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After migrating to macOS Sequoia, Dropbox appears under "Favorites" and I can't make files offline.

I just migrated my MacBook Pro running Sonoma to a Mac Mini M4 running Sequoia. The migrated Dropbox app wouldn't open so I trashed it and downloaded a new one. On the MacBook Pro my Dropbox appears under Locations. It appeared in the same place after migrating to the Mac mini, but when I logged into my DB account on the Mac mini, it created a Dropbox folder in Favourites. The one under Locations now says "This is an unlinked Dropbox." Can I now trash this? Is it right that DropBox is now a Favourite folder?

The new Dropbox (in Favourites) is Online Only. This is a shared Dropbox and contains GBs of folders I don't need regular access to, but a couple that I do. As far as I can see I can only get these folders by downloading the whole Dropbox, which I really don't want to do. (And I don't want to use Selective Sync because I occasionally need a file from one of the folders that are Online Only.)

I've been managing all this with Dropbox's Finder contextual menus, but they don't appear on the Mac mini. I don't know where the Dropbox Finder extension should appear in Sequoia, but it doesn't appear in System Setting>Extensions>Finder. In my account at Dropbox.com, Dropbox System Extension is enabled.

Can you help me sort out this mess?

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Walter

Ah, I see now - apologies for this @SteveB00

In this case, you should be able to delete it without affecting any of your files in Dropbox.

Let me know of any updates!

All comments

Walter

Hey @SteveB00 - sorry to hear about this.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, could you clarify the status and version of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar and send us a screenshot of how this looks on your end so that we can have a visual too?

Also, upon installing the app on the Mac Mini, you should have been asked which folders you'd like to be synced on your computer. Did you not get that option?

If you navigate to the app's preferences under the sync tab, which is the location of your Dropbox folder?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there, Steve.

Steve B.89

Thanks for the prompt reply, especially this time of year!

The Dropbox app is v214.4.5217.

I don’t recall being asked for specific folders, just offered the opportunity to sign into my DB account. I may well have this wrong as I’ve installed and authorised a few items today.

The Dropbox location is: /Users/< my username>/<business name> Dropbox.

Thanks again, Walter.

SteveB00

Sorry, forgot the screenshot, but the paper clip icon doesn't do anything and if I drag a file into the reply field it says File Not Allowed. I've tried this with a .png and a .jpg.

SteveB00

Can I email it somewhere?

SteveB00

Managed to copy & paste it. :-)

Walter

Can you send me a screenshot of where you noticed the "This is an unlinked Dropbox." message too, Steve?

As for accessing the folders you mentioned, you should be able to set them to be available offline on your computer instead of online-only by right clicking on them and selecting the relevant option.

If you don't get any Dropbox options when right clicking on the files and folders within your Dropbox folder, please send me a screenshot of that as well.

SteveB00

You can see "This is an unlinked Dropbox" in the above screenshot where I've highlighted "Dropbox" in Locations. It appears at the top of the page, below the name and above the contents.

Walter

Ah, I see now - apologies for this @SteveB00

In this case, you should be able to delete it without affecting any of your files in Dropbox.

Let me know of any updates!

SteveB00

Here's a shot showing the Finder contextual menu, which doesn't include anything from DB. Oddly, the only place I *do* see DB items in a contextual menu is when I right-click on Dropbox in Locations, the one that says it's unlinked.

SteveB00

I see you said I can delete the "unlinked" Dropbox, but it's the only place in the Finder where I see DB contextual menu items.

Can you confirm that, as of now, with the latest software, Dropbox has reverted to being a folder in Favourites, rather than appearing as a Location? This exactly reverses a change that occurred sometime ago.

SteveB00

I'm sorry, I posted several replies to this thread last night from Safari on my Mac. This morning I can't see them on my iPad, but they're still on the Mac. I just restarted the Mac and now they've disappeared there, too. Sounds like a post for Apple Discussions ...

I can report that, after deleting Dropbox from Locations, the two Favourite Dropbox Folders immediately got Dropbox icons instead of the generic ones in the screenshot, and I now have Dropbox Finder contextual menu items, so I guess I can consider this fixed. Thanks again for your help, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, bah, humbug etc.

Nancy

Hi from me as well, @SteveB00! Hope you’re doing well.

Apologies if you’ve already tried this and I’ve missed it, but can you also attempt to refresh your Finder with the following steps?

-Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and quit the application.

-Open your Activity Monitor from your Mac Utilities folder.

-Force quit out of the instances of the Dropbox application that are running by searching for "Dropbox" in the search bar, then clicking on the "x" force quit icon on the top left.

-Restart Dropbox from the Applications folder by double clicking on the Dropbox app.

-Click on the Apple icon in the top left of your screen.

-Click on "force quit".

-Relaunch the Finder.

Are you able to see the context menu options for Dropbox after that?

SteveB00

Thanks for the reply. You might have missed a post above where I said that I now have the context menu items and everything is working as it should.

What I don't yet have is an answer to "Can you confirm that, as of now, with the latest software, Dropbox has reverted to being a folder under Favourites, rather than appearing as a Location?"

Thanks again.

Hannah

Hey @SteveB00, if your Dropbox folder is currently under Favorites and not Locations it just means that you're not using the File Provider version of Dropbox, but the app works that way as well.

What do you see when you follow these steps?

SteveB00

I see that I am eligible. Is there an advantage to adopting the new File Provider?

Hannah

Thanks for checking, Steve.

According to the Help Center article I linked above, the File Provider version of Dropbox is our "latest update that utilizes Apple’s updated File Provider API and fixes issues related to opening online-only files in third-party applications.

This updated experience is more deeply integrated with macOS and comes with some changes required by the API".

You can see the expected changes here for more info.

I hope this helps!

SteveB00

It does. Thanks!