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My Home folder is buried within my dropbox

Hi folks. I have no idea what happened but some time recently Dropbox started behaving INSANELY for a few days. I kind of ignored what was going on to get work projects out the door and now I am trying to discern what is happening.

Basically, my Finder (MacOS Ventura 13.4.1 (22F82)) randomly hangs/crashes (SBBOD) whenever I try to do some basic stuff like open a file, or open a file within a programme, or send something to the bin.

I have used Dropbox for years and have happily worked with my Documents Folder being with my Dropbox folder and it all has worked perfectly.

Last year, there was some sort of kerfuffle with a message offering to back up my whole computer (and virtual PC) which I may have accidentally clicked but things went awry and I think I switched back off.

That was about a year ago.

Today, I found out Ventura has shifted all Cloud Storage folders to a folder within the Library.

From the screenshot I can see that Dropbox appears as a folder within CloudStorage, as it probably should be.

However, my computer Documents folder is where it should be, on my Mac, but THAT is also in the Dropbox folder within CloudStorage.

What is going on? How does this work?

Might this explain why I am having permission issues opening folders and files? And may this confusion have something to do with my Finder not knowing where stuff really is?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Edited by moderatorEdited by moderator

Screenshot 2023-06-01 at 12.29.34 pm.png

I also have been getting this error message a few times when Rebooting over the last few weeks. Maybe it's connected? I dunno...

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Здравко

@Diarmaid C. wrote:
...
Last year, there was some sort of kerfuffle with a message offering to back up my whole computer (and virtual PC) which I may have accidentally clicked but things went awry and I think I switched back off.
...
However, my computer Documents folder is where it should be, on my Mac, but THAT is also in the Dropbox folder within CloudStorage.
...

Hi @Diarmaid C.,

I have no idea why you have decided that you "switched back off" the things, but as seem you haven't and your Documents are still with active Dropbox backup. Yes, this feature can be troublesome and it's good idea to switch it off completely to avoid further such issues. When Backup is active for particular folder, this folder moves in Dropbox folder and since on Mac Dropbox folder is in CloudStorage, then the same folder (Documents) appears in CloudStorage too.

@Diarmaid C. wrote:
...
I also have been getting this error message a few times when Rebooting over the last few weeks. Maybe it's connected? I dunno...

Yes, for sure it's connected! When your Dropbox application cannot start, all "online only" files in the entire Dropbox folder (including in all subfolders like your Documents in particular) left inaccessible. You need to make sure your application is working. To see what's going wrong on start, take a look on the text file mentioned within the message. If its content is not clear enough for you, post this file content in your next post so somebody could help you.

Hope this gives direction.

Diarmaid C.

Thanks for the response @Здравко. It is appreciated. At one point last year (or so), Dropbox asked to backup all my drives, and I said 'yes' foolishly and then had many issues as a result. I deactivated all the external backups and the HardDrive, but it seems that the HardDrive backup is still ongoing. That's why I am confused.

I do not understand the contents of the text file the error report produces. If anyone can explain what all this means I would very much appreciate the assistance! 🙂

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 177.4.5399
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 61
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: ae7824c2-e192-5287-a03a-2bd516b71aea
pid: 1229
ppid: 1
uid: 502
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='diarmaidcollins', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Diarmaid Collins', pw_dir='/Users/diarmaidcollins', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='diarmaidcollins', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Diarmaid Collins', pw_dir='/Users/diarmaidcollins', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
euid: 502
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'newusertest'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'newusertest'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/diarmaidcollins'
appdata: '/Users/diarmaidcollins/.dropbox/instance4'
real_path='/Users/diarmaidcollins/.dropbox/instance4'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40750 uid=502 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/diarmaidcollins/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
real_path='/Users/diarmaidcollins/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
mode=0o40750 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40750 uid=502 gid=20
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100755 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/rd/3t3z3jz909l2x6wnv177xrkh0000gp/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/rd/3t3z3jz909l2x6wnv177xrkh0000gp/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 5349, in _setup_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/helpers.py", line 514, in get_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 857, in result
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 121, in set_result_or_convert_exception
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno -2001] Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2001 "A provider with ID com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider was found, but is in the process of being invalidated. Retry later." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=A provider with ID com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider was found, but is in the process of being invalidated. Retry later., NSLocalizedDescription=The application cannot be used right now.}

Hannah

Hey @Diarmaid C., sorry to see you're having trouble with this.

If you close the Dropbox app and then relaunch it from your applications folder, does it help with the error?