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CloudStorage Folder on Mac - Duplicate Dropbox Folders
I have recently updated Dropbox to the latest version (v172.4.7555) whereby the location of my Dropbox folder has moved to the 'CloudStorage' folder within Library on Mac OS (Ventura 13.3.1).
For some reason there are now two Dropbox folders within the CloudStorage folder. One of the folders has the blue dropbox icon and is just named 'Dropbox', and the other looks like a normal system folder and has been named 'Dropbox (20-4-2023 10/03 pm)'. See screenshot below.
The latter of the two (the normal system folder) appears to be a copy of the Dropbox folder with same contents as at the time of the update/migration to the CloudStorage folder. They are no longer exactly the same due to changes since the migration. Dropbox appears to be working fine and is syncing from the first folder with the blue icon.
Perhaps the copy folder was created as a backup during the migration I am not sure? I would like to delete this second duplicate folder as it takes up a lot of storage space, however want to make sure my files won't be affected. It would also be good to know I haven't lost any files during the migration.
One issue that makes me nervous is that the Music app on my MacBook Pro is linked to and playing files from the second duplicate Dropbox folder, not the Dropbox folder with the blue icon. These same music files are in the blue Dropbox folder and it should be linking to them, not the duplicate folder. This makes me worry what else might be linking to the duplicate folder that would be affected if I delete it.
If anyone can provide info on why this duplicate folder was created, can confirm I can delete it safely, and can also confirm how I can check I didn't lose any files during the migration, it would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.
15 Replies
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- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey ab303, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
Can you please confirm if you've made sure that the desktop app is 'up to date' in your menu bar and not still syncing and that you've rebooted your computer since you first noticed this as well?
Thanks!
PS: For more information about the expected changes with the new desktop app for Mac OS, you can take a look here.
Hey Walter,
Thanks for your message.
Confirming yes to both of you questions. It's no longer syncing, and the Dropbox app is up to date - v173.4.6706
I suspect that when I updated the Dropbox app and it moved the location of the master DB folder to the new location in CloudStorage, perhaps the update was interrupted midway through? Then perhaps when the update resumed, it started again and automatically created a new (i.e. 2nd) Dropbox folder in the CloudStorage but left the original folder that was interrupted in place. Do you think that could be right?
I ended up moving the 2nd Dropbox folder from my CloudStorage folder to an external drive to see what happened. Nothing did happen, so I suspect it was just a duplicate. It looks like all my files are safe in DB, however I have so many files in DB, and having OCD tendancies it makes me nervous that perhaps a few files could be missing that I don't know about, so I am reluctant to delete the duplicate on my external drive.
As an aside, 2 of my folders don't have the green tick despite being fully synced. See photo attached (folder names blanked out). This new dropbox location seems to be behaving a bit weirdly in general.
Keen for any thoughts you may have, thanks so much.
I have exactly the same problem. Some files are going to the "real" Dropbox, and some to the CloudStorage folder. A mess!
- Megan
Hi jobo49, welcome to our Community!
Can you please check the exact sync status and version of the app for me? You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar with your mouse to see this info.
If you have any relevant screenshots, of the files as they appear on both of these paths, I'd appreciate that too.
Keep me posted!
Yeah same thing here, this update as caused so much chaos to my workflow. I keep getting scratch disk errors because there's no space, but I don't want to delete this incase I loose data.
Hey Hannah,
Sync status is 'your files are up to date' on both of my two computers. I removed all other linked devices. Both computers are on the latest Mac OS (Ventura 13.4.1)
Do you think I'm free to delete the older copy?
Thanks,
- Nancy
Hi Tim! Hope it’s OK to jump in.
If you open the old Dropbox folder that you see, what’s located inside it? Does it have the exact same files as the other folder?
Hey Nancy, for sure, that's fine.
So having a quick comparison, the older one seems to have a lot less in the root folder, even though it takes up more space— but I think that's to do with me having to do 'online only' to free up some space. The newer one also resembles the Dropbox folder on my other computer, so I'm 99% certain that's the right one, I just don't know if things got stuck in the transfer.
I should also mention that I found this problem using Omni Disk Sweeper, which told me I'm using 918GB out of a possible 500GB... so that's interesting 😕
I think I'm going to back up the old folder and then delete as a user above mentioned, but let me know if you have any advice.
Thanks!
