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Forum Discussion
I can't link my macOS desktop app to the existing Dropbox folder after unlinking
On Mac, Dropbox stopped syncing about two to three weeks ago. In my Dropbox Security settings I see two Devices with identical names, e.g., iMac.lan. (Formerly, I had the three devices allowed by the DropBox Basic plan: iMac, Macbook, and iPhone. Dropbox now complains that I'm trying to use a fourth device: the two identical links to my iMac, my Macbook Pro, and my iPhone. I unlinked my iPhone so that I could try to deal with the iMac.) I unlinked both copies of the link to my iMac, then killed and restarted Dropbox. Trying to start Dropbox, I now see this message: "There's already a folder or file named Dropbox."
I cannot use the existing file Dropbox in the default directory, which I believe is {me}/Library/CloudStorage. If I rename the existing Dropbox file and go through the kill/restart process again, I get a different error message: "Error with selected folder -- Can't create a Dropbox folder in the requested location".
So I'm stuck. I cannot use Dropbox on either my iMac (MacOS 14.5) or my Macbook Pro. Help, please.
So I cannot use Dropbox, and I cannot unlink/relink my DropBox file. I'm stuck. And, BTW, there's a possibly related symptom. DropBox also has stopped syncing with my MacBook Pro.
- Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Thanks for posting this here, BoxedInn!
To select your already established folder on your drive, after signing in and choosing which folders to sync, and before you click the “Open my Dropbox folder”, you should see an “Advanced Settings” link.
When you click it, you can choose the parent folder of the already established Dropbox folder. In this case, that should be ~/Library/CloudStorage indeed (if you were previously running the Dropbox app for macOS on File Provider). Are you seeing this error if you select this directory?
If yes, please send me a screenshot of the error you see and of the message that appears when trying to rename the existing Dropbox folder.
Keep me in the loop.
Thank you. First, stopping and restarting Dropbox does not work unless I first go into Security and unlink the two identical links to my iMac. After I did that, I followed your advice to change the default Dropbox folder from where it is, ~/Library/CloudStorage, back to the same folder. I did this by first selecting "Other" for my directory; then choosing a second time, back to "CloudStorage". The problem is ever so slightly different: instead of first telling me that there's already a folder named Dropbox, your software jumps directly to the second problem: Error with selected folder: Can't create a DropBox folder in the requested location. And note that I'm a very, very early user of DropBox, from years ago. This is my first DropBox problem.
