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I need to permanently delete my files, but I get message "x items couldn’t be permanently deleted".

When I wanted to permanently delete a file or folder (which I may have shared with others or not). I used to be able to delete it in Finder and then would get asked by Dropbox:

Delete "untitled folder" from everyone's account and all devices?

I then confirm with "Delete for everyone" and proceed to empty the trash on my Mac.

Now I log on to my Dropbox account, go to "Deleted files" and select the ones I want to permanently delete.

Then confirm this and they were gone, space would be freed up.

Well, gone are those glory days of simplicity, because:

NOW I get told by Dropbox: "File XYZ will be gone forever for everyone, including for anyone still using the folder. Permanently deleting this folder won’t free up space."

I confirm by selecting "Permanently delete"

NOW I get the message: "x items couldn’t be permanently deleted"

Dropbox tells me – uselessly: "What you can do":

"Ask the owner to help permanently delete this"

I AM the #!*¥ owner, aren't I? Plus, didn't clicking "Delete for everyone" on the desktop version make it clear that ALL those files have to go?

Shurely this is a recent bug. It wasn't such a hassle before to get rid of old files. Or am I missing something?

Grrrrr

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Hannah

Hey @widensteynie, thanks for posting and welcome to our Community.

This error message appears when you're trying to delete a folder that you didn't create or are not the owner of.

If you go to your 'All files' page on our website, and click on the share button next to the folder in question, who do you see as the owner? Is it you or someone else?

Let me know what you see.

All comments

Hannah

widensteynie

Hey Hannah, thanks for being in touch so swiftly. You were right. When I check on the dropbox website, it says that I: "Can edit" but another person is "Owner", even if it was me who created the files. It seems that the person I am sharing the folder in question with automatically becomes "Owner" for all the files and subfolders I create in said location. I was, however, just now able to permanently delete several files of which I am definitely NOT "Owner" – when I click on the "share" button "Owner" is the person I am sharing the folder with and that I "can edit". I am quite sure I used to be able to permanently delete files in shared folders, either via Finder (Mac OS) or on the dropbox website. So, this random behaviour must be relatively recent.

Jay

Hi @widensteynie, just to clarify something, deleting files normally automatically frees up space, so there isn't a need to permanently delete files, since the space has already been freed up.

This is only needed if you don't want to be able to recover the files.

You can permanently delete files in a shared folder you're not the owner of, if you were the one who uploaded those files in the first place. If you try to permanently delete a file that was uploaded by the other person, then you won't be able to do so.

Andyjenk2

If I upload a file, am I not its owner? How does Dropbox assign ownership?I am confused!

Jay

Hi @Andyjenk2 , are you uploading a file to a private folder, a shared folder, or are you on a Dropbox Business team?

Could you clarify what issue you're experiencing, currently?

1727030

I cannot delete certain file types even. I am using dropbox on ubuntu 20.04 -- on firefox. I am the singular user of this account. The files I am trying to delete are on a directory that is in the cloud only, I have other small directories on my computer that sync to dropbox. I transfer files from my local folder to this remote directory. I want to delete large files in my remote directory, however the large folders will simply refuse to delete when I tell them to. If I go in and start deleting the files in each folder SOME of them will delete, but others will not.

I cannot *believe* that *deleting* files is somehow a hard thing to do. Unless this is completely resolved as a chronic problem for me, I will be churning to a competitor.

1727030

Nevermind. I already went with Mega. What waste of money.

1727030

In my case this problem ended up be unsolvable so I left and went with mega.

ainmo

I can see how old your post is, and to this day, again, I don't have control of my own files when I need to delete them and when I need to free space. It's like Dropbox tries to push you into buying more space rather than providing useful solutions. your message is almost 3 years old, and here I am with the same problem. Really disappointed in Drobox. I finally swithed to iDrive, but can't even free my dropbox account just to not have my files floating all over the place.

Hannah

Hey @ainmo, thanks for the nudge here.

While we appreciate your feedback, can you let us know what issue you're coming across when trying to delete your files?