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How do I delete duplicate Dropbox folder

I upgraded my wife from old Vista laptop to new Win10 laptop.

At first, I copied al her user folders to the new machine. This included her Dropbox folder. I later installed Dropbox. This downloaded all her Dropbox folders and files. This dropbox folder appears to be outside of her User folder. So we have Dropbox inside and outside the user folder.

I saved a file to the Dropbox folder inside her user folder and it showed up there. But it did not show up in the other Dropbox folder.

I would like to delete one of these Dropbox folders, but don't want to end up with all the files deleted (they are same files in both folders).

So, what is best plan?

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Accepted answers

Minato

Hey anonymous and @brianchew,

What @Pikamander2 has stated is correct.

I can also suggest to check which is the actual syncing folder on your computer by following these steps:

Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Click on your initials/profile pic
Click on "Preferences"
Click on the "Sync" tab

In the "Dropbox folder location" section, you should be able to see the location of the Dropbox folder.

Move or copy the files you want on that folder and then delete the unwanted one.

I hope this helps!

Mod note: edited to update steps [last update 2023]

All comments

Pikamander2

Hi gbm,

Before deleting anything, be sure to back up all of your files somewhere else, such as to a flash drive.

The folder that the Dropbox program uses is normally located at C:\Users\Username\Dropbox. That's the folder that you should keep.

The other folder isn't being synchronized by Dropbox, so it's effectively just a normal folder on your computer. That's the one that you should be able to delete.

If you want to be extra sure, can you please tell us the file path of the two folders?

unknown

After checking out the computer, it seems reason for there appearing to be two instances of Dropbox, was because of the way Windows 10 lists folder in File Explorer. It is something like this:

> Quick Access

v Desktop

>Dropbox

>Onedrive

>Username

>This PC

> Libaries

> Network

> Recycle Bin

then list of actual folders on users Desktop

Username expands to:

>Desktop

>Documents

>Downloads

>Dropbox

>etc

Both instances of Drop box point to C:\users\Username

This all works. However, on my Win7 laptop, the first instance of Dropbox does not appear. Not sure why it is there. I have not used Win 10 much, so maybe that is the problem

Due to way I transferred my wife's stuff, I had a duplicate of all the stuff on Dropbox in her Documents file. I have deleted that.

brianchew

@Pikamander2, i had the same issue. I reinstalled the DB software and it started an add'l DB file on my computer giving me two. So I went to the dropbox icon, right clicked to settings and change the sync dropbox location. That removed all my dropbox files and relocated them to a new location that I set. But now I have the other db file still there and it has the DB logo on it. infact, both of those folder locations have the db logo. When I try to delete the old one it says I do nto have the permissions to do so. how do i get rid of this other file?

Minato

Hey anonymous and @brianchew,

What @Pikamander2 has stated is correct.

I can also suggest to check which is the actual syncing folder on your computer by following these steps:

Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Click on your initials/profile pic
Click on "Preferences"
Click on the "Sync" tab

In the "Dropbox folder location" section, you should be able to see the location of the Dropbox folder.

Move or copy the files you want on that folder and then delete the unwanted one.

I hope this helps!

Mod note: edited to update steps [last update 2023]

Ralph6

I had similar issue with my original Dropbox system folder showing in 2 locations (Desktop and under Users). These appear to be the same logical System folder based on its Properties/Location. I could not delete the Dropbox folder showing under the Desktop folder, even after unlinking my Dropbox account. This appears to be a Windows phantom folder that doesn't really exist in two places. Is it just a nuisance and it's impractical to remove the duplicate Dropbox entry?

Rxn

I have multiple Dropbox applications on my computer with different folders - due to my stupidity when moving to new computers.

How do I integrate them into a single Dropbox application?

Rxn

These are not phantom folders. They have different files. As well, these occur on 3 computers, compounding the problem.

Walter

Hi @Rxn; welcome to our Community!

Could you please send me a screenshot of how this looks like on your computer(s) so I can advise further?

Thanks!

Rxn

Hi Walter

Thank you. Attached is a PowerPoint of the screen showing 5 instances of Dropbox highlighted in red.

Rick

Dropbox Conundrum.gif

Daphne

Hey @Rxn, thanks for the screenshots!

The desktop and taskbar icons are shortcuts for opening the Dropbox app itself on your computer. They would be for the same app installation, they're just different entry points.

Also, it seems that the NYU Dropbox is the folder that's currently syncing with the desktop app.

The "Dropbox" and "Dropbox (old)" folders appear to be in a backup folder on the K drive. Were these copies of the folder that were made during a backup perhaps?

If you check within the two folders mentioned above, have they been modified recently?

Rxn

Thank you.

Yes, the K drive was established when the computer crashed. So it was - at that time 6 months ago - created on an external drive.

The K drive is now the location where all my files are current. The K drive does not appear to link to the other Dropboxes. As well, I do not know how to access it remotely.

Rick

Walter

In that case, you could try moving your Dropbox folder to point to your K drive, Rick.

To make sure you get this right though, you can unlink your account through the app's preferences, and from there, upon re-linking it, choose your K drive from the 'Advanced Setup' option to be the location of your Dropbox folder.

If your old Dropbox folder was added, for example, to: K:\Desktop\Dropbox you would need to choose K:\Desktop and the client (i.e. the desktop application) will try and create a new Dropbox folder. If you're connecting with the same Dropbox account as before, Dropbox will detect the existing folder and will then prompt you to merge the Dropbox folder. Upon merging the desktop version of Dropbox will check the existing files and the server versions and update accordingly.

Please do note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder or on the web interface while the folder was "offline" will generate conflicted copies

Keep us posted on your progress!