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Unable to make all my files available offline onto new Mac
I've got a new iMac after the old one has just given up the ghost. All my files are fortunately backed up on Dropbox. My back-up drive was unfortunately corrupted. I've installed Dropbox on the new computer and all my files now appear but with "zero bytes".
But there's a problem. I can download each file onto the hard drive one at a time by opening and closing it, but this is impossibly time consuming to do for every single file!
I have gone to Dropbox Preferences, then clicked Sync and then checked Available Offline - but still all my "zero bytes" files remain on line and don't download until I click on them.
I'm sure there's a simple solution. Please can someone advise me how to find it? Thanks.
22 Replies
All sorted. The advice I got did the trick, thanks.
Yes, the context menu items appear on right-clicking a file or folder, as in the attached screenshot. The file has zero bytes unless opened, after which it posts the file size.
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey janicetaylor, let me also jump in here!
I'm thinking that instead of clicking directly on your entire Dropbox folder, you could maybe access the folder, then select all of your items using Command-A and see if you can them make the folders available-offline.
Can you give it a go?
That sounded promising, but unfortunately it didn't make any files or folders available offline.
Update: That action may have triggered a delayed response as it looks like files are syncing and downloading. It started out at over 127,000 files and is decreasing, now at just over 116,000 files. I will report back when the syncing/downloading is complete.
Thank you.
- Megan
Sure thing janicetaylor! 😀
Take your time, and let us know of any updates!
Success! Thank you. All files are available offline after this process. Since they total around 170 GB, is it possible to move Dropbox files and folders to a dedicated external hard drive to free up space on my Mac?
Thank you so much for your help!
- Megan
Fantastic janicetaylor!
Sure you can. You could either copy them over to your external drive, or move them there.
Keep in mind that if you choose to move them to your external drive, they would need to be available offline (in order for them to preview without an issue) and they will get removed your Dropbox account.
Or you could copy them to the external drive, and then make them online-only locally on the device. The choice is yours, and I'm here if you have any questions. 😄
As I think about it, the ideal situation would be to have a "live" external folder where files are synced as they are added by our team, not just me.
I am not sure how the DB app could be configured on the Desktop to sync with an external targeted drive for the file and folders, if at all.
- Hannah
Essentially, you want to move the Dropbox folder to an external drive, and continue syncing from that drive, right janicetaylor?
That is actually possible with these steps, although, you need to keep in mind that having the Dropbox folder on an external drive hides a risk of file deletions, if the drive gets disconnected while the app is running.
I hope this helps.
