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Selective sync shows a folder as grayed out and I can't see some subfolders in my Dropbox folder

Windows 11 - dropbox app is installed and showing it is syncing. I work remotely and share many folders in business dropbox with many other remote agents. Previously had no issues but a few days ago, developed an issue when a fellow coworker deleted a folder. It was added back but since then my dropbox doesn't seem to function correctly.

This morning, I created a new subfolder within my parent folder and I saved 2 excel documents. I cannot locate this folder or the excel sheets through windows explorer. I went to the website, and I see the folder and the documents. I need to be able to access this through explorer.

I checked selective sync, and my parent folder is greyed out but all subfolders and their subfolders are checked in blue. I am unable to choose the parent folder, it will not let me make any changes. Below is a screenshot of what I see:. I have years of experience with dropbox and have never experienced this. I am director of my department and desperately need to resolve this asap. Thank you for your help!

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Comments

Hannah

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, @ggilmore.

If you close the Dropbox application and then relaunch it, does it make a difference with the folder that's grayed out in your selective sync settings?

If not, try restarting the computer itself.

Also, since you mentioned that you're on a team account, if the above doesn't help, is it possible that your admin changed some settings for the team?

Let me know what you find and we'll go from there.

ggilmore

thank you, Hannah, for such a quick response! I did as you stated, and it did not solve anything. I rebooted and everything is still as it was. I checked with our admin, and she did not make any changes, and I did confirm that with other team members. No one else is having any such issue.

I look forward to your response!

Nancy

Hope it’s alright if I jump in too, @ggilmore.

The folder that you see grayed out in your app preferences > Selective sync, does it happen to be your personal member folder?

Since all folders are checked in your selective sync settings, they should also be visible in your local Dropbox folder.

Other than that, I’d like to know the current syncing status and app version.

ggilmore

Hi Nancy. Yes, it's the folder that was created for me when I joined the company, then I was granted access to the various folders and able to create my own folders under the personal name folder. The primary parent folder is the company folder under the business account..

My syncing status is up to date. I am currently using version 223.4.4909

Nancy

Thanks for the additional info! Can you check this Help Center article as the next step?

If your subfolders/files have any of the listed characters in their name, then this may be the reason why they’re not showing on your desktop app.

ggilmore

But it is the parent folder that is not syncing. It is the one greyed out and because of that, none of the subfolders will sync.

However, I did read the article and confirmed that I had none of those issues. Thank you.

Nancy

I see, thanks for clarifying that. Do you mind sending over one more screenshot of your local Dropbox folder, where the parent folder should be showing exactly? I’d also like one more visual of what you see on your web account, at the same location.

If there are any folder/file names you don’t want us to see, please feel free to hide them before posting your screenshot on the forum.

ggilmore

My list is so extensive, I gave a screenshot of the ones I use the most and where you may see some differentiation. The blue is my web and yellow is thru the app/windows explorer.

Hannah

Hi again, @ggilmore, and thanks for the screenshots.

I'm sorry if I missed something, but according to the screenshots, the folders that appear in your local Dropbox folder seem identical to what you see online; should there be some subfolders within those folders, that are not showing up?

If so, can you also check the names of the missing folders, to see if they perhaps have a space at the end of the name? This would also not allow them to sync to your computer.

ggilmore

the contents of the folder is what was available at the last sync. Anything added to the folders after that time are not there. Also, anything I have done to the folders is not being synced to all the other team members. That is where the greyed out parent folder comes in under my preferences.

Jay

Hi @ggilmore, thanks for the details. In order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.

ggilmore2

Well that's a bust also! I tried to email support and every time I submit the request, I get an OOPS error. I'm about ready to throw this whole computer away!! lol

So I tried having the company create me a new account under my second work email. All folders were shared to me, I accepted, and my online access is perfect!. however, when i went to set up my desktop app, again, the parent folder is greyed out. So it said it would rename my folder, for whatever reason, and I said yes, and I get this error. What is going on?

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox bn.VERSION: 224.4.4811 bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 78 bn.is_frozen: True machine_id: 5ae59fc9-4686-461d-9ae7-7788dbc844ff pid: 1656 cwd: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client' real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client' mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 HOME: None appdata: 'C:\\Users\\mtgwe\\AppData\\Local\\Dropbox\\instance6' real_path='C:\\Users\\mtgwe\\AppData\\Local\\Dropbox\\instance6' mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 dropbox_path: None not found parent not found sys_executable: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\Dropbox.exe' real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\Dropbox.exe' mode=0o100777 uid=0 gid=0 parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 trace.__file__: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\224.4.4811\\python-packages.zip\\dropbox\\client\\ui\\common\\boot_error.pyc' real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\224.4.4811\\python-packages.zip\\dropbox\\client\\ui\\common\\boot_error.pyc' not found parent not found TMP: C:\Users\mtgwe\AppData\Local\Temp TEMP: C:\Users\mtgwe\AppData\Local\Temp tempdir: 'C:\\Users\\mtgwe\\AppData\\Local\\Temp' real_path='C:\\Users\\mtgwe\\AppData\\Local\\Temp' mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0 Traceback (most recent call last): File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 5873, in _setup_root_for_account File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/helpers.py", line 187, in create_root_for_account File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 981, in result File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/manager.py", line 319, in create_root File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/windows/cloud_files.py", line 249, in register File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/windows/cloud_files.py", line 485, in _register PermissionError: [WinError -2147024891] Access is denied

Jay

The 'access denied' error is generally due to an antivirus or security software on your computer blocking Dropbox from completing the install or startup process.

To see if this is the issue, follow these steps:

Temporarily disable any antivirus or security programs on your computer.
Reinstall the Dropbox application.

Let me know how it goes.