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I'm deleting a folder but it keeps showing up.

I have selected 'Delete' on selected folder, it disappears then reappears with the same exact 'date modified' date stamp within 5 seconds after I select 'Delete.' I have tried about 10x and so has my friend who shares the same Dropbox. Looked at security permission and I have all activated.

Thank you for any help.

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poussard M.

This is what you do to fix this. Go to your settings, security, security checkup, move through the questions to the devices listed. Logout of all devices (computers, smartphones). Then go to a browser, access your dropbox account, delete folders. They are finally gone and do not pop back in a few seconds. If any computer is logged into dropbox you cannot delete a folder.

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Aisling G.

Hi Island! Sorry to hear about this folder reappearing. Reappearing files and folders usually occur because one or more of the computers that are synced are still accessing the folders. If you delete them, an application on another computer recreates them to continue working on the files.

To solve this issue, you should delete the file or folder from the Dropbox folder on the computer that's recreating the file. You can see which computer has re-added the file by going to the website and checking previous versions of the file.

The instructions for checking a file's version history can be viewed here:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/11

Please note that you can only view the previous version of files not folders. If you have a reappearing folder, you'll need to open the folder until you locate a file, so that you can view the previous version of the file within the folder.

I hope this helps!

Shlomit H.

I have the same problem and this didn't help me.

The instruction of this Help does not Help me see the folder's history.

It's a folder I created, and I have a few people that shared the same folder. Two days ago, I accidentally added a folder with to many GB, and I deleted it immediately. since than it's keeps showing with it's subfolders. All of them are empty of files. I'm unable to delete is as it reappears 5 seconds too.

Marion B.

I have the same problem. The folder I am trying to delete is empty, so it doesn't help to search for a file history

Aisling G.

Sorry to hear about this! If you go to dropbox.com/support and follow the instructions there, you should be able to get in touch with a member of the support team. Please let us know the name of the empty folder which is reappearing, and we can figure out which computer is adding it.

Thanks!

Shlomit H.

I already done that, but today I received an answer from you guys, that tell me to go to support again.

So you are telling me to go there, and there is telling me to go here.

Do you recon this is a good support? that each one is "throwing" me to the other?

come on...

Shlomit H.

Can someone Help please?

Marion B.

I had a contact with the French support team and they helped me solve the problem.

There was one (authorised) computer which was trying to access the shared folder for synchronisation. Because the folder was considered active by Dropbox, Dropbox kept recreating it immediately. The support team was able to tell me which device.

All I had to do is close Dropbox on this computer, then log to the Dropbox website from the same computer and delete the desired folders.

Shlomit H.

I already tried that, nothing I do helps.

I really need the support team, but it seems no one really helps.

Eric K.19

I have the same issue. Was there any resolution here? I've tried deleting from the dropbox website too and it still reappears.

Bruce F.4

Hi All. I've had the same problem for a while and somehow today I think I've cracked it... though not exactly how as it was totally a case of trial and error. I started by logging out of Dropbox on all devices I thought might be connected including the PC I'm using now as well as a couple of iPads.

I'm not sure it's an issue with Dropbox itself as I found some settings in the "Auto-play" part of the Control Panel of my PC which I think may have been causing the error. I'm running Windows 7 - to open the Control Panel, click on the Start Button on the bottom LHS of the screen, Control Panel will be on the LHS of the menu that pops up. Click on Control Panel. When the Control Panel open up, click in the Search window at the top RHS of the screen and type "auto". A list of results will appear, one of which should be AutoPlay. Click on AutoPlay. In this screen you will see a a large number of items which can be configured. When I opened this screen it had "Import Photos and Videos using Dropbox" selected for a lot of the configuration items. For each one that had this, I changed it to "Ask me everytime". Once you've updated all the "... Dropbox" items, then click on the Save button. Once I did that I opened Windows Explorer, went to the Dropbox folder and deleted all the folders that I didn't want. I then logged back into Dropbox on my PC only. Can't remember if the folders had already disappeared, but if they hadn't I also deleted them within Dropbox. Then I started typing this comment... and the folder still hasn't come back! Hope this helps.

Jennifer R.16

This is my experience - not sure if it will be relevant to others. I've been trying to delete some Dropbox files today too. Finally I realised that Dropbox was stuck in a sync with 4 files apparently unrelated to the ones I was trying to delete. It was showing sync time as 2 hours. I paused the syncing on both my computers (while turning off other devices which use the Dropbox App) and deleted the files I wanted to delete both on the Dropbox website and on my computers. I emptied the Trash too. (Yes I know this is probably a bit paranoid) Then I switched back on the syncing which completed in seconds and my deleted files stayed deleted. I use a Mac, and the MP3 files I was trying to delete had been sent to me via an NTFS formatted USB stick by a Windows user.

Bruce F.4

Thanks Jennifer R. You've reminded me that I also paused the synch which was also taking a couple of hours. I think the long synch was because I tried to drop ALL the photos on my PC into Dropbox and they took up more space than the free version allows. Once I had deleted the folders as per my previous comments I re-started the synch.

Stephen M.16

I had the same problem with a reappearing folder - I could not delete it from my PC. However, after reading comments here about other devices causing a conflict, I tried deleting the folder from my tablet and it worked!

Eric C.7

I have the same problem and it is annoying.

Marius A.

I have the same problem. I suspect a mobile device might be the culprit, but the device is not listed on the site!

Savash K.

I have the same Problem its driving me crazy any real fix for this?

Bill D.13

Need this fixed! When??

Peter L.78

Boris W.2

Hi all, Happy New Year!

I got the same problem too.

I use my Android to delete the folder "shellext ". <-- Right, u see space include the name. I think that was the problem.

I think u can use any PC or Smartphone to delete it but not tested! First try with Android was successful.

Nancy K.2

I have tried contacting support, they know this is a problem, I hope they resolve it soon, I went as far as to tun off all computers and iPads that were syncing except one for a day and it still happened!

Aiko S.

I'm having the same issue. This is very bad and needs a fix ASAP. Thank you.

Boris W.2

The folder name includes a spaces at the end and Windows can't handle it.

Try to use an Android or Linux on a network share folder to rename "ShellExt " in "ShellExt" or delete them.

I do it with Android and ES File Explorer File Manager:

on Windows:

Share folder below shellext folder

on Android:

Install and/or open ES File Explorer app
slide to the Network tab
tab on New and add your PC with the folder issue
tab on your pc and navigate to the folder
rename "shellext " to "shellext" or delete it.

Let me know if it work or not.

rachel g.7

I struggled with this problem all day - my son suggested checking which computers are linked to Dropbox. I went to my account online (under settings I think?) found a whole list of old computers there, unchecked the ones I'm not using, or X'd them off, then went and deleted that folder, and it was FINALLY gone!

Finding that list is convoluted, and sorry but I don't have time right now to retrace the route and write down the path for you, but it's probably easy to Google.

Hope this helps others with this problem

Petra K.1

i had an interesting thing that happened while desperately trying to permanently delete an old folder. Suddenly there was a row of links on top of the page and one of them said 'delete' - I clicked it and the folder was gone. I was unable to repeat the process with another folder. Something is really screwy...

mobilerik

I had the same problem and have finally fixed it in the following way. The folder I was trying to delete was within a shared folder of which I am the owner. Here are the steps:

1. Log in to the Dropbox web app on dropbox.com;

2. Click on the ’Sharing’ icon on the left (it’s currently a rainbow) to display a list of all shared folders;

3. Scroll to the shared folder that contains the folder you are trying to delete, and click once to select it;

3. Click on the share button on the right of the folder, to display a list of users that have access rights to that folder;

4. Change the access rights to those users that currently have ‘Can edit’ to ‘Can view’;

5. Now you can delete the folder you wanted to delete; this should now work without the folder being re-added;

6. Change the access rights again to those users that had ‘Can edit’ in step 4 and you are done.

This worked immediately for me. I guess if you are not the owner of the shared folder you’ll need to ask the owner to follow the above steps.

I hope this helps.

poussard M.

Mark

Just to add to Poussard's answer this is certainly one of the best ways of doing it because, not as said with the logging in and deleting (as you can), but, because one of the linked Dropbox devices has a corrupt database which is what is causing the folder to be restored. Unfortunately its almost impossible to work out which one it is so this is the best way of doing it,

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