Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

WilliamLow's avatar
WilliamLow
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

Selective Sync Conflict mess!

Hello,  I just did a fresh OS install on my Mac, with my Dropbox folder on an external drive (my startup disk is too small to hold this data). I thought that I setup my Dropbox correctly, pointing t...
desktop
sync
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    8 years ago
    Hi William, unfortunately there’s no way of merging the folders into one using Dropbox, since there isn’t a way of knowing which folder/file has the most up-to-date information in it, or instead older files that do have important data.
     
    This can only be checked manually by yourself since only you know which files need to be kept or discarded.
     
    The reason for these extra folders is that previous you had folders which were selectively ‘unsynced’ already according to the desktop app. This should delete the local copy of the folders on that drive.
     
    However, it seems that the folders were either recreated by some app, or the folders weren’t deleted in the first place. They would’ve had a gray minus symbol showing that they weren’t syncing to the site.
     
    When connecting the Dropbox account to the external drive after the reinstall, either these folders were then allowed to sync to the drive (i.e. all folders had a check next to them), and then this would create the selective sync conflicts. 
     
    This is done avoid data loss, since as I mentioned, only you know which files should remain or not.
     
     
    Hope this helps to clarify matters!
     
Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago

Thanks for the prompt reply & please accept my apologies for the slight delay in getting back in touch with you here Michael L.96; let me have a closer look on this matter through our Official Support channel. I’ve now sent you a brief message & once you reply back to me there, I’ll review your account specifics & we can discuss your options together. Please have a look at your inbox whenever you have a bit of spare time & I’ll check back with you asap. Thanks again!

Michael L.96's avatar
Michael L.96
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago

A new twist: now SmartSync is happening on all my selective sync folder, and I am having to go back and choose "local" on all my new folders.  Yes, I have looked at settings under preferences and SmartSync is still set to disabled.

One more reason I CAN'T WAIT to purge my 2T Dropbox folder (and back-up somewhere else) and SPLIT this [profanity removed by moderation according to the Community Guidelines] software.

  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago
    Hey again Michael L.96, I understand that this may be frustrating to you at the moment, though I’d like to ask you to keep the discussion civil. For that reason, I slightly modified your post according to our Community Guidelines (which you can review at your convenience).
     
    From there, I’ve also made sure to reply to you through our Official Support channel earlier within the day, so I’ll make sure to take it from where we’ve left off once you get back in touch with me there. Thanks again! 

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!