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Bulk download all my files
Hi. I can no longer afford the monthly fee, but have 26gb of files. Please can you advise how I can do a bulk download perhaps multiple zip.files rather than individual downloads?Many thanks
To download all of your Dropbox files go to Dropbox web - https://www.dropbox.com/home You can split the data in few separate folders (so that in case a download fails during long downloads, you don't have to start from the beginning). Then you can download folders one by one.
It will download zip of each folder. Each folder should not be more than 20GB, or contain more than 10,000 files - https://help.dropbox.com/sync/download-entire-folders
Mod note: edited to update link in post [last update 2022]
20 Replies
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I have the same issue. I have over 3TB of data and now cannot afford the subscription. Dropbox is forcing me to download 20 GB at a time - except I have a few files that are over this size and there's no way to download them.
I think it's fair to say that my data is being held, hostage.
- If you download through the desktop or mobile app the limit is a lot higher than 20gb
- I found that when, out of frustration, I tried to cancel and delete my Dropbox account altogether, Dropbox suddenly offered me another 14 days as an extended trial for my previous Business plan. I accepted and reinstalled Dropbox on my laptop. Thanks to a gigabit internet connection, I was able to download all of my files that were being held hostage. Problem solved. Now, Dropbox can end my trial and ride off into the sunset without me.
Google Workspace (5TB) is much cheaper at $20/mo and integrates nicely with both my Mac (iPad, MBP x3) and Android phone. Also, my new MBP has a large enough hard drive that I can keep all 5TB of my data local while simultaneously backing it up to Google Workspace. This is a temporary arrangement as I am in the process of building my own cloud server that will max out at around 1 PB. Yes, this is ridiculous what Dropbox does. I'm trying to get my files out of Dropbox; not because I can't afford it, but (despite only using 60% of my 2TB of data), it won't sync with a new computer. Support say's it's because I have too many files. This happened to me a couple of years ago - and, after spending a lot of effort doing this - I maned to zip folders to decrease the number of files. I would have thought this problem would have been worked out by now (2023), but it's not. Just as a warning to everyone, you syncing on new devices will stop when you exceed the file limit (the support person said 300,000 files) even if you are way under the total file storage limit. So, dropbox might be OK to store zip archives, it doesn't work well with a real set of folders with varied length files.
- The solution I finally came to after much back and forth with Dropbox support was for them to give me a 14 day trial of the business/professional level subscription, which allowed me time to hook a computer up to gigabit internet service and sync my files to me desktop. After that was done, I promptly deleted everything from Dropbox and moved all my data over to my Google Workspace account. It's much more flexible and is working well until I finish building my own cloud storage setup (NAS with private access). Then I can be done being dependent upon these cutthroat companies holding my data and files hostage.
Hi Jay,
Have you improved upon this in the past 3 years?
My data is in various states of online/offline and I would like to create a local backup to an external drive of my entire dropbox drive, should there ever be any issues on your end with my data, or with syncing. I'm sure you've done your best to prevent them, but failures occur.
This process seems archaic and entirely tedious and an intentional friction point to ensure user retention—it's kinda gross. Can you please advise if you have an actual, reasonable solution to this thread's original question?
Thanks,
B
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi benjaminjess, there haven't been any new updates which could help in relation to this matter, nor are there any workarounds that we can offer.
There's a reason you've got 20 likes (including mine) it's really frustrating not being able to bulk download all files... It's like all of them are being held hostage.
Dropbox : GoogleDrive-fear-much?It's still not possible to bulk download all files, the desktop apps only syncs. Plus, I've found a virus that resides on dropbox cache even if I have cleaned my whole system, it still shows the virus in dropbox cache... (and yes, I have deleted all files locally in dropbox cache... it's like the virus is online in dropbox, and everytime it syncs, I get the virus on my pc again...)
- Rich
Super User II
ainmo wrote:
Plus, I've found a virus that resides on dropbox cache ...
It's likely a false positive due to the way files are chunked and stored prior to syncing. It's best to add the .dropbox.cache folder to your antivirus exclusions list. If it was an actual virus, your antivirus would still pick it up in the Dropbox folder when the file is fully synced and reassembled.
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