Moving a file is creating a copy in the original folder

[Niccodemure]

Morning
-When moving a file to another folder (sub or otherwise) The moved file will repopulate to it's original location, thus creating a copy.
-The file repopulates within minutes or within a couple hours
-I have also sat and watched as 10 files just came back after moving them
-Drag and drop as well as cut and paste both tried.

Any help would be appreciated

[IanDavidCottam]

Years ago I wrote a Bash shell script that runs on macOS called shadow. I don't use it anymore, but it has the functionality described in this thread. That is: it can be used by the owner of a share to stop people with edit permission from deleting or moving files (and possibly confusing others in the share who can no longer find such files). I think back when I wrote it everyone in a share got edit rights. So, on any users' Macs do a search for shadow. If it is run with the name unshadow, it stops the re-syncs. Of course, someone may just be running rsync in the raw to get a similar affect. Hope that helps.

[assistant123]

I am also experiencing this exact issue using Dropbox on my Windows desktop with shared files and it's driving me nuts! Has this been solved yet?

[IanDavidCottam]

I wonder if this issue could be caused by -- or a side effect of -- some users of the share using Smart Sync and some not?

I don't go anywhere near Smart Sync as it seems problematic on Macs, but I guess some people use it.

[Daphne]

Hey all, thanks for joining the discussion here!

Sometimes this can happen then the file is being accessed from another device, so Dropbox can't sync the deletion of the file and it ends up being synced back to the original location.

To see if something like this is happening, @assistant123 and @IanDavidCottam too if you also see this, would you mind checking the version history of the file added back in the original location?

Do you perhaps see the file added back by another member of the team and a device this was done from?

Let me know what you find and we can go from there - thanks!

[MarkeyVAHK]

Hello,

Has there been a solution to this? We are professional media house relying on dropbox to share files and work across countries and we are facing the same problem. It is causing much confusion. 

Any answers?

[JG2019]

Has there been a solution to this problem?  I am experiencing the same issue. 

[Daphne]

Hey peeps, apologies for the delayed reply here!

Would you both, @MarkeyVAHK and @JG2019, mind checking my previous post here and let me know what you find?

Let me know and we can go from there - thanks!

[JG2019]

Yes, the version history says the files were added back by other members.  But it is always a different member and that member was never using the file.   It must be added back in the background.   A failure to sync correctly perhaps?

[JG2019]

Daphne - 

I have a screenshot of the version history for a file that I deleted, then re-appeared again.  This happened just a few seconds ago.  Is there a way I can share this with you only.  It contains sensitive information.  

[Daphne]

Thanks for checking that @JG2019!

If the file is being added back to another member/device, then the deletion of the file can't be synced to that device.

This can either be because the file is open on the computer, or it's being accessed by a third-party app that is looking at the file (eg. antivirus, security programs etc).

In this case, you can try deleting the file from the device that it was added back from, or try deleting the file again after a short time period.

If you'd like to share the screenshot with me, you can open a ticket with Support here (attaching the screenshot) and let me know the ticket number here.

I hope this helps to clarify the matter - thanks!