DB is synching. To be honest, the Chinese app "Baidu Cloud" can lock the cloud when you are in active for certain amount of time, while keep synching/transfering files at the background. That is, others cannot see what you are doing with the app while you are way. OneDrive can also lock a portion of the folder and make it invisible to others. I don't know how DB cannot. The only answer I got is to ask me keep safe with the windows log in password... 

 

About synching... every time I synch another machine which I didn't synch for a while, there will be "conflicted copies"... Can't DB just compare the files and decide which one is older and needs to be synched? Or maybe the two files are just the same? I don't understand. Something like total commander 15 years ago can already compare files and synch between folders - which means technically it is not impossible.

 

I am also more and more disappointed with dropbox.

Rich
Super User II
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@kenjura wrote:

Expected:

  • Folder exists locally, but does not sync because of Selective Sync settings. Files in that folder also do not sync.

Dropbox no longer operates that way. The functionality was changed as that was not an officially supported function of Selective Sync.

Dropbox now has a method in beta that allows you to set Dropbox to ignore files and folders. The new method is not yet available to all users.

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