Child Item

Teams administrator unable to modify name or delete parent folder on desktop

As a Teams administrator I am now unable to modify or delete a parent folder on a local machine. I have contacted support and have this response:

"Please note, that the issue you have been experiencing is expected behavior after the most recent update made to Dropbox teams.
As of now, regardless of the top-level setting applied to any team, team admins are always able to add, edit, delete, or rename files and folders in the top level of a team from the Content tab in the Admin Console through the Dropbox website only.
Unfortunately this means that changing/renaming your folders through the desktop application is unfortunately not possible".

Our practice is to create sequentially numbered folders in Dropbox, rename them when a new job comes in, then remove them to an offline archive when done. Currently the only way to remove the parent folder or rename it is to go online to the the Dropbox website. This adds what I consider unnecessary and pointless extra steps to managing work folders.

What is the logic behind the 'feature' particularly given everything within the folder can be modified - deleted etc locally? It is problematic enough that we will look into changing providers if it remains a 'feature' or there is no future workaround.

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Delete

Dropbox Business

Edit

Insightful

Dislike

Accepted answers

All comments

Hannah

Hey @Yelned, welcome to our Community.

Indeed, with the new Dropbox Business structure, changes to the top-level folders will need to be made using the Dropbox website. This includes creating, deleting, editing and renaming your top-level folders.

We do appreciate your feedback on this and I will make sure to pass your comments along to the appropriate people.

Apologies for any inconvenience and if you have any other questions, let us know.

Yelned

Why?

Yelned

Hi Hannah. A week ago, while I could not rename or delete a primary folder on my PC I could at least add a new primary folder. Now I cannot. Is that another new feature or a glitch?

Megan

Hey @Yelned, let me jump in here too!

Is that happening on one of your team folders, or personal ones?

Does this happen only when you use the desktop app, or the website too? Feel free to also let me know if you get any specific errors.

Yelned

Only Teams folders on windows desktop app. Online is fine. Same occurs to another team member with admin rights on a Mac.

Personal dropbox folders are fine.

Edit. It has reverted back. I can now add a folder. However, the next comment (above) is still relevant.

Yelned

Let me add to this...I am now unable to open most of the documents in my dropbox folders on the Desktop. That is both teams and private. I keep getting 'Error [Operating system]: the file cannot be accessed by the sytem'

Some files are available but most are not. Oridinarily, they would download when I open the folder but not anymore. I can open them online. I cant see an option to make available offline in the right click context. The only option I have is 'Send a copy (Business).

Nancy

Sorry for jumping in, @Yelned. What’s the syncing status and app version of your Dropbox app?

Other than that, I’d like a screenshot of the error you mention, as well as one more of the context menu options you see when right clicking on your files.

Yelned

Sync status from dropbox icon pop up:

Dropbox 201.4.5552
Up to date

Only occurring in Teams folders. Not Dropbox personal folders. The file icon shown in the png is on all Teams folders and files and on some personal folders and files but personal files will open.

There is also some odd behaviour that I have not figured yet. Saving files to Dropbox Teams seems to work from an application but it does not show in the teams folder until I reboot. Have to check this.

Edit. It is working now. But I suspect it has not gone away. After many years of untroubled use, Dropbox has taken a left turn.

Error opening files.png

Nancy

Thanks for these screenshots! Appreciate them.

Our team confirmed in the meantime that this is now expected behavior. So, creating/deleting/editing/renaming your top-level folders will need to be done via the Dropbox website instead.

I've passed all of your comments and feedback though to our team, so that they can see how this affects you.

Yelned

Thanks Nancy. Yes I was told that previously. But can you tell me what is going on with the inability to access files as indicated in the previous message and shown in the screen shots? The behaviour is erratic. At the moment it includes personal files outside the Teams folders but some of the files in Teams folders are now available. I simply cannot open files within the top level folders on the PC. Sync status indicates it is up to date, as I indicated previously.

Also can you explain the logic behind restricting access to top level folders on the PC? I dont understand why that is the case since it is possible to delete everything within top level folders on the PC. i.e the content is not afforded that 'protection'

Nancy

Apologies for the delay, @Yelned! I’m afraid I can’t provide more info when it comes to the updates concerning the top level folders on the desktop app.

However, regarding the other issue you mention, I see that you were having trouble while the previous app version (201.4.5552). Can you make sure your Dropbox app has been updated to the 202.4.5551 one instead and let me know if the issue persists to investigate further?

Yelned

Thanks. Will do.