Child Item

Dropbox folder displayed twice in Windows File Explorer. How to remove 1 of them?

Application Affected
Dropbox for Windows
Device
Microsoft Surface Pro9
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
238.4.6075

Question or Issue
The Dropbox folder is presented twice in File Explorer in Windows. Both instances are directly under Desktop in the folder tree. Both instances represent the same folder, i.e. \Dropbox\. Both show the same synced content when I click them. So they are really just two copies of the same, expected, Dropbox folder.

Is there a way to get rid of one of them?

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florismk

Found a solution, though no explanation:

In HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer, there's a subkey \Desktop\Namespace, with GUID-named keys for top-level items in the navigation pane. I found a key for OneDrive there, and two keys for Dropbox. Deleted the duplicate Dropbox key, restarted File Explorer, and voila! 2nd instance of Dropbox gone.

All comments

Rich

florismk wrote:
The Dropbox folder is presented twice in File Explorer in Windows.

Can you provide a screenshot showing what you see, so we have a better idea of the issue?

florismk

florismk

Thanks for the response, @Rich ! See the screenshot above.

There are two expandable Dropbox folders in the navigation pane. Both expand to the same set of subfolders, which is also shown in the right panel because the first Dropbox folder is selected.

Not shown: When I open Properties for either Dropbox folder, they both list their location as \Dropbox\.

florismk

Found a solution, though no explanation:

florismk

Solution is stable after reboot.

Megan

Hey @florismk, thanks for the heads up here!

Happy to see that your issue is now resolved!

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

Theresa

Hi there @florismk , and welcome to the Dropbox Community! 😊

I am glad to see your issue is resolved. seeing the Dropbox folder appear twice in Windows File Explorer can definitely be confusing, so it’s great that you were able to get things sorted out. Thanks so much for coming back to update the thread too - it really helps others who might run into the same situation!

By the way, I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the community managers here at Dropbox HQ. Since you’ve been keeping an eye on sync and folder behavior, I’d love to know… what’s your favourite Dropbox feature? I always enjoy hearing what people find most useful in their day-to-day.

Looking forward to hearing more,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)

florismk

Hi @Theresa, thanks for your response!

What I find very useful about Dropbox is its almost fully transparent (unnoticable), near-instant sync. I've been on OneDrive for a while (when Dropbox started charging me for the service). OneDrive sync is generally, objectively very awful, but compared to Dropbox, it's abysmal. The Dropbox sync engine is unbelievably good and reliable.

Which is why I dread the update to the Windows Cloud API. That sounds like a move towards OneDrive-like functionality, and I cannot help but fear that this will decrease the sync performance dramatically.

The Cloud API previously rolled out on my system, and broke one other 'Dropbox feature' I loved: the collaboration between Dropbox and Boxifier, to enable sync from multiple local root folders. That's the only limitation I deeply hate in Dropbox, and the combination with Boxifier took that limitation away. But the Cloud API update broke Boxifier, and the Boxifier team didn't manage to fix it.

So Dropbox should either work closely with Boxifier to ensure compatibility in the future; or create a Dropbox version that supports multiple local root folders (including network/NAS folders).

I should also mention that I've profited on countless occasions from the Dropbox version history, to retrieve overwritten documents containing old versions of data that I turned out to need after all.