Folder showing a Share Icon

[JOfE]

Why do some folders in Dropbox.com show a sharing icon when the folder is not shared? I am refering to the sharing icon visible on dropbox.com not on the computer version. See the screenshot. 

[Daphne]

I'm happy to hear that helped @JOfE!

Since you mentioned never sharing the folders, if you created them via the website, is it possible you chose to create a new shared folder rather than a normal folder?

Otherwise, I'm quite stumped as to why they appear as a shared folder if you never chose to share them with others.

[JOfE]

I actually think these folders were originally created in a TEAM folder and then at later date moved out to a private folder.

This 'bug' creates a few problems for a business team moving shared files in this way.

We are literally going through thousands of folders and finding hundreds of 'shared' folders like this in our account. We are able to find these problem folders only by syncing the entire business account to a drive. We can pinpoint the problem folders only by their larger than normal file size. Some are buried deep in video file bundles. 

A few months ago we notice that some of our dropbox files were not showing ZERO file numbers. We created a ticket with Dropbox tech support to address this issue. It has been 2 months of back and forth and no solution.

Your insight @Daphne that the folders are somehow 'shared' and showing a shared icon, I believe, is the key to that problem. We notice that 'unsharing' an unshared folder resulted in the file size being to reset to zero. So good for you @Daphne. You solved a problem the techs could not.

I also noticed you can "unshare" any individual file in Dropbox in the way you described (Share, top-right gear icon, bottom left "unshare") ad Infinitum.

None of us here are impressed by this bug in dropbox and the work it has created for us. 

 

We are also finding files that show a 'shared icon' but are apparently shared with no one.

Happily, your fix @Daphne  works on these stranded folders also.

 

[Daphne]

Apologies for the inconvenience you're having with this @JOfE.

Would you mind sharing the ticket number (eg. #1234567) for your case with our Support team with me, so that I can check on this from my side?

Also, in the meantime, perhaps checking from your share tab here to locate the "shared" folders will help with this.

If you're not sure what/where the folder is, you can click the name to open it in another tab, so you can see the contents and full folder path.

From there you can also click the "..." menu, where you'll see the "Share" option to be able to unshare the folder directly from there too.

[JOfE]

Thank you for the tip as to where we can find all our shared folders. As a business account, this will take some time.

It is ticket number #11802005. It was created 2 months ago with messages back and forth with absolutely no progress. I had not received a reply on the ticket for the last 6 days. Yesterday I copied this thread to the ticket.  No response.

[AmyTYM]

I am a member of @John's business account. I remember that these folders were team folders. Problems arose when we moved files out of teams folders to archive them. This is my guess about where these sharing issues came form.

We have to unshared these folders one by one. I feel in am working with cloud sharing 101. A simple features like being able to 'unshare' multiple folders would be nice. Or removing 'unshare' option from files that are not shared would be something I'd have removed day one.  Attention to details Dropbox!  : )

[JOfE]

@AmyTYM  Get back to work 😉

[danielpassos]

I have the same problem and I did not find any unshare folder option

[Hannah]

Hey @danielpassos, have you checked the steps to unshare a folder here?

[danielpassos]

Yes, I did. My folder is not shared and I have no other folder inside. I don't see the Unshare folder option

[Hannah]

Can you send us a screenshot of what you see when you click on the "share" icon, Daniel?

Just make sure to hide any personal info, like email addresses.