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Dropbox Folders update on the new Business layout

Hello everyone,

On 18 November Dropbox (v.187.4.5691) received a significant update to its folder structure.

For several hours it was doing the accounting update, with a bunch of constraints in between (do sign-out and sign-in again to synchronize 17TB again, disabling permissions to access folders that were as read-only, others).

At the end of Sunday, everything was synchronized, but now on the local disc there are two folders:

Folder 1: Dropbox (XXX) - old structure, hidden folder

Folder 2: XXX Dropbox - new structure

On the new structure, there are two folders:

- a new personal folder which includes the same folders and files that were in the previous structure.

- a group folder which was moved during the update from the inside of the old structure to the outside of the new structure.

Shouldn't the update have automatically deleted the old folder instead of leaving it hidden as a shortcut?

Will it be removed in a subsequent Dropbox update?

Because the files are interconnected in both folders, meaning that if you delete a file in the old structure, you delete it in the new one too.

It doesn't make sense to have those two folders... it's confusing and annoying.

Assuming that disabling the viewing of hidden folders in Windows isn't a a proper option, how do you solve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Leandro Silva

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Jay

Deleting or moving that link won't affect the real files stored in the Dropbox folder. It's just a shortcut to the files, just like the shortcuts on your desktop.

Personally, I'd recommend keeping the link until you've been using the files in the new structure for a while.

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Jay

Hi @leandrosilva, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The hidden folder is just a symlink to the new folder structure.

This ensures that any apps or services still using the previous link to access your files will continue to function as normal.

You can choose to delete the symlink, however, you might find that certain programs won't be able to locate files automatically. You'll need to manually open them in the new folder structure directly.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

leandrosilva

Hello @Jay,

Thanks for your reply.

Did this procedure happen to all Dropbox users after this update?

Before disable / deleting the link, is there any way to see which apps or services are using the hidden folder / symlink?

Best regards,

Leandro Silva

Jay

This change has happened for some Dropbox Business team users. The changes can be found here.

There isn't a way to determine what apps use the old format. However, if you imagine opening a docx file under John/Dropbox (Business)/text.docx, the symlink would automatically make Word open the file under the new location John/Business Dropbox/text.docx.

Essentially, any time you opened a file, and then chose to open the file directly from an app (like Word, etc), it would show the old location. The symlink would redirect it to the new location.

If you instead open files from Explorer all the time, and now open files from the new folder, then Word would know the new location immediately.

leandrosilva

I think I'll have to leave the link, since if I try to move it or even remove it, it will immediately start removing files and folders from Dropbox.

Jay

Deleting or moving that link won't affect the real files stored in the Dropbox folder. It's just a shortcut to the files, just like the shortcuts on your desktop.

Personally, I'd recommend keeping the link until you've been using the files in the new structure for a while.

leandrosilva

Yes, that's exactly what I thought.
Thanks @Jay