Syncing folders as available offline to my hard drive is creating copies.

Question

I have been having trouble recently opening dropbox files on my mac laptop, so I decided to make more folders available offline.  I used the app's Sync and Storage option and selected a folder with many subfolders to download to my hard drive. It began creating copies of the subfolders.  These appear to contain data, they are not empty ghost folders.  The also appear on dropbox.com.  How do I fix this?

Megan · Answer

I can surely help with that @mzr23!

I'd also suggest uninstalling and then reinstalling the app. Here is how to uninstall it, and here is how to install it again.

Keep in mind that when you uninstall the app, the Dropbox folder will remain locally on your device. If you wish, you can delete it before reinstalling to start fresh.

If you have any questions, I'm here to help!

mzr23 · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion, but deleting the duplicates and resuming the app does not really address the main problem, which is preventing further copies from being created when I make folders available offline.  I would like to try uninstalling the dropbox from my laptop and starting fresh.  Can you point me to the Mac instructions for this?  Thank you.

Megan · Answer

Hey @mzr23, thanks for the additional info!

That is certainly an unusual issue. Here is how we can resolve it:

First, I recommend logging into Dropbox to check for duplicate files. This allows you to verify which version is the most current before deleting anything. You can then remove the duplicates and resume the app; the changes should sync accordingly.

Additionally, if you have a paid account, you can use the Dropbox Rewind feature. This is highly useful if you need to reverse a large number of changes in a specific folder or across your entire account. You can read more about it here.

I'll be waiting for your updates!