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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
Hey SxFtSxInch, sorry to hear you’re feeling this way; I ran a search on our system & I could see that you’ve chatted in to my colleague, where you’ve made some progress together, so it would be best to gather all relevant details under the same email chain for convenience’ sake. 
 
While I’ve now made sure to include a copy of your comments & I’ve increased your support priority internally, I remain at your entire disposal should you need more help in any way. Thanks! 
onedissedoffuser's avatar
onedissedoffuser
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

This is just absolute horse**bleep**. I buy a new drive to merge and store files and the space gets taken up by this **bleep**.

Absolutelu **bleep**ing atrocious. What the **bleep** am I paying for **bleep** for???the mess dropbox created. A new 1tb drive 

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