Duplicate Dropbox locations after update

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Katie!

I'm glad that with Jay's help we were able to figure this out.

You can read more about symlinks and this hidden Dropbox folder and instructions on what to do, here.

All comments

Hey @katief, thanks for letting us know about this.

Can you please click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar and then click on the folder icon next to your initials/profile pic?

This should open the actual Dropbox folder that is syncing to your account. Is that the old Dropbox folder?

If so, are the context menu items missing from all the files in the Dropbox folder or just from the backup (PC/Mac) folder for example? If you have enabled backup, that is.

Keep me posted.

Thanks Hannah. When I open my Dropbox folder via the system tray, it opens to the new location. All the folders in the new location have the contextual menu items. We don't have any backup enabled.

Let me explain it this way maybe - We have location A, where the original Dropbox folder is located. Dropbox updated and created location B, with a new Dropbox folder. Both A and B are still syncing. A does not have the contextual menus, B does. There are two updating sets of every folder and file in our Dropbox account on my machine now.

Thanks for the update here, Katie. This does sound super strange.

So, if you add a test file to the old Dropbox folder, does that file sync to your account? Do you see it when you go to dropbox.com?

Yep! Any changes made in the old Dropbox folder (location A) is reflected online and in the new Dropbox folder (location

Megan

Hi @katief, very interesting.

Can you take a screenshot of the folders by any chance and attach it here?

I tried to piece it together in a way that made sense, hope this helps.

Thanks for the info and the screenshots, Katie!

I'm still a bit confused over the locations of each Dropbox folder.

Can you give me the exact folder paths for both the old and the new Dropbox folder?

Because the fact that the old folder is syncing, would only make sense if it's inside the new folder.

Sure. The main Dropbox directory is

\DROPBOX, which contains the old and new Dropbox folders and nothing else

Location A path: "D:\DROPBOX\Dropbox (A)"
Location B path: "D:\DROPBOX\B Dropbox"

It should be noted that the old folder (location A) has the "shortcut" icon on the folder, but the type is listed as a File Folder. You can see this in my earlier markup of the main Dropbox directory. As far as I can tell, it's not a shortcut, just seems odd.

Does that help clear things up?

Jay

Hi @katief, are you on a Dropbox Business team, and is the A and B wording the name of your team?

Is it possible that your team has switched to the new team space structure?

From the screenshot, Dropbox A appears to be greyed out and with an arrow on it, meaning it's a hidden symlink folder to the new location, which would be created to prevent issues with programs looking for the old location.

Could you right click then choose Properties for the Dropbox A folder, while hiding the team name, to confirm this?

I think that might be it! I've never heard of symlinks before today, but this looks to fit the bill. Is this something we need to keep in the Dropbox directory, or is it safe to remove?

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Katie!

I'm glad that with Jay's help we were able to figure this out.

You can read more about symlinks and this hidden Dropbox folder and instructions on what to do, here.

Thanks everybody, really appreciate the help.

Not a problem!

Let us know if you run into any other issues or need any help.

Have a wonderful week ahead and see you around the Community! 🙂

KathrynBassett

I have a similar problem but hidden simlinks is not the issue. Background first: For about a week, I was getting this message:

Files are still opened in \Dropbox (Babcock)\Dropbox (Babcock)

Some Dropbox files are being used by other applications:

• Process: (8812) Windows Explorer

Files or folders in use <snip>

My Dropbox was no longer syncing and with the above, I could no longer "start" Dropbox to pause or resume syncing or anything else that I formerly could do by right clicking. I emailed my admin but never got a response (this is a private family, not a big company), presumably because he didn't know what was happening. I figured it had something to do with an update so started Googling and realized I was going to have to uninstall/reinstall. Did that, and it started syncing.

I shortly realized that the folder name/location was being changed so I paused, and copied all my folder/files into the new location to (hopefully) speed up the sync process. Eventually, I got asked if the files in "Websites" should be copied and I chose the default Team. Websites is a folder that Admin has that is shared with me, versus one of my own folders. BTW, I've never done a "personal" folder as I don't really understand the difference.

My files are on my D drive. Here are my folders:

Dropbox (Babcock)
-----Babcock Dropbox
----------This is where all my folders/files are ending up now PLUS
----------Kathryn Bassett
---------------Another set of the files/folders that are in Babcock Dropbox
-----Dropbox (Babcock)
----------This is where I had things before I had problems

As I write this, it's still syncing with an estimated 2 days to run, presumably syncing that second set of files in Dropbox (Babcock)\Babcock Dropbox\Kathryn Bassett

I can live with the change from Dropbox (Babcock) to Babcock Dropbox but prefer to keep everything as Dropbox (Babcock)\Dropbox (Babcock) so I don't have to hunt down all the places I have referred to that structure.

I DO have all my files/folders set to "show hidden files", but when checking the properties of each, none of the Dropbox folders have hidden checked.

Switching from computer to online, when I'm Home, I see:

Kathryn Bassett

Folder A

Folder B ... etc, all on the same level.

Folder A, B etc are all my folders. Some are me only, some are folders I've shared with another person. Example, I have one called AE-Docs which is shared with my friend Arlene. Both of us can Add/Delete/Edit. I'm the one who set up the folder to share.

I also see a Documents folder that belongs to my admin, that has just some of her subfolders that I selectively sync. If I desired, I could sync all of the contents of her Documents folder, but I don't need all of them, just a couple. Websites, referred to above, is another of her folders. I should be seeing that (I used to) but can no longer see it.

I'm afraid to move things around since I don't know what's correct, what can be deleted, etc. With all this duplication, I don't want to run out of room on my hard drive. It's a 2TB drive, but there's only .5TB left and it's still syncing that duplicate. With the original and the two duplicates, I now have 3 copies of everything.

BTW, I've looked at
https://help.dropbox.com/teams-admins/team-member/team-space-overview but it seems to be written from the admin point of view versus a team member point of view.

`hi Hannah, I have this same problem I think, but on a Mac. I've looked at https://help.dropbox.com/installs/hidden-folder to deal with the duplication issue, but this doesn't help. The pre-existing Dropbox Folder, the one that's not syncing does not update and does not have a contextual menu, whereas the Dropbox folder, which only shows when I select the folder Icon from under the Dropbox icon in the menu bar syncs and provides a contextual menu in the paper way, but I cannot even locate except by revealing it this way. This all seemed to happen when I migrated computers recently (from an earlier MacMini) and/or re-installed the updated Dropbox. Help!

Hey @tjacka, thanks for the nudge here.

If you open your Dropbox application preferences and go to the 'sync' tab, you should be able to find the location of the syncing Dropbox folder there.

I hope this helps!

ok, thanks. I've found the file path and the dropbox folder. But can you tell me what happens to the old, apparently redundant Dropbox folder ? I would post a screen shot, but there's no facility here to upload. The old Dropbox folder sits in my home folder and each of the subfolders are still showing the sharing status (three people icons)

Walter

Hey there @tjacka, sorry to jump in, but I wanted to mention that you should be able to attach a screenshot in your response through the photo icon within your reply's box.

Also, could you clarify the desktop app's status at the moment as shown in your menu bar? Is it 'up to date' or syncing?

Do you see any syncing icons on your files in your old Dropbox folder by the way?

Hi Walter, no problem.
Let me know if you need a screenshot and I will send.
The sync status is shown as “your files are up-to-date“
No, there are no syncing symbols next to any of the folders in the old dropbox folder

Megan

Hey @tjacka, sorry to jump in here!

Feel free to send me a couple of screenshots of the three people icon you see next to your folders, in order for me to have visual.

Overall, if you don't see any Dropbox syncing icons on the old Dropbox folder, you should be okay to either rename it or even remove it, as long as everything has been updated.

Thanks Megan, I still don't see an option to upload a screenshot.

I have been saving, it seems, to the old Dropbox folder and therefore don't know whether everything is updated in the new Dropbox folder (which obviously wasn't synching as usual since I didn't even know of the existence of a 'new' duplicate of the entire Dropbox folder) residing somewhere hidden on this computer (I have 4 devices using DB). Advice?