Child Item

I get an error that my folder needs to be downloaded before deleting it from the desktop app.

Device

M1 iMac
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

MacOS Tahoe
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)

238.4.6305

Question or Issue

I attempted to copy the contents of my local Dropbox folder and paste them into another folder. My Dropbox folder remains intact. The files in the folder are available off line and online.

I no longer needed the files to be copied and tried to delete the destination folder. When I did I got the following message. I think the issue may be related to the fact that the files are in some Dropbox database.

Does anyone know how I can either end what ever process is running or down load the files so I can delete them?

Thanks!

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Error Messages

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Comments

Dell_Dropbox

Welcome back to the community @KJWSr

It looks like macOS still thinks that folder contains cloud based items that need to be fully downloaded before they can be removed. Forcing the folder to download locally and making sure Dropbox is fully synced usually resolves this.

Give that a shot and report back to let us know how it goes

KJWSr

Hi - Thanks for responding! How do I force the folder to download?

Thanks

Nancy

Hey @KJWSr! You can try to right-click on the folder directly and select the “Make available offline” option.

After that, you’ll need to wait for the folder to be fully synced to your computer (basically you’ll need to wait till the syncing status of your Dropbox app shows as up to date).

KJWSr

Hi Nancy - I've marked all flowers as Make Available Off line. But things aren't syncing, in addition to the can't delete issue. For some reason when I look at my account via the desktop icon it says aI'm using 4 TB of 4 TB. I'm actually using less than 3 TB.

My account online shows the actual usage.

Nancy

Thanks, @KJWSr! I can see that you’ve opened another thread in the meantime, so I’ve replied to you there.

KJW_SR

After yet more “Your drive is full” emails from Advance Support I took a scorched earth approach. I deleted the desk top app and erased the external drive. The drive is formatted as APSF(Encrypted). I then reinstalled the desktop app and reinitiated the sync process from the web. It appears to have worked. The Dropbox folder was created on the newly erased drive and the folder was populated with the correct folders. At present it is Indexing. Given the volume of files I expect indexing to take some time.

I apologize for this, but Dropbox support is dreadful. Email only support that does nothing but quote ‘user error’ boiler plate responses is unacceptable.

Kyle

Nancy

Thanks for sharing your solution with us, Kyle! I’m glad to hear that the desktop app seems to be working normally so far.

We also appreciate your feedback and I’ve make sure to pass it along to our team (if you wish, you can also share your ticket number here and I can leave an internal note with your comments).

KJW_SR

Hi - The ticket # is 2587562. Indexing finished and the last 2 folders are downloading. So it looks like scorched earth worked. If only I’d been able to get someone at Dropbox Support to acknowledge that the issue was the desktop app and not my drive.

Kyle