How do I remove the Never-Ending Dropbox Folder?

I don't know if this is an error with eclipse or dropbox, but I seem to be unable to delete a file folder within my dropbox folder. Somehow, there was a creation of over 8300 file folders, all duplicates of the previous folder. I tried deleting from both command line, and explorer but get the same error:

Stupid Windows

I've also deleted the share from the dropbox website, and it deleted correctly from there, but during the sync from the client (my pc) to the site there is an error:

stupid Windows Some More

Any ideas of what to do?

James Mertz

Posted 2011-05-12T23:35:25.557

Reputation: 24 787

Did you try doing the delete operation when Dropbox wasn't running, as I suggested before? – nhinkle – 2011-05-12T23:39:29.063

@nhinkle yes... with the same result as above. Which leads me to believe that this is a windows issue instead of a dropbox. – James Mertz – 2011-05-12T23:40:23.707

The fact that it didn't work from the Dropbox website but it also didn't work without dropbox is disconcerting. What error did the dropbox site give you when you tried to remove it there? – nhinkle – 2011-05-12T23:41:31.013

The error wasn't from the dropbox site, but rather from the client side dropbox app. meaning the little bubble that pops up in windows – James Mertz – 2011-05-12T23:45:07.913

Oh, I see what you mean. – nhinkle – 2011-05-12T23:47:47.440

Answers

Are you doing a full delete or a recycling bin delete? If it's trying to shift the folders to the recycling bin that could be causing the problem with "the destination folder...". Try Shift+Del instead of just Del.

Next, I would try booting off of a Linux LiveCD which supports NTFS (Ubuntu should work), and try deleting the folders from there. Since Linux doesn't have the same filesystem restrictions as Windows, it may be able to delete the folders even though you can't in Windows.

nhinkle

Posted 2011-05-12T23:35:25.557

Reputation: 35 057

In case anyone else runs into this problem: It will be easier to just install Cygwin (Linux Shell) and delete the folder via a command such as "rm -r C:\folder". This way you don't have the hassle of booting into a live Linux system – Martin – 2016-05-24T07:45:25.643

The file correctly deleted from the site of Dropbox. I'll make sure to update the question to clarify this. The error that I get is when dropbox client tries to sync with the dropbox site. – James Mertz – 2011-05-12T23:46:28.223

I get the same error whether I do a recycle bin delete or full delete. – James Mertz – 2011-05-12T23:50:14.820

I'll have to run linux a little later, but will update if that works. – James Mertz – 2011-05-12T23:50:30.780

Linux might be the only way. http://superuser.com/questions/76810/cant-delete-file-named/76818#76818

– Sathyajith Bhat – 2011-05-14T04:31:50.513

So did this ever work? – nhinkle – 2011-05-26T02:09:19.670

it came down to booting to a linux cd and deleting the folders. – James Mertz – 2012-03-29T15:56:44.070

If you are using one Dropbox profile on two or more computers at the same time, turn off all computers except one and delete the file.

Nebojsa Gasic

Posted 2011-05-12T23:35:25.557

Reputation: 21