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I have Dropbox installed on a few computers. One of which I no longer have access to.

I no longer wish for that computer to be able to have access to my Dropbox account but I see no way to stop that computer with Dropbox installed from being able to do so.

I went in on the website and changed my password but Dropbox installed on the computer is still able to sync even with the password changed!

I find this to be a major security issue. What if my laptop was stolen and I didn't want the thief to have access and be able to delete/ change the files on my Dropbox account? It seems there is no way to protect your Dropbox account from this sort of thing?

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4 Answers 4

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Whilst it is possible to unlink other computers through the web interface, as slhck noted, this leaves all of your files where you don't want them. Depending on the sensitivity of your files (and how much work you want for yourself) you can:

  1. Back up all Dropbox files locally
  2. Delete any sensitive files from your Dropbox
  3. Wait for the sync to remove these files from the remote computer
  4. Unlink the offending computer(s) from https://www.dropbox.com/account#security
  5. Return the backed-up files to your Dropbox for re-syncing

It might be worth leaving any other synced computers off (or disabling their syncs) during this process to avoid the sync deleting/restoring where unnecessary.

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    This is the answer! Do you think it'd be faster to delete the files from online to trigger the deletion?
    – slhck
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 19:00
  • Thanks :) That's actually how I'd thought about doing it, since I would want to avoid other syncing in the meantime. Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to know how long the "lost" computer would take to remove them. It would probably help to know how long/often it would actually be connected....
    – Andrew Lott
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 19:07
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    Even once they are removed they will remain in the dropbox cache folder for a few weeks, for rollback!
    – wim
    Commented May 18, 2013 at 15:08
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Go to https://www.dropbox.com/account#security and here under My devices, unlink the machines you no longer own:

Note that the computer, according to Dropbox:

will no longer stay in sync, but it will keep a copy of any file it currently has.

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    Depending on how important the stuff is, you could empty the dropbox first... wait.. unlink... refill. Might burn some bandwidth tho.
    – WernerCD
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 18:52
  • Is there any limit for Dropbox bandwidth, or do you mean with regard to the ISP?
    – slhck
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 18:57
  • My idea is basically Andrew Lotts answer, but with mental note about how much bandwidth you'd use to re-download the files to the various points. If you have a phone, a 2gb data plan and resync 4gb of data over the air... Not to mention the time it would take to resync stuff.
    – WernerCD
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 19:32
  • dropbox.com/help/45/en says 20/gb/day for free accounts - 200/gb/day for paid accounts, just noticed this earlier
    – WernerCD
    Commented May 21, 2013 at 16:54
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You can manage and revoke access to your computers from your control panel at the following link. https://www.dropbox.com/account/settings#security

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I have not tried this, but my thought would be to delete your drop box account completely (on the Dropbox wbesite), and then to create a new Dropbox account.

I was trying to do was to set up a second dropbox account for another member of my family.

I tried removing the old Dropbox application from my Mac, and then re-installed. It immediately linked to my existing Dropbox account, without even asking me for a password!

I think Dropbox is quite pervasive on your computer to stop multiple accounts, so even if you remove the application and then re-install it, I am not certain if that would still try to link to the old account.

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