One month down in 2025: How are your resolutions coming along? Check out how to get back on track here.
Forum Discussion
nh123
5 years agoNew member | Level 2
How to stop Dropbox deleting everywhere?
I often copy and save documents on my desktop for easy access.
When I go to delete a file off my desktop it also permanently deletes the file in my saved folder.
How can I stop this as it is an a...
- 3 years ago
Stamp My Art wrote:
This NEW change is FRUSTRATING and unacceptable. Why would you create this problem?
Nothing has changed. Dropbox still works the same way that it always has. If you delete a file from your Dropbox folder, it will be deleted from the Dropbox folder on all devices you sync with. Dropbox doesn't, and can't, delete files from other locations on your computer.
frei2bme
5 years agoNew member | Level 2
I'm having this same issue. I want to delete the file off my desktop without deleting it from my dropbox folder.
But anytime I try to do it I get that box that says it has to delete everywhere. Is there a way to turn that off manually so I can delete from one place but not another?
It's incredibly frustrating when you are working on a document in more than one place but then can't close one file and leave the other open. There has to be some kind of workaround other than just not putting files on my desktop
Daphne
Dropbox Staff
5 years agoThanks for joining the thread here frei2bme!
There wouldn't be a way to turn off sync for a specific file I'm afraid.
Could you just clarify for me what kind of issue you're running into when you have the file open in multiple places? Are you receiving errors, or generating conflicted copies?
Let me know and we can see if there's anything else that we can suggest to work around this!
About Delete, edit, and organize
Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!