nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

How can I remove my old shared files on my account?

Zebryk

I un-installed Dropbox on my iPhone and PC to purge all files returning to the free account. Re-installing, my iPhone now shows old shared files between the two. These are still live even though my Dropbox folder on my PC only has two small folders. (The old files were removed to a separate folder and should not even be visable.)

Do I need to create a new Dropbox account?

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Mobile

iOS

Accepted answers

Jay

If you create a shared folder and then delete it from your account, it doesn't completely remove the shared folder, as other people might still be active members on the folder. Even if you were the only member of that shared folder, the folder still remains active.

If however you were invited to join those shared folders by another user, then you are still seeing them since you haven't fully removed your access to the shared folders.

In the first case, you would need to completely unshare those folders from the Shared tab one by one. This would remove all other members from the folder, return it to becoming a personal folder, and then you can delete it from your account.

For the second situation, you can remove your access to the shared folder entirely, and it would leave the shared tab with no option to join it again.

Let me know here when you've fully removed all the old shared folders from your account.

All comments

Jay

Hi @Zebryk, thanks for messaging the Community!

Just for clarification, are you referring to shared files or folders?

As you mentioned you're seeing the 'old shared files between the two', do you mean that the files are not shared but syncing on those devices?

If these are shared items, are you able to see them on the share tab on your account?

Any details you can provide would help me greatly!

Zebryk

Thanks for the reply!

I had 500GB of data until a few weeks ago when I moved everything to a separate folder on my drive. Cut back to the free version as I have retired. (No problem with that.)

This is what I reduced my PC's Drobox folder to:

Then, after deleting both Apps from Windows and my iPhone and re-installed them.

Suprisingly, this showed up on the iPhone:

Screenshot 2026-07-27 at 10.07.13 AM.png

Experimentally, I clicked on "Alf" and "Gary and Jay" which now live in my main personal folder "Jay" (D:\Jay) where I moved all my stuff from into. (Previously, "Jay" was a folder under D:\Dropbox\Jay)

From the Dropbox App on my PC, experimentally, I deleted "Alf" and "Gary and Jay" after backing them up. Deleting them from the Dropbox App did not delete them from D:\Jay.

Dropbox throws a warning about that deleting them will still result in those people I had previsously shared with, will still have access to? This in spite that I deleted those folders when I purged.

Note that these "Ghosted" folders still have files in them. This in spite I purged everything via File Manager and via the Dropbox web interface.

Too bad Dropbox does not have a plan for Senior Citizens!

Is your name Jay too?

Peace,

Jay Zebryk

Hannah

Hi from me as well, @Zebryk!

Just to get a better idea, if you go to your account on the website, what do you see there?

Do these shared folders appear in your "shared" page? And what do you see when you hover over them?

Do you get a "join folder" button on the right side of the folder names?

Also, do you see a "…" (ellipsis) button next to that "join folder" button? What options do you get after clicking that?

Zebryk

Web view: (I do not see anything shared except the ones from clicking them on my iPhone.)

Camera Uploads and Z-Misc are the only two folders I left from my previous DB installation.

Apparently, the system created "Mobile Uploads" and Transport.

File Manager View Today:

Zebryk

Oops, I just noticed the Shared item in the main menu…

Zebryk

Picking my Alf folder for example; now located in D:\Jay\PEEPS\Alf

Note that this folder is NOT shared.

So, when I moved all of the contents of Jay under the DB folder, to a new folder Jay, the Share properties did NOT follow. Again, I un-installed DB both on my PC and on the iPhone, and did my clean-up afterwards. That was weeks ago, and yesterday, did a fresh installation of both.

Wondering if DB is retaining an image of the old structure maybe for recovery purposes?

Experimentally, considering I have zip in DB now of value, I could uninstall it on my PC and create a brand new DB folder and name it DB-Test01? Doing so in Windows is easy, but I have no clue how or where IOS stashes things. I could do a factory reset but that would be painfull. (And yes, I have power-cycled IOS numerous times since un-installing DB.)

Walter

If you don't need the folders listed in your sharing page you can remove your access from them by clicking on the ellipsis button and selecting the relevant option @Zebryk.

As for your second screenshot, these seem to be local folders stored on your computer's hard drive, not inside a Dropbox folder.

Zebryk

Why do I need to remove ME from those shared folders?
They should not even be there in the first place!

Right, I was attempting to help with the diagnostics by show these folders are NOT shared but yet they show up as being shared.

Did you read all of the previous or are you just jumping in?

Walter

Yes, I did read them and I thought you were trying to empty your Dropbox account @Zebryk. Let me know if that's the case.

From what you mentioned in your initial post, it seems that you just uninstalled the app from your devices and didn't delete the account's content or the account itself. If that's the case, it's normal that you were able to see the files you're now noticing after reinstalling the app on your device(s).

If you've ensured that you have copied or moved the files and folders you'd like to keep from your Dropbox account (or your Dropbox folder on your computer), then you'll be able to remove your access from those shared folders to free up some space since they still seem to be shared.

Zebryk

You thought I was TRYING to empty to empty my DropBox account? I did so successfully weeks ago and deleted every folder and every file in it. There was no TRY.

You seem not to understand that I am reporting that there were ZERO folders and ZERO files left in the account except the two I specifically left there.

When I reinstalled the DB software on my iPhone I was suprised to find the numerous shares still existing.

Please note that the thousands of folder and files from the old setup were in fact GONE, not existing, ZIP, exactly as expected. However, the DB system did not purge the associated shares. I expected that deletely the folders and files would also remove the shares at the same time!

Also note, these shares still point at live folders and files that apparently still exist on your system.

There should not being anything left there which is a significant privacy risk that I will report.

Jay

If however you were invited to join those shared folders by another user, then you are still seeing them since you haven't fully removed your access to the shared folders.

For the second situation, you can remove your access to the shared folder entirely, and it would leave the shared tab with no option to join it again.

Let me know here when you've fully removed all the old shared folders from your account.

Zebryk

Jay,

Thank you for your well composed and lucid reply.

(The others were accusatory and incomprehensible.)

I now clearly understand the hows and whys.

Peace,

Jay