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Unable to move the Dropbox folder as 'some files can't be moved'
Trying to move from C drive to D drive - I am OUT of space. But keep getting error message. "SOme files can't be moved. Please select a new location or close some open files and try again..
I've found a solution that, while somewhat complicated, will allow you to move the Dropbox folder location on Windows 10 if you get the error "Some files cannot be moved" WITHOUT re-downloading your files. This requires admin level privileges.
First, open Windows Task Manager - you can do this by right clicking on the taskbar.
Now open the Dropbox Preferences and select the Account tab. The move location button probably won't work if you're reading this guide, but you might as well try it again at this point.
Switch to Task Manager and position the window so you can see both it and Dropbox Preferences at the same time. In Task Manager, select "explorer.exe", right click it, and select 'End Task'. At this point any file explorer windows will disappear along with the taskbar. You'll get them back later. Next select the Services tab and navigate to WMPNetworkSvc. This can be done quickly by clicking the 'Name' column to sort alphabetically, selecting any service in the list, typing 'w', and scrolling down until you see it. Right click on it, and select 'Stop'.
Now switch to Dropbox Preferences and try moving your location again. This should succeed. If so, in Task Manager, select WMPNetworkSvc, right click, and select 'Start'. Then press File -> Run New Task. Type 'explorer.exe' and hit enter. This should restart your taskbar.
If your problem is solved, you're done with this guide. Otherwise I have some troubleshooting tips.
[Troubleshooting] Download Process Explorer (http://filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/) and open it as an administrator. Press CTRL-F and search for "Dropbox". Many processes should show up. Each of these could potentially be the process that is keeping your folder locked. Start by stopping/ending explorer.exe and WMPNetworkSvc and try moving the folder in the Dropbox Preferences window again. Don't kill any Dropbox.exe processes. If you find a process that is keeping Dropbox locked and is marked hidden, you can kill it using the command prompt. Take note of the process ID (PID). Open a command prompt window as an administrator, and type "Taskkill /PID [your process id] /F". After killing each subsequent process, retry moving your Dropbox folder. After a successful move, reboot your machine.
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OrlaDropbox Staff
Hi Scott, you can try selectively syncing some files and then completing the move.
I'm also seeing this issue. I'm on OSX and I need to move Dropbox into the secondary drive on my iMac. I get the same error message, and so I restarted the iMac and tried to do the move again, but Dropbox does continues to give the same error. There were no open files and there is certainly enough space on the secondary drive on my iMac. I have also tried selectively syncing and trying to do the move again, but to no avail. Any ideas what the issue is?
Anybody find a solution to this? I've unsynced everything and am left with an empty Dropbox folder but it still won't move.
Answering my own question in case it helps someone else out...
I'm using Dropbox 3.4.3 for linux and was attempting to move the Dropbox folder to a volume with a space in the name (in my case, it's labelled "Media One"). Moving the dropbox folder to a mount without a space in the label name worked fine so I'm assuming there's a bug in the code that parses directory label info from the OS to Dropbox.
I am also trying to move my Dropbox folder from my user directory on /Volumes/Macintosh HD to a memory card installed in the computer at /Volumes/StorEDGE/.
I'm on Mac OSX 10.10.3 and Dropbox is v3.6.7.
The move successfully transfers about 8000 / 73000 files and then displays the following message:
Some files can't be moved. Please select a new location or close some open files and try again.I have nothing open that would be interacting with Dropbox files.
Has a solution been found for this?
I think I have tracked this down to the in-use .DS_Store files. You can see a list of these by opening a terminal and running the following command:
lsof -l +L -R -V | grep /path/to/Dropbox/Trying to delete these files is another issue! It seems to be recreated when it is deleted.
I had the same problem in Mavericks/Yosemite. After hours of messing with selective sync, I finally narrowed it down to an alias that was sitting in one of the folders. Once that was deleted, the DropBox folder location moved with no problems - now I wait a week to re-downlad all the data that I selectively un-sync'd while troubleshooting....
similar issue on windows for anyone running into this issue. Kill windows explorer before/while moving and it should work!
Still stuck on this issue. Trying to move dropbox from primary drive to secondary internal drive. Haven't found any alias files from the terminal method suggested above. And have unselected all folders from selective sync to make sure there are no active files. Anyone else got other suggestions?
Found this on another site and it worked perfectly for me:
".... deleting the hidden .dropbox folder should be enough. This is where the account and client settings are stored. Deleting it will force the client to recreate it as soon as you open Dropbox. It'll take to the same initial setup wizard where you login with your account and then choose/point it to new folder (do not accept the default options)."
Hope that works !!
