Tech Support Guy banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Can I get rid of Dropbox?

Solved 
2K views 22 replies 5 participants last post by  KhunDoug 
#1 ·
I was searching for a file using Everything and unexpectedly found it in a folder called Dropbox in C:\Users\(myname). I had no idea I had Dropbox. It contains a copy of My PC with many other files and folders. I found if I deleted a file in Dropox it deleted it from the original location and vice-versa. The Dropbox program itself doesn't appear to exist so I can't uninstall it. I'm confused with what's going on here. I understand Dropbox is for uploading to the cloud, but I don't want it. What do I do?
 
#4 ·
Thank you for your replies.

Jay. I don't need it. I don't think I'll ever need it.

James. No, it's not shared, and there are no icons or anything on the laptop to indicate I have Dropbox.

However, I am able to log in to Dropbox! So I guess I have must have set up an account (?) The only way this could have happened is a while back when I wanted to send an email with a large attachment and I tried it out as a sharing app, not realising how it worked, then forgot about it.

OK, so as you can see, My PC and Shared folders are in there. If I delete these folders from within Dropbox, does it also delete the folders on my laptop? By the way, can you take a look at the other attachments and tell me if it's right to have so many duplicated folders. Surely this is crazy?
 

Attachments

#6 ·
Thank you Jay. I found extensions that work with TBird for large files. I'm happy to use them. Could you help me with the other questions, re: unsubscribing from Dropbox and resetting the laptop folders as they would have been before subscribing to Dropbox. Is that possible?
 
#10 ·
Shelly,

Just as an aside, I dumped Dropbox ages ago when they changed their policies. I'm an international traveler and I need to sync between a desktop and multiple laptops, and occasionally move files to/from my mobile phone. I settled on Sync.com. It's cross-platform, works well, and you can share attachments to others. It's also great for moving my pics from the mobile phone so I can access them on the other devices.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the input, but the problem is that Dropbox is still holding key folders. I'm worried that if I delete them from Dropbox I'll be deleting original folders and not copies or links. I looked at the properties of Desktop, Downloads and Documents under Aliisa-PC to see the location of each, see example "Desktop 01". If I try to restore these folders I get the message as seen in "Desktop 2", apart from Documents which was successful restored. I don't know what the difference is between that folder and the others.

This is annoying because I use characters like +, -, at the beginning of filenames and Dropbox won't allow it.

Is there somebody there who knows the working of Dropbox and can talk me through how to restore the folders and delete Dropbox?
 
#12 ·
When DropBox installs it asks where you want the data stored. I can see that you have a DropBox folder on the C: drive. You already see the DropBox folder in Windows Explorer. The items are most likely duplicated there from other folders. When you uninstall DropBox from the PC, it does not delete this folder - it is not destructive. Once the app is removed from your PC, you can do whatever you want with the copies sitting in that folder.
 
#13 ·
Hi KhunDoug. Thanks for your reply. I was advised above that this app is in the cloud, so there is no Dropbox app on the laptop. I'm unsure whether the folders in Dropbox are copies, links or master folders which the containing folders are linked to, so I don't know which to remove, or how. From Properties, it appears to be the latter but I'm looking for advice here.
 
#14 ·
I never saw DropBox change the location of primary folders and have them redirected to it's home folder. That doesn't mean that it did not, and I am relatively sure you don't recall how it was installed. The good thing is the app is no longer there. That means the data in the cloud is now out of date and out of sync with the live data. The cloud copies will serve as a type of backup in the case you lose the laptop or the disk fails. As I said, I ditched DropBox and moved to Sync.com, and I don't regret the choice.

If I understand what you really want to do is to remove that DropBox folder from your PC. A simple method would be to copy the DropBox folder to a flash drive or some other disk. I would then rename the DropBox folder to something else like "DroBox Remove Later". If that works then nothing was open and locked at the time. Check the folders you believe were shadowed in the DropBox folder and make sure everything is there. If so, then you are free to remove the DropBox folder.

I look forward to hearing back. Your problem has me intrigued.
 
#15 ·
OK. I backed up the contents to an SD card, then renamed Dropbox "deleteme Dropbox". I then deleted the contents of "deleteme Dropbox" one folder at a time, ending with deleting "deleteme Dropbox" itself.

I've been left with the following problems -

1) I have lost access to Downloads. Clicking on the folder produces the dialogue as seen in the attachment "Downloads".
2) On reboot, "deleteme Dropbox" is restored under Boot > Users, which includes the folders "My PC" and "Desktop".
3) Desktop defers to "deleteme Dropbox". I have included a snap of Properties for Desktop. Deleting Desktop here deletes whatever is on the desktop (except the Recycle Bin). However, this is also restored on reboot, relocated to "deleteme Dropbox".

Note. I was able to rescue the folder "downloaded" from Dropbox, a folder I created, but not "Download" or "Desktop", which are both system-generated ones. This may give some clue as to how Dropbox is working.

Hope this helps.
 

Attachments

#16 ·
Okay, I believe that DropBox did was to change the "location" where Windows goes to find these files. You can easily put the folders back to what they should have been before DropBox was installed.

Open Windows Explorer, and in This PC right-click on one of the folders that is wrong. For example, right-click Downloads and go to Properties. You should see a tab labeled Location. Click Location and you will see the current path, and you should see a button Move. Click Move and select the proper folder. It is most likely C:\Users\<your iD>\Downloads. Then click on Select Folder and Ok. Windows should prompt you if you want to move the files to the new location. I would recommend Yes. That should do it for each of the folders that need to be moved.
 
#17 ·
I think you have the nub of the problem. The only folder I haven't been able to move from Dropbox is Downloads.

The problem here is that Downloads in My PC is not a folder but a shortcut to Downloads in Dropbox. I tried creating a folder called Downloads in My PC but it wouldn't let me as I was duplicating the name of the existing folder/shortcut. I tried deleting this shortcut before (I think). It messed up Desktop and Windows simply reinstalled the link on reboot.
 
#18 ·
I have a limited knowledge of how Windows works but what seems to be happening here is that logically, when Windows realises a system folder has gone AWOL, it reads an instruction somewhere that tells it what to create and where to locate it. And that's where the problem is. In essence, Dropbox seems to have hijacked that instruction.
 
#19 ·
It is possible in Windows to create folder names that are actually junctions. And it is possible DropBox made a junction for Downloads and that is the thing you are hitting. The simplest way to get around this is to create a new folder for downloads but name something different. Something like NewDownloads or Downloads2, etc. Create this folder under your personal folder in Users. Then use the steps above to change the Downloads in My PC to a new location and use the new name. Once you have the Downloads on My PC working properly with your newly created folder, you can safely remove the older Downloads, which could really be a junction.

I hate to get a technical on people when all they want is to get the problem sorted so they can move on with their things to do. But a junction is a way to create an item that looks and acts like a folder, but it really redirects to some other folder. In cases of multiple hard drives, a junction can actually be on a different disk. I think DropBox used a junction to put Downloads where it wanted them to be.
 
#20 ·
OK. That has partly worked. I couldn't create a new folder in MY-PC, so I created "Downloads stuff" in Boot. For some reason it appeared in Desktop, so I moved it to My-PC. I then redirected Downloads from Dropbox to the new folder as you said, then deleted Dropbox and rebooted.

So now I have a folder under My-PC called Downloads with the blue down arrow icon. Oddly, the location for this is C:\Users\aliiisa\Downloads stuff. I expected this to be C:\Users\aliiisa\Downloads. I also have a plain folder in Boot called Downloads which has no location. Dropbox has reappeared, with no Downloads but I still have My-PC with the subfolder Desktop. I presume I need to do something with these folders but as things didn't go exactly as planned for Downloads, I'm a bit wary.

Also, under Users/<my name> I have another Documents folder (with blue arrow) and a shortcut folder called Downloads which has no location, which I presume are just mirrors of what's in MY-PC.

Does all that make sense?
 
#21 ·
Yes it does make sense. The Downloads stuff ended the way it should, but I think it was the long way. Regardless, you were able to redirect Downloads and they actually go to Downloads stuff, and none of that is under DropBox. That's good and I believe it could be left that way. As for the shortcut in Documents that pointed to Downloads, you can most likely just delete it. It's just a shortcut and in all that was happening, it could have been created by accident.

The folder DropBox reappearing makes me believe something else expects the folder to be there. It could be a redirect from somewhere else in your user folder. But nothing is really going to the DropBox folder and you aren't using DropBox, so at this point I think it can just be ignored.

As for Desktop, that really should be under C:\Users\aliiisa. You can try the same thing you did earlier. Make a Desktop folder under c:\Users\aliiisa. Then move the location of Desktop to be the folder under C:\Users\aliiisa. The important thing is these things are no longer under DropBox and you can ignore the DropBox folder.
 
#22 ·
I moved Desktop and deleted Dropbox, rebooted and Dropbox has not reappeared. Phew and hurrah 😃 ! Using Everything, I see Dropbox has also managed to install itself in Mozilla Profiles, though it's not listed as an extension. I've deleted it from there so hopefully, that's the last I'll see of it.

There should be warnings somewhere that Dropbox is an insidious piece of software and should be avoided unless you really, really, really want it.

Thanks for your patience and your help. All very much appreciated, thank you 👍 💋
 
#23 ·
I'm glad you got it all resolved and didn't lose anything. I personally dumped DropBox years ago. I also tried Amazon Drive but it was so unstable that I nearly lost data. Sync.com and MS OneDrive are the two that I rely on to keep things synchronized between all my devices. I will also add that I use a company/product called pCloud. It's a cloud based storage but everything appears as a new drive letter, P:.

I'm glad I could help get this sorted.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top