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Forum Discussion
How can I prevent the Dropbox app from re-syncing everything to my formatted device?
Hello, I'm writing you because I will have to format my computer - due to corrupted system problems - and so the question of my dropbox is raising.
I have a video studio with collaborators ...
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorJust to clarify, are the files/folders within your local Dropbox folder available offline at the moment? Is there any content that’s set to be online-only, or that has been removed from the Dropbox app via selective sync?
If everything is local, you can copy paste your data to an external drive, like you'd do with any other file/folder on your computer, and then copy it back to the new Dropbox folder to be re-indexed, instead of synced anew.
No most of the files are online actually..
Ok so no solutions for large data like that? I'm a little lost because it would block dropbox for months...
- Nancy
If you copy everything to an external drive as it is now, you’ll be basically copying fully downloaded files along with placeholders (this is what the online-only files are basically).
So, if you copy them back inside your Dropbox folder later on, without having downloaded them first locally, then you risk syncing empty files back to your Dropbox account. This is why we don't suggest doing this.
Ah ok so Dropbox desktop understand online placeholder like empty entities if they are copy as it is? Good to know !
Ok so no way to copy the architecture.
Is that possible to install dropbox on the freshly format machine and say to dropbox desktop to only synch selected folders (and so be able to manually sync things gradually) ?- Rich
Super User II
Lageole wrote:
Is that possible to install dropbox on the freshly format machine and say to dropbox desktop to only synch selected folders (and so be able to manually sync things gradually) ?
Yes. During the installation you have the option of selecting which folders will sync. I don't remember if it prompts you directly, or if you have to select Advanced Options after you sign in.
Ok, so maybe the best solution for me is too manually and gradually sync by myself like 1TB every night haha
As I don't need all this data to work, I can sync first essentials things and then continue over the month
