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Cannot move shared folder if I am not the owner

I am trying to reorganize my dropbox because I literally have thousands of folders, and I need them to be more logically nested. This is no problem with shared folders that I own, but I can't move any shared folders where I am not the owner. This is a nightmare, because it means that every folder anyone has ever shared with me remains in my top level dropbox folder and cannot be filed into the relevant subfolder within dropbox. Because I can't find any information about this issue online, I am assuming that my dropbox is not functioning correctly. Hoping someone can help me to fix this issue?

Here is the error message I get when I try to move a shared folder where I am not the owner from my top level dropbox folder to a different subfolder within dropbox (that is not shared with anyone else, in case that is relevant):

Couldn't move folder

To move this folder, try contacting the owner of FOLDER_NAME

If I click on the "more information" link, it just takes me to a generic message about team folders. (Note: These are not dropbox business team folders--they are simply shared folders. I have a regular Dropbox pro account, on Windows 11, desktop version.)

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Comments

Hannah

Hey @Claire W.3, thanks for reaching out to us.

If I understand correctly, you're getting this error when trying to move the folders using your local Dropbox folder; have you tried this from dropbox.com?

If you have, can you try from a different browser as well and let us know what you see?

Thanks.

Claire W.3

Thanks, @Hannah, for the reply. I get the same error both online and on my desktop, for all folders owned by someone else.

Hannah

Thanks, Claire.

I was able to investigate a bit, and it seems that this behavior is expected for shared folders that are not owned by the person trying to move them.

However, I have passed your comments along to our team and if you need anything else, please let us know.

Claire W.3

I appreciate your reply @Hannah, but I know that this is not correct. There are many comments on the dropbox forums from users who describe organizing their files by moving folders shared with them into other folders. Further, my whole team is able to take folders that I share with them and put them into another folder (in fact, this is the lynchpin of our whole sharing system, since I access to individual folders varies by person--I send everyone a screenshot of what their folder structure should look like and then they create a parent folder to hold all the folders I share with them with the name of the overall project, to ensure consistency across the team. No one else on my team is having this issue.

It is also completely unacceptable to suggest that it is reasonable functionality that any folder that someone shares with me should just live in my top level dropbox folder, with me unable to organize it anywhere else--it essentially means that I lose access to these files, as I have hundreds of thousands of files, so files that are not organized simply are not usable to me.

I have been using dropbox since the year it started, but these kind of functionality issues are becoming a dealbreaker for me. Almost twenty years down the road, there should be better file organization capabilities for a service whose sole purpose is to sync files. If this can't be properly addressed, I am going to have to look elsewhere for a Dropbox alternative (I already assigned someone on my team to research dropbox alternatives).

Rich

@Hannah wrote:
... it seems that this behavior is expected for shared folders that are not owned by the person trying to move them.

When did this change, and more importantly, why? It was never like that before as I've moved many shared folders that are owned by other people into a common Shared folder in my Dropbox.

Nancy

Hi everyone, hope you’re all doing well.

Here’s what I could find, after checking with the team, as well; to move a shared folder into another shared folder, you must own the file or folder you’re moving and have edit access to the destination folder (also, mentioned here).

However, if the folder you want to move and the destination folder are owned by the same individual, you should be able to move the folder with no issues.

Claire W.3

Hi @Nancy,
I appreciate the response, but this issue has nothing to do with moving a shared folder into a shared folder. It is about moving a shared folder into another normal parent folder that is not shared with anyone. Dropbox should allow this, regardless of who owns the shared folder. But Dropbox gives me an error every time I try to do it.

Nancy

Apologies for the misunderstanding, @Claire W.3! My bad.

If the destination folder isn’t shared with anyone else, then this shouldn’t be happening.

Can you send me a screenshot of this folder’s icon, as it shows on your Dropbox account, so that I can take a look?

Matthew S.50

I'm having the same problem, as of sometime during the past week or two. Can't move a folder owned by someone else into a new top-level folder owned by me and shared with nobody.

I get the message "Ask the owner to move this folder. [Name] owns [foldername] and can move it." As if [Name] could somehow move it around within my dropbox folder structure...?

Clearly a bug, and not something that's working as intended, given that the error message suggests something that isn't possible.

Jay

HI @Matthew S.50, could you clarify exactly the structure of the folders you're mentioning?

Are they a team folder, shared folder, or a subfolder in either of these locations? Is this a Dropbox Business team or a personal account? Are you a team admin on the team, or a member? Is the owner a team admin?

Matthew S.50

Personal account. No "teams" or anything like that as far as I know.

Someone invites me to view or edit a folder, or sends me a link to a folder. (I don't know where that folder falls within their own dropbox account structure.) I add it to my own dropbox account, or join the folder, etc.

Regardless of the specifics above, the end result of the above is that there's a new shared folder in the top level of my dropbox account. I am not the owner of that folder.

What I have always been able to do is then move that folder into a subfolder, so that my top-level doesn't become a disorganized mess. That subfolder itself is unshared, but it contains many other folders shared with other people, some of which I'm the owner of, some of which I'm not. As recently as two weeks ago (or maybe three), I was able to do this, without any problem at all. I'd just drag the new top-level shared folder into the other folder, and voila, it moved.

I can no longer do that.

Здравко

@Matthew S.50, Did you try move that folder using Dropbox web? If not, give it a try; it may succeed. 😉

Good luck.

Matthew S.50

Tried it via web version today; it didn't work. I get the message "Ask the owner to move this folder. [Name] owns [foldername] and can move it."

Hannah

Hey @Matthew S.50, if you create a test top level folder in your account, that will be non-shared and won't contain any other shared folders, and try to move the shared folder into that, does it work?

Claire W.3

Hi @Nancy , here is a screenshot of the parent folder (not shared with anyone) where I am trying to put a bunch of shared folders:

If this isn't the screenshot that you mean, then please let me know.

I was away from my computer for a week traveling, and I will note that now, suddenly, I am able to copy files into the folder without an error, so something must have changed on Dropbox's end. I have not changed my settings or restarted my computer in the meantime (and the prior issue was happening both on my laptop and within the Dropbox web interface). So I'm not sure what caused the issue in the first place, or how it got resolved, but it does work as expected for me now. It would be great, though, to find out how to prevent this re-occurring in the future. 🙂

Thanks!

insightfulibis

@Claire W.3
I found a solution that works for me for now.
Note: I am using MacOS environment.
1. Im added to a shared folder (A) from someone outside of my organisation

2. that folder shows up in my top level DB folders
3. i have created a top level folder called "Shared with me" (B) (no one else has access to this)
4. I move the shared folder (A) (via DB web) to the (B) folder
5. then in Mac "finder" i create and "alias" of (A)
6. i move that alias to the folder in my DB structure that i need it.
----
Note: the alias folder will be accessible to everyone within the folder structure you arrange.
For me, we are a small team and do not require folder/file level permissions, so it is easy to manage.

Hope this helps.

D P

Same issue here: cannot move a shared folder I was invited to - to my own folder (NOT shared). Tried using Windows client and through web. So they're just supposed to live in the home folder now?? I've always moved shared folders before to keep things organized, so this is a new bug (or "feature"?)

Walter

Hey @D P - sorry to hear about this.

Are you getting any particular error when trying to do this via the website or is the site not responding?

Also, are you using an individual account or a team one?

D P

To move this folder, try contacting the owner of FOLDER_NAME

Family plan

Walter

Thanks for the clarification @D P - much appreciated.

Is the folder's owner part of the same family plan or are they using an individual account of their own or even a team account?

D P

They are not on the same plan.

Hannah

Hey from me as well, @d p.

What kind permissions do you have on the folder?

Is it possible that the owner of the folder has set any sharing restrictions? That's what the error suggests.

Have you tried discussing it with them?