Big Sur Dropbox not showing items in Documents folder

[billbaggy]

Hi,

I had an issue with my 2013 Mac Pro and wound up having to wipe my drive and do a fresh Big Sur install. Was able to do a TM restore for one user (my wife) but couldn't restore my user. Not really an issue since I keep everything in DB. Once I had everything restored. I ran DB (latest version 117.4.378). I was able to sync my wife's DB and all seemed fine, except that her DB Documents folder would not display the items in the finder, well partially. I could see them in list view, but could not see them when in column or icon view or if I was in the folder, directly. I could see all of the items in Terminal, no problem. I could even launch and open documents, but they would not display. I could even open documents from within an app like Word, for instance. I eventually solved that problem, by turning off selective-syncing of the Documents folder and then re-enabled selective-sync, switched Smart Sync to local and all of the items show up in Finder now.

So now I am setting up my user, as a new Mac user. DB is syncing all of my items and I can see all of my folders and items, except now my Documents folder is having the same issue. I have tried the same trick as before with no luck. I can see all of my files in the Documents folder in Terminal and can open directly from within apps, and If I am at any level above the Documents folder I can turn the arrow down in List View to see all of the files in the Documents folder (all have a green checkmark), but cannot see them if I open a Finder window directly in the Documents folder (it just looks like an empty folder).

I can also create items from Terminal (mkdir, touch, etc.) or from within apps directly (like Word) in the Documents folder, I can also drag items into the Documents folder in the finder in List View when sitting above that folder but not while sitting inside the folder itself. If I try to drag anything into it with the focus on the Documents folder, it acts like a locked folder (it isn't locked according to GetInfo). If I try to create a create a folder while sitting inside of the Documents folder, I get an error, The Operation Can't Be Completed: An Unexpected Error Occurred (error code -43) - looked that up and doesn't seem to help much here.

I am hoping someone else out there has experienced this and has a fix.

Thanks,

Bill

[Daphne]

Hey there @billbaggy, thanks for posting!

Would you mind sending me a few screenshots of what you're referring to here?

For example, how the files appear in the listed view compared to icon view.

Also, please let me know which OS version this device is running at the moment.

Looking forward to your reply!

[billbaggy]

Hi Daphne,

Thanks. OK, after a bit more searching around, I believe I figured out what was going on.

My system had previously had the OS upgraded over the years and I had not done a fresh install in many, many years. So I think some of the more recent changes in Catalina/Big Sur may not have presented themselves before this new fresh install.

I think there was an issue between iCloud Drive, Dropbox's new Backup option and how symlinks now work under Mac OS 11.  I had for years, had my Mac user Documents folder symlinked into my DB Teams account Documents folder. Ultimately, I had to turn off iCloud Drive (I don't really use it anyway), disable the Dropbox backup option (even though I had deselected the Documents folder, so this should not have affected this) and then signed out of DB to unlink my system from DB. After that, I could see all of the Documents in the Finder, no issue. I had to create the symlink to my DB Documents folder (followed new steps I found here ), then signed into DB again and all seems to be working, and I have also enabled one folder for backup in DB as well.

I have not tried re-enablingiCloud drive either at this point.

If anyone has a similar issue, this may be the solution.

Bill

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to me here @billbaggy.

I appreciate you taking the time to post this info, I'm sure it will be helpful for anyone who may be facing a similar issue!

If you run into any other issues with this, or have any other questions, please don't hesitate to give me a shout here.

I hope you have a great rest of your week Bill!