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Forum Discussion
Impossible to access my files (documents, downloads and desktop) on Mac because of Dropbox sync
Hello,
In 2020, I worked for a company and I had to download Dropbox on my computer. Since 1 week, I encountered a big issue with my Mac since I can no longer access all my files. For example, when I try to open my file Documents it says ""Documents" cannot be opened because the original item cannot be found.". I called Apple's customer service and after few days of research, it appears that this problem is caused by the Dropbox syncronization. As I understood it, they told me that my files still exist but it's somewhere on my Mac and that Dropbox bloc the access. The problem is that since I have no news form the company and I don't know if it still exist. Therefore I can't access the account I used when I was working with them.
Is there someone who had the same problem or is there anyway to contact Dropbox's customer support ?
Thank you in advance
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hi Jeremybenhamou, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
It sounds like you had enabled the Dropbox backup feature on your computer at some point in the past.
Can you please clarify if you have the Dropbox desktop app running on your computer at the moment? If it is, what's its exact status as shown in your menu bar?
A screenshot of the exact error you've been getting would also help, so feel free to attach one.
When it comes to the account's access, do you have access to the email address that was used for that account?
If so, you could reset your password as outlined here.
In any case, please keep me posted!
Hello Walter,
Thank you for your help,
I just called Apple's customer service so that they can explain the problem again.
As you can see in the screenshot_1 below, I can't access the main folders on my computer because they have been moved to another location in the code tree (screenshot_2).
In the screenshot_2 of the apple report, you can see that the engineers found my files in a Dropbox folder.
However, I uninstalled the Dropbox application from my computer a long time ago, I even thought that I had erased all traces of Dropbox from my computer but apparently this is not the case.
Regarding the account with which I logged in at the time I was using Dropbox, I have contacted the owner of the account (my former boss). The account is still active and if I understood correctly the engineers told me that my files were surely in this storage space.
I hope you have understood my problem better and that you can help me
Jeremy
Screenshot_1Screenshot_1
Screenshot_2- Nancy
Hi Jeremy, hope it’s OK to jump in.
Just to clarify, before uninstalling the desktop app from your device, did you disable computer backup, by any chance?
Also, if you go to this page, are you able to see the computer folders that were previously backed up, along with your files?
Hello -
I've noticed that I can no longer access my desktop folder on my MacBook Air 2020 (running Ventura).
It shows as an alias and shows the folder as empty (which it certainly isn't) and when I try to view my Desktop from the sidebar of a Finder window, I get this error:"The folder “Desktop” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
When I click on "get info" it lists the original location as:/Users/[my name]/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/My Mac (MacBook-Pro)/Desktop
I've seen posts suggesting I change the permissions to give myself permission to access this folder but in "Get Info" I don't see a lock icon, or anywhere where I can change permissions.
What do I do to fix this?
Thanks so much.
Thanks Megan.
The problem is, when I open "Get Info", there is no "Sharing and Permissions" arrow / section.Any ideas what else I can try?
Jamie
Good luck getting a straight forward solution. I tried but never got an answer and that is why I will need to migrate to another system. Really frustrating.
Hey Jeremy I am having this exact issue I believe on Windows OS PC, thinking my files were safe and sound in the backup.
I now have a secondary folder on my laptop where dropbox has labelled the storage with a (2) in the name and I can't actually get access to the files, apps won't open them anymore saying the files belong to someone else (me) even though I am the owner of said files, I can't get access to them and it has pretty much destroyed my storage of files on this device and has given me nothing but a headache to resolve, I am over it Dropbox.
- Megan
Hi njet01, sorry to hear about that!
You mentioned you have a second Backup folder, that you can't get access to the content there. Can you let me know if you get any errors?
What about the message that the files belong to someone else? Can you send us a couple of screenshots, in order for us to have a visual here?
Keep me posted!
