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Dropbox takes over the Documents folder

i am having this issue with a mac mini M1 - i am running the beta software that is supposed to work with the M1. I migrated data only using the migration assistant built into macs. Dropbox takes over my documents folder as soon as a sign in and the path changes showing it is now a dropbox folder - after doing a migration that folder is empty and if i restore to that folder the files disappear within a few minutes.

I am likely saying goodbye as i am fed up with poor mac support and poor support in general. I spent 4 hours chatting with their support people BEFORE i did the migration because i anticipated issues and sure enough the issues are real.

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Hannah

Thanks for getting back to me, @sturdy.

I understand your frustration, so let's see if we can manually revert the locations of your desktop folders. Please follow these steps:

1) Firstly, check that computer backup has been disabled successfully for each folder.

Go to Finder. In the top bar, click Go —> Home.
If you see shortcuts of the folders (Icons with arrows), select them, right-click, and Move to Trash. If you don't see the shortcut arrows, then move to step 2.
Click Continue on this prompt > "Item Desktop is locked. Do you want to move it to the Trash anyway?"
When they are removed, right-click New Folder and create one for each item that you deleted in the previous step, for example, Desktop, Documents, and Downloads.
To restore your Favorites entries, in the top bar, click Finder —> Preferences —> Sidebar, and check each item. You can also remove any unwanted entries via right-click—> ‘Remove from Sidebar.’
To fix the Downloads dock entry:
- Right-click on it —> Options —> "Remove from Dock".
- In the Finder sidebar, right-click Downloads —> "Add to Dock".
Click the Apple icon —> Force Quit —> Finder —> Relaunch.
Now, you can move any files from Dropbox back to their respective original locations.

2) If the computer backup has been successful, then you should be able to simply open Finder, go to your Dropbox folder, and click on the Mac folder.

3) Click into the folder, for example, Documents, where you want to revert your files back to.

4) Copy or move those files back to the original folders, which you can open from the Favorites in the left pane of Finder.

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Rich

@iTechnology
wrote:
Dropbox takes over my documents folder as soon as a sign in and the path changes showing it is now a dropbox folder

You have the computer backup feature enabled.

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/automatic-computer-backup-faqs

iTechnology

i do not believe i have the backup feature set up? when i click that screen under preferences for the desktop app - i see by default the 3 boxes are checked but i uncheck them and click not now - with that said i might have had it set up at one point because i see a file called mac with my backup inside of it. I just did a migration so my guess is that file is from the old computer. any ideas what to do?

iTechnology

i read the faq and i un-linked all of my computers and then re started DB and linked my new M1 mac - it does the same thing.

for anyone reading this - i would never use this service again in 100 yrs - i am a very sophiticated user with both macs, windows and linux. Here are some issues:

- Downloading any file over 1 gig is impossible - so if u backup a 3 gb file and decide dropbox sucks you cannot download the file unless u break it up into smaller file sizes

- system is super buggy with M1 silicon macs - takes over documents folder in many cases

- if u think u are going to migrate and use dropbox u are dreaming - it places every folder from old machine into a sub folder dropbox/

- if u think u can migrate to a NEW machine using an ext hard drive or any migration tool - the files get duplicated or have issues

- also how exactly do you migrate if you clicked online only and it now longer recognises your machine because u migrated to a new one

DROPBOX IS NOT GOOD!

sturdy

I am experience the same thing.. on my macbook pro, i have painstakingly uninstalled, stopped sync-ing, uncheck all options for backups, its so annoying that, when i open a new folder on my desktop, what i see is ; untitled/Users/user/dropbox/my mac(sldy.hitron.home)/desktop/untitled. This is just wrong. and when i permanently delete the 'Dropbox' folder, it wipes off every content on my desktop and documents and become inaccessible from the side bar. I hope someone from support could provide real solution to this issue.

sturdy

That is not true.. It is frustrating with dull response about backups, link or sync issues. After following all these steps, the issues still persists.

I had Dropbox uninstalled on my Mac and permanently deleted the Dropbox folder from my device which also apparently deleted my Documents folder, Desktop folder and others. When i create a new folder on my desktop this is what i noticed; untitled/Users/user/dropbox/my mac(**bleep**.hitron. home)/desktop/untitled or Dropbox/minime/Documents.

Why would Dropbox move my Documents folder and Desktop folder, all contents on my desktop now have Dropbox in the path (new and existing) and take ownership of it.

After doing a full restore from a time machine, whenever I clicked on the Documents or any contents on my desktop, it would actually take me to /Users/MY_ID/Dropbox/blah.../Documents, with Dropbox app installed or backup or any of those.

It is indeed very weird having Dropbox in the path, also why an app might want to change the MacOS shortcut to it's own sync folder.

Anyway, this is what i am going through.

Hannah

Hey @sturdy, sorry to see you're having this issue.

Is the Dropbox application currently uninstalled?

If so, can you please reinstall it and then follow these steps, to see if they help?

sturdy

I have done that repeatedly, now it wont even allow me to sign in after re-installing the app on my desktop to follow the procedures you mention. Mind you i have follow those steps before but to no avail, I am only doing again for the umpteenth time since you mention it just to let you know

sturdy

i can no longer sign in from the desktop app, even while i have my account signed in from the browser

Hannah

Could it be possible that you have more than 3 devices linked to your account and that's why it's not allowing you to sign in?

You can see your connected devices here.

sturdy

I already checked from the web, i have no devices linked to the account.. This is just frustrating even after doing a complete restore of my mac, DB still appear to be in the path and when i go into library to delete anything related to DB including DBtoolhelper, my desktop, download and document folder is gone. But when i re-install my OS and did not do a restore from backup machine, DB is no longer in the path and that is not helpful at all, as all my major documents and contents are in my backup drive and once i enter time machine and access them, DB finds its way back and appear in the path. What kind of program is that? DB working like some kinda of virus sneaking its way back.

sturdy

Before you responded to my query, i have done and six-tuple check; from backups, to re-install, quit, un-install, unlink and so forth. I realised like many, my Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Music folder were "missing" (could not click on them and had files were gone). They names of the icon were still there, but the original icon was gone (the arrow pointing down for Downloads, for example), and upon clicking them, they showed: "The operation can’t be completed because the original item for “Downloads” can’t be found." i have even scoured my entire library and deleted Dropboxhelpertool' and multiple folders with Dropbox name and above is the result

Hannah

Thanks for getting back to me, @sturdy.

I understand your frustration, so let's see if we can manually revert the locations of your desktop folders. Please follow these steps:

1) Firstly, check that computer backup has been disabled successfully for each folder.

Go to Finder. In the top bar, click Go —> Home.
If you see shortcuts of the folders (Icons with arrows), select them, right-click, and Move to Trash. If you don't see the shortcut arrows, then move to step 2.
Click Continue on this prompt > "Item Desktop is locked. Do you want to move it to the Trash anyway?"
When they are removed, right-click New Folder and create one for each item that you deleted in the previous step, for example, Desktop, Documents, and Downloads.
To restore your Favorites entries, in the top bar, click Finder —> Preferences —> Sidebar, and check each item. You can also remove any unwanted entries via right-click—> ‘Remove from Sidebar.’
To fix the Downloads dock entry:
- Right-click on it —> Options —> "Remove from Dock".
- In the Finder sidebar, right-click Downloads —> "Add to Dock".
Click the Apple icon —> Force Quit —> Finder —> Relaunch.
Now, you can move any files from Dropbox back to their respective original locations.

4) Copy or move those files back to the original folders, which you can open from the Favorites in the left pane of Finder.

MarcelloSax64

Hi, I've tried to follow the steps you advised me to do. I thank YOU so much. Now i've got my desktop and my folders again in the right place.

Next step is to understand how many copies of the folders i've have now in my Mac. But no problem. Thank YOU so much