how can I permanently get rid of Dropbox?

Topic

New Reply

A few months ago I signed up for (enrolled in??) Dropbox for my Windows 7 laptop.
Then, a few weeks ago, I noticed that a second (much smaller) folder named “My Documents” was present in Windows Explorer. It held
only a few subfolders.
I found having two folders named “My Documents” was somewhat confusing.
When I checked the Properties of this smaller “My Documents” folder, I found that its path included the Dropbox folder.
I decided that Dropbox was not something I wanted to continue using, so I uninstalled it from my laptop and unsubscribed from Dropbox.
But now each day after I boot up my laptop, I find that same unwanted Dropbox folder listed in Windows Explorer, along with that same unwanted smaller “My Documents” folder.
Hoping to permanently get rid of Dropbox, I highlighted the Dropbox folder and pressed . But it shows up again every day.
Can anyone tell me how to permanently get rid of the unwanted Dropbox folder and its related “My Documents” folder?
Thanks, Ron

Reply | Quote

Replies

There is a Dropbox client you need to uninstall.

Reply | Quote

You wrote “There is a Dropbox client you need to uninstall.”
That told me what to do, but I do not understand how to do it.
My question mentioned that I have already uninstalled Dropbox; ref “…I uninstalled it from my laptop and unsubscribed from Dropbox.”
And I see no other item with the word “Dropbox” in “Control Panel–>Programs and Features”.
Please tell me where to find this Dropbox client, so that it can be uninstalled.
Thanks,
Ron

Reply | Quote

Sorry, I thought you had just removed the folders – it was too long a day. If you went to Programs and uninstalled Dropbox, then…

–Does it still show in the taskbar?
–Is there still a service running?
–Are there still program files?
–Are there still tasks in the scheduler?

Reply | Quote

–Does it still show in the taskbar?
No, it is not in the taskbar…

–Is there still a service running?
No, I see nothing which includes the name “Dropbox” in any sections of the “Services” tab in Task Manager…

–Are there still program files?
Yes, there is a folder named “Dropbox” in the “Program Files (x86)” folder.
There are no folders named “Dropbox” in the “Program Files” folder.

–Are there still tasks in the scheduler?
No, I see no tasks which include the name “Dropbox” in the Task Status section of the Task Scheduler Summary…

Reply | Quote

Hi Ron,
Have you tried deleting the Dropbox folder by using the command prompt, as discussed here:

http://superuser.com/questions/288712/remove-dropbox-folder-from-computer

I’m not sure why what you’ve done wouldn’t suffice, but the command line worked for the originating poster in that thread.

Dave

Reply | Quote

If there is, in fact, no Dropbox folder left (it would not have been deleted when you uninstalled Dropbox if there were any files in it), then it sounds as if what you are seeing is some remnant of the Dropbox folders inclusion in the library rather than Dropbox itself. If you try and open that, is there anything there?

Reply | Quote

I found that there was in fact a folder named Dropbox in the Documents library.
So I deleted it (shift+delete).
But as before, when i restarted the laptop I found the unwanted Dropbox folder listed in Windows Explorer.
And there was also the unwanted smaller “My Documents” folder.

Reply | Quote

Try this:

1. Download/run Autoruns.
2. Enter dropbox in the Filter text box.
3. Click on Refresh.
4. Wait until scanning has finished.

44278-autoruns
Click to enlarge

Scroll down through the list to see whether it shows how Dropbox is being restarted and post back with any results.

Hope this helps…

Reply | Quote

I downloaded and ran Autoruns, entered dropbox in the Filter text box, and clicked on File–>Refresh.
But no entries at all appeared under Autorun Entry.

Reply | Quote

This sounds a bit like a problem I and others had a while back where duplicate (and even triplicate) entries were showing up in Explorer. Not sure if this will help or not since it may have be related to something in Win10:
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//174821-Duplicate-Documents-folder?highlight=folder

While it’s not in that thread, the problem turned out to be some kind of corruption to the windows directory tree list. Now I just have to remember what fixed it for good.

Reply | Quote

I’ve just finished removing Dropbox from two machines – phew.

Firstly, I uninstalled it in the normal way. Secondly, I searched the HDs for the string Dropbox; then it was just a case of Ctrl+A and Del. There were files and folders all over the place: %temp%, %appdata%, you name it. Then it was into the registries to search for the same string; I had to play with the permissions a little as sometimes the child objects had different permissions from the parent, but I got them all deleted OK. There were a lot. Then it was a quick blast of CCleaner to remove the orphaned keys and all was well.

Dropbox certainly don’t make it easy.

Reply | Quote