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Forum Discussion
Cannot Delete Folder in Dropbox
I have selected 'Delete' on selected folder, it disappears then reappears with the same exact 'date modified' date stamp within 5 seconds after I select 'Delete.' I have tried about 10x and so has my friend who shares the same Dropbox. Looked at security permission and I have all activated.
Thank you for any help.
This is what you do to fix this. Go to your settings, security, security checkup, move through the questions to the devices listed. Logout of all devices (computers, smartphones). Then go to a browser, access your dropbox account, delete folders. They are finally gone and do not pop back in a few seconds. If any computer is logged into dropbox you cannot delete a folder.
The folder name includes a spaces at the end and Windows can't handle it.
Try to use an Android or Linux on a network share folder to rename "ShellExt " in "ShellExt" or delete them.
I do it with Android and ES File Explorer File Manager:
- on Windows:
- Share folder below shellext folder
- on Android:
- Install and/or open ES File Explorer app
- slide to the Network tab
- tab on New and add your PC with the folder issue
- tab on your pc and navigate to the folder
- rename "shellext " to "shellext" or delete it.
Let me know if it work or not.
I have the same problem and this didn't help me.
The instruction of this Help does not Help me see the folder's history.It's a folder I created, and I have a few people that shared the same folder. Two days ago, I accidentally added a folder with to many GB, and I deleted it immediately. since than it's keeps showing with it's subfolders. All of them are empty of files. I'm unable to delete is as it reappears 5 seconds too.
Aisling G.Dropbox Staff
Sorry to hear about this! If you go to dropbox.com/support and follow the instructions there, you should be able to get in touch with a member of the support team. Please let us know the name of the empty folder which is reappearing, and we can figure out which computer is adding it.
Thanks!
I had a contact with the French support team and they helped me solve the problem.
There was one (authorised) computer which was trying to access the shared folder for synchronisation. Because the folder was considered active by Dropbox, Dropbox kept recreating it immediately. The support team was able to tell me which device.
All I had to do is close Dropbox on this computer, then log to the Dropbox website from the same computer and delete the desired folders.I have the same issue. Was there any resolution here? I've tried deleting from the dropbox website too and it still reappears.
Hi All. I've had the same problem for a while and somehow today I think I've cracked it... though not exactly how as it was totally a case of trial and error. I started by logging out of Dropbox on all devices I thought might be connected including the PC I'm using now as well as a couple of iPads.
I'm not sure it's an issue with Dropbox itself as I found some settings in the "Auto-play" part of the Control Panel of my PC which I think may have been causing the error. I'm running Windows 7 - to open the Control Panel, click on the Start Button on the bottom LHS of the screen, Control Panel will be on the LHS of the menu that pops up. Click on Control Panel. When the Control Panel open up, click in the Search window at the top RHS of the screen and type "auto". A list of results will appear, one of which should be AutoPlay. Click on AutoPlay. In this screen you will see a a large number of items which can be configured. When I opened this screen it had "Import Photos and Videos using Dropbox" selected for a lot of the configuration items. For each one that had this, I changed it to "Ask me everytime". Once you've updated all the "... Dropbox" items, then click on the Save button. Once I did that I opened Windows Explorer, went to the Dropbox folder and deleted all the folders that I didn't want. I then logged back into Dropbox on my PC only. Can't remember if the folders had already disappeared, but if they hadn't I also deleted them within Dropbox. Then I started typing this comment... and the folder still hasn't come back! Hope this helps.
This is my experience - not sure if it will be relevant to others. I've been trying to delete some Dropbox files today too. Finally I realised that Dropbox was stuck in a sync with 4 files apparently unrelated to the ones I was trying to delete. It was showing sync time as 2 hours. I paused the syncing on both my computers (while turning off other devices which use the Dropbox App) and deleted the files I wanted to delete both on the Dropbox website and on my computers. I emptied the Trash too. (Yes I know this is probably a bit paranoid) Then I switched back on the syncing which completed in seconds and my deleted files stayed deleted. I use a Mac, and the MP3 files I was trying to delete had been sent to me via an NTFS formatted USB stick by a Windows user.
Thanks Jennifer R. You've reminded me that I also paused the synch which was also taking a couple of hours. I think the long synch was because I tried to drop ALL the photos on my PC into Dropbox and they took up more space than the free version allows. Once I had deleted the folders as per my previous comments I re-started the synch.
I had the same problem with a reappearing folder - I could not delete it from my PC. However, after reading comments here about other devices causing a conflict, I tried deleting the folder from my tablet and it worked!
I have the same problem. I suspect a mobile device might be the culprit, but the device is not listed on the site!
