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HAL900O's avatar
HAL900O
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

Difficulty moving dropbox folder to selected location

Dropbox Version: 164.3.7907 OS: Windows 10   Issue: I am attempting to move my dropbox folder location from my D drive to my  J drive   I used the "Move..." function   The process began...
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HAL900O's avatar
HAL900O
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

Next chapter in the saga.

 

I have now finished using Windows to copy all of my dropbox files from the old drive to the new one and I am requesting guidance in telling dropbox to link to the new file location.

 

I know how to get to preferences --> sync --> move.

 

However, that does not appear to be the correct method because it looks like that function expects to create the file structure itself starting with a root Dropbox folder "[name] Dropbox" (with .dropbox.cache and .dropbox files in that root Dropbox folder), then move the files itself, rather than just linking to a new location with pre-existing files.

 

Can you please help me how to tell Dropbox to link to my new file location?

 

Thanks

Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hello from me too, HAL900O!

 

If you have an existing Dropbox folder on your J drive, what you can try is to reinstall the Dropbox app on your computer, which should allow you to pick this folder as the new syncing destination, without the need to create a brand new folder instead. 

 

For more details on how to do this, you can also check Rich’s reply here.

 

Let me know if that helps.

  • HAL900O's avatar
    HAL900O
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago

    Thank you for your suggestion but if I understood it correctly, it did not perform as advertised when I tried it.

     

    The steps are basically to delete the dropbox app and reinstall it, then get a prompt asking where to link to.

     

    When I tried that, the message I got instead was that the dropbox folder in the OLD location is missing.  It asks me to either make it available again at the original location or give dropbox a new location to create a new download folder and re-download everything from the online backup.  

     

    I DO NOT get the option to choose an existing folder to link to.

     

    This seems like just a different way to access the MOVE command that merely copies everything rather than moving a pointer.

     

    Is there a way to simply change the location pointer/link?

     

    Can you please help?

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hey David, can you try choosing the second option from the error message ("give Dropbox a new location to create a new Dropbox folder") and then follow these steps?

     

    1. When the new Dropbox folder is created, immediately pause syncing 
    2. Move only the content of the old Dropbox folder into the newly created one. 

    3. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing

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