When I delete a file, why do I receive a message that it will be "deleted from all devices"?

[TuiAllen]

I hope this is in the right place. Not sure. It is probably the stupidest question but has puzzled me for ages.

I sometimes have a file on dropbox I want to delete because it is now out of date. I just want to replace that one file with the up-to-date version. So I try to delete it. Then I get a message from dropbox asking me if I want it deleted on all my devices. Of course I do not because then it would delete the up-to-date one on my own computer. I only want to delete the out-of-date one on dropbox, so I can put the latest version in its place. So I did complicated things like re-naming the newer version on my computer to stop dropbox recognising and deleting it. That worked. But I got sick of that.
So I tested it with a file that did not matter. I found that dropbox does not in fact delete it from my home computer. Only from dropbox. So why does it give me this alarming message warning that it is going to delete it everywhere?

[Daphne · Accepted solution]

Hey there @TuiAllen,

The notification is just to clarify that removing the file from the Dropbox folder will in turn delete the file from your account, so it will also be removed from your other devices.

The Dropbox desktop app doesn’t have the ability to read the files outside of the Dropbox folder so it wouldn’t be able to delete anything outside that folder either. The method you want to use doesn’t need any more steps than simply deleting the old file and then adding the new one to your Dropbox folder in its place.

Hope this helps clarify the matter, let me know if you have any other questions - Thanks!

[Intact]

Hi 

I have accidentally selected for this message not to come up anymore, anyone knows how can i make DropBox ask me this question everytime?

Thanks 

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @Intact!

Can you try the steps below and let me know if that does the trick?

1. Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar.
2. Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
3. Choose "Preferences..."
4. Go to the "Account" tab.
5. Hold the Alt+H (Windows) keys or the Space bar (Mac).
6. Click the option "Reset file system warnings".

Keep me posted!

[usrcm]

What can we do to stop these notifications?

[Jay]

Hi @usrcm, generally when you see one, there's an option to disable them with a checkbox to prevent seeing them again.

Are you on a Mac or Windows device?

[usrcm]

This happens on Windows Server 2019 & Windows 10 Professional.

Screenshot of the issue: https://gyazo.com/25298e377b43c1cccd9e72aaa899ef46

[Jay]

Are you getting these messages solely for online-only files, or do you get them for local files as well?