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Orange Minus what does the icon mean?

Orange Minus what does the icon mean?

JWMS
Explorer | Level 3
Go to solution

Hello-

A couple of days ago, my Dropbox files suddently had an orange minus sign and the content was unavailable. I Googled the symbol, and uninstalled OneDrive---without success. This may be associated with a problem I've had since starting Dropbox---I seem to have two accounts. When I Iog into Dropbox.com, I get one set of a few folders that I almost never use; that also happens after clearing my Firefox cache.  On my file manager, when I save files, they go to a different Dropbox location that I can't access using Dropbox.com.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Hannah
Dropbox Staff
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Hey @JWMS, jumping in here as well, I hope that's okay!

 

Deleting the Dropbox folder from your snippet above, would cause your Dropbox folder to be deleted and along with it, all your Dropbox files and the backed up files, so please refrain from doing that.

 

If the files in your Dropbox folder are old and useless to you, you're welcome to delete those ones, and the deletion will sync to your account on dropbox.com.

 

But now, what needs to be done is basically up to you.

 

Do you want your desktop files to be backed up to Dropbox, so you can access a static copy on dropbox.com?

 

Or do you want to sync them? If you sync them, you'll be able to access and edit them both from your Dropbox folder and dropbox.com, whereas with Backup, you can just view them on dropbox.com, but not edit them.

 

If you'd like to sync them, they'll need to be added to your Dropbox folder, outside the PC folder.

 

To be safe, if you want to do this, I would suggest disabling the backup, so that your desktop folders are moved back to their original locations on your computer.

 

And then, you can move only the files you want to the Dropbox folder, to sync them to your account.

 

It's up to you, but I hope this helps!


Hannah
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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21 Replies 21

Walter
Dropbox Staff
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Hey there @JWMS, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

 

Could you have a look at your account's settings online and also at the app's preferences under the Account tab and let me know if you can see the exact same email address on both places?

 

Let me know and we'll take it from there.


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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JWMS
Explorer | Level 3
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Thanks, Walter-

I found the email address on Accounts, but not on Apps--this is what I saw:

JWMS_0-1693834671851.png

(Note that you are dealing with a senior citizen that is not super computer-savy..........Thanks, JWMS

Rich
Super User II
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@JWMS wrote:

I found the email address on Accounts, but not on Apps


Walter is referring to the Dropbox app, not the Apps tab on the website.

 

JWMS
Explorer | Level 3
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Sorry--there is no Dropbox icon on my Taskbar.  When I want to my desktop, two Dropbox icons appear.  The upper one gives me one set of folders (not the much larger set of folders I normally use), and the other one does nothing.  See the snip below:

JWMS_0-1693835927098.png

Also, when I go to Search, on my taskbar and click on the Dropbox app, nothing happens....

JWMS_1-1693836011100.png

Thanks!
JWMS

Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi @JWMS! I hope you're doing great.

 

What if you click on the "Open" button, as shown in your last screenshot? Do you see anything else then in your computer's system tray?

 

Also, when looking at your system tray (at the bottom part of your computer, close to clock settings), do you see any small arrows? If yes, please click there too, and let me know if you can see a small Dropbox icon now.


Nancy
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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JWMS
Explorer | Level 3
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Thanks, Nancy-

Nothing happens when I click "Open." I did click on location, and got:

JWMS_0-1693846660477.png

Nothing on my system tray. The only "arrow" was the upward facing caret for hidden icons, but it was not there, either...............

I get the following when selecting "all apps"

JWMS_1-1693846962231.png

Thanks for the help!  JAYWMS

Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Thanks for giving that a try!

 

If you haven’t already, I’d recommend reinstalling the Dropbox app on your computer at this point. To do so, please click on this link

 

Do you see the small Dropbox icon in your system tray after that?


Nancy
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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JWMS
Explorer | Level 3
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Thank you, Nancy----that solved the larger of my two problems:  the orange minus sign is gone, and I can access my files in Windows, especially my Word files that I use all the time.

However, when I log in to Dropbox using the icon in the task bar, or on-line via dropbox.com, I get an old file listing that apparently has not been updated in some time, and is a much-abbreviated version of my Windows file listing (that's also listing I get when I open Dropbox in Windows File Explorer). This may have something to do with my original non-paid version of Dropbox that my company set up.

Maybe related:  I've been saving files in Documents, not Dropbox, since they seemed to disappear when I saved them in Dropbox. (see the snip below)

BTW:  per an earlier suggestion in this thread, I checked the email address both from the taskbar icon and from dropbox.com and they are the same.

JWMS_0-1693856615737.png

I would prefer to delete the account with the abbreviated, outdated list of files, and have Dropbox retain the larger set of files I get in Windows explorer.

Thank you for your help!

 

Megan
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi @JWMS, can you share your app's syncing status at the moment, along with some screenshots of some example files as you see them locally, versus what you see when you visit your account online?


Megan
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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