One month down in 2025: How are your resolutions coming along? Check out how to get back on track here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Files & Folders not-unlockable. Can't Delete. Not in the web view of my account.
I have a folder full of folders and files on my Mac in my Dropbox that are all locked, but when I Get Info on them, the "unlock" is greyed out. I can't unlock them, and so I can't delete them from my dropbox.
Weirder still is that when I view what's in my dropbox from the web, they're not there.
The web view shows my dropbox as empty.
They are also not items shared with me (in the shared list) that I can remove.
I checked that too, and the folder or the contents of the folder are not in the shared list.
But the folder icon shows multiple people, so it might have been shared with me at one time.
The files exist on my Mac, I can open them, copy them to someplace else, I just can't get rid of them.
I'd like to get rid of them.
FIles are not unlockable.
They are locked.
I can't delete them.
And they don't exist.
I solved it the brute force way- Terminal.
Which doesn't fix the underlying Dropbox issue.Last login: Fri Apr 17 21:58:36 on console
Mac-mini:~ --$ sudo rm -r /Users/--/Dropbox/Music
Password:
override rw-r--r-- 502/staff uchg for /Users/--/Dropbox/Music
I post this as to be a help to others faced with the same issue that isn't solved with the Dropbox FAQ.
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hey anthonybme, thanks for reaching out to us and for the screenshots - they definitely give a better visual of what's happening.
It looks like the folder is locked by your OS, so you can try following these steps, and then deleting it.
Let me know how it goes - thanks!
Unfortunately, one has to have read/write permissions
to modify the permissions.
Since the files are locked from me,
I don't have permission
to change permissions.Even the page you linked to has this basic instruction:
Assign permissions to users and groups
On your Mac, select a disk, folder, or file, then choose File > Get Info.
If the information in Sharing & Permissions isn’t visible, click the disclosure triangle.
Click the lock icon to unlock it.
Please review the first part of the subject of this thread...
I can't unlock the items in my Dropbox.
That's the problem.
So a solution document that tells me to unlock the item so I can do something else,
is telling me to do - exactly what I cannot do.
