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I can’t create new folders or move existing ones from my root Dropbox

This new file system for teams is absolutely awful and workflow-destroying. We can no longer create new folders or move folders on the root of the dropbox. That such a basic feature. Whenever I want to to move folders from the root I have to copy them and then delete the old one, all via the web interface, this is far slower, with more chance of error and (I may be mistaken here) as the files are a copy rather than a move you have to download them again.

Would be fascinated to here rationale behind this. I'll be looking in to alternative services when I get some downtime because this isn't workable.

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Accepted answers

AnastasiaDBX

Hi Wayne! Thank you so much for sharing this feedback with us. We're actively working on improvements to both of these experiences, based on your feedback. In the meantime, if you right click at the top-level, you should have a "Create folder and share" option. It will redirect you to web to complete the folder creation, but you should be automatically signed in, which hopefully makes it a little less onerous. I will share an update here as we make improvements. Thank you again for your feedback, we really appreciate it!

Screenshot 2024-07-16 at 4.01.22 PM.png

All comments

Nancy

Thanks for posting on the forum, @daveyp.

To clarify, do you mean that you’re unable to create new folders/move them from your root Dropbox to another location both on the website and the desktop app?

Are you receiving any errors when trying to move them? If yes, feel free to send a screenshot, as well.

Let me know when you’ve got updates.

daveyp

Hi Nancy,

In finder on a mac you cant created new folders on the root of the dropbox, not drag folders in or drag to move folders in to other folders.

On web you can make new folders on the root, but you still can't move them, only copy, oh and this requires the admin console I believe.

It's a huge step back for useability.

Jay

Hi @daveyp, we appreciate the feedback on this matter.

We take all comments into consideration when improving the Dropbox app, site and services.

daveyp

Thanks. Is there any way to get the old functionality back, or any plans to add it as an option?

Failing that, any workarounds or anything I'm doing wrong?

I'm really surprised even Admins can't move team folders anymore, it's such a basic function.

HGVDriverGroup

The newest update for Dropbox Business is rather stupid. For people who use the file explorer version of Dropbox, it's INEFFICIENT. Why suddenly remove our access to move folders, or even create folders from the explorer version because people aren't careful enough when using it? We weren't made aware of the update coming into force either. How can you restrict access on only half of our employees and not the other half?

Please REVOKE this update and stop interfering with things that DO NOT need to be changed.

erickaka

The new drop box update has not been advised to anyone it is just updated without informing its users that you cannot move folders. In the update it moved our existing folders into others making it inefficient for our work. It was done to stop people from deleting folders from their desktop which can be recovered from TRASH so PLEASE CAN WE HAVE IT BACK!!!

nada_dbx

Hi, PM from Dropbox here. I'm sorry to hear you're having issues after the update. You should have gotten an email with subject `Update coming [Mon DD]: Next steps to prepare your team`. Could you please check your spam folders for that?

And on the desktop file explorer, can you check and let us know if you're able to see context menu action to create folder at the Dropbox root? Screenshots will also be helpful if you can share!

daveyp

Hi Nada,

Sorry for the delayed reply, only just seen this.

Attached are two screenshots, one of the options i get in my root folder, and the other inside a sub folder.

Screenshot 2024-07-12 at 18.40.18.png

Viveca

I am having the same problems: can't make new folders in root folder. Can't move files or folders into the root folder. It is destroying our workflow. Please fix this ASAP.

I tried in Apple Finder and in Dropbox online through Firefox and Chrome. I also tried from both of our account seats.

Here are two screenshots.

Add Folder option grayed out from root folder:

Screenshot 2024-07-12 at 12.41.45 PM.png

Add Folder option active from a sub folder.

Screenshot 2024-07-12 at 12.41.34 PM.png

Viveca

One more note: this problem is only happening in my company Dropbox Standard account. My personal free account is fine. It feels like we're paying to have a version that works less well.

Viveca

And a tech-savvy friend just tried to add the folder from the terminal and got this:

Screenshot 2024-07-13 at 12.02.27 PM.png

Wayne Peterson

Apparently the latest update to Dropbox eliminated two essential functions in the Dropbox App for Mac which syncs and interacts with Finder:

1. Users can no longer create top-level folders in Finder. You now require that we log-in to Dropbox.com and do so there. What an idiotic, user-unfriendly, pain-in-the-ass of a process.

2. Users can no longer drag and drop a top-level folder directly into another folder in Finder. And we may not be able to do so even on Dropbox.com. We were just told that we need to copy the folder, past the copy into another folder, and then delete the original folder, and only on the Dropbox.com site. That's equally idiotic, user-unfriendly, and a pain-in-the-ass process.

Whoever (risk management attorney?) decided this was a useful and appropriate reduction in the usefulness of Dropbox as a service was asleep at the switch at minimum.

Fix this. Restore the functionality. Do it quickly -- or you'll start losing users quickly, beginning with my company.

AnastasiaDBX

Screenshot 2024-07-16 at 4.01.22 PM.png

Hannah

Hey @daveyp and @Viveca, thanks for the screenshots and the additional info.

I just wanted to confirm that this is expected behavior.

Top-level folders can now only be created from our website, however, we've passed your feedback along to our team, so we appreciate you taking the time to reach out.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Viveca

Thank you for replying. That's a horrible decision. Please fix it.

Also, it doesn't completely address the question. I had tried creating top level folders from the website, and it didn't work there either. I tried on Firefox and Chrome from two different members' accounts. I could not create top level folders or move existing files or folders to the top level. I actually can now, but this function did seem to be broken for quite a while.

In any case, please restore the ability to do this from Finder. The OP was correct that this is absolutely awful and workflow-destroying. Thank you.

Viveca

This is not expected behavior. Our business has been using Dropbox for years. What we expect is for it to work at least as well as it has always had, not to become unusable after upgrades.

We keep trying to find workaround for this horrible loss of function, and Dropbox is thwarting us at every turn. I made top-level folders online so we would have them to rename. But when one member of the team renames them, they don't re-name for the other members. And when we rename a folder in the finder, it allows us to type the new name but then changes it back to the previous name. It's unusable.

PLEASE FIX DROPBOX SO IT'S COMPATIBLE WITH THE FINDER AS IT ALWAYS WAS!

Thank you.

daveyp

Thank you for passing on the feedback.

To add another example of the problems it causes. Within our folder structure we have an archive folder in which put old projects, to keep the root uncluttered.

Previously I could simply drag projects in to that archive folder to move them when they were finished. Now I have to go on to the admin console, copy them (duplicating the storage usage) then in order to delete the original copy I have to use Dropbox archive function, wait for that to complete and then delete it from the archives section of the website. I also have to verify that the copy worked too. This is so very long winded and also creates risk of data loss.

PapaNinjago

This is not possible in Windows. The options are extremely limited. What a really bad decision to do this. Our business OneDrive account is not this overly restricted.

Here's a snapshot of what I have available when right clicking inside our root folder. This is with the Show more options selected in Windows 11.

swigyfood

The new file system is terrible for workflow, limiting basic actions like creating and moving folders on Dropbox's root. This process is now slower, error-prone, and may require downloading files again.

Slafitte

This is absolutely NOT expected behavior. Whomever created this system does not use the product. This is causing lost time and productivity, and is adding stress and frustration to our team. The sell for me was Dropbox's ease of use. This makes your product unusable, and if it does not change pretty **bleep** fast, then I will change to another solution.

FECHSTUDIO

Hi, the same here: no one on my team received any notification about the changes Dropbox was going to make.

Please believe it; this change is causing serious problems and wasting time in our workflow.

FECHSTUDIO

We have the same problem, and it's really frustrating.

Slafitte

Adding: I am the administrator on our account, and I still don't have full acccess and capability over our files.

mpthomas

Adding this chorus. This makes DropBox a bad offering for enterprises. We're actively looking for alternatives.

asfdsadfasdf

For some reason the creation of top level folders has been disabled in explorer & finder, I'm not sure why this functionality has been removed but it's clearly less efficient - please can you bring it back!

Wayne Peterson

So, Anastasia, when should we expect to see this functionality restored? Given how easy it was for Dropbox to remove it, I cannot imagine it would be more difficult to restore. The fact that this was intentional on the part of Dropbox doesn't make it defendable or something users should simply obediently accept as "in our best interest." It was an arrogant, short-sighted move, and one you should promptly correct. You're outside the "prompt" window already since I posted the initial feedback over a month ago. What should we expect and when? Thank you.

Viveca

I have not been able to find a Create folder and share option, and even if I did, I access Dropbox from several different accounts, so I am not always logged into the relevant one at that moment. Sometimes, I'm not logged into anything at all, which wasn't a problem when I could create folders on my computer, confident they would synch the next time I went online. This workaround is unnecessarily onerous. It's been months. I still haven't discovered any advantage to the new lose of functionality or heard any defense of it. Please restore the old system!

employee003030303

Chiming in here. Ive been using dropbox for years. Why would this be changed? I have been trying to figure out why I cant create a new folder for months.

Camille3C

This change just made it to my dropbox account and has practically stopped all workflow. We have been loyal DB customers for 10 years and this is making me rethink and switching to Drive. We need to be able to copy/paste in the root folder in finder for DB to be efficient for us. It seems like there are a lot of people with the same problem. When will this be addressed?

daveyp

Hi Nancy,

Any Dropbox HQ on this yet? Because this filesystem is unfathomably **bleep**.

I just tried to rename a folder in finder and got asked my admin password, i put it in but got told i don't have permission because of the new file system and now it seems to have broken my syncing and unsynced 150gb of files, so you've lost me a days a work.

There's quite a few replies here from other users who are telling you that this system just does not work.