Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

GollyRojer's avatar
GollyRojer
Collaborator | Level 9
8 years ago
Solved

Dropbox Re-installation Won't Use Previous Folder

McAfee found a virus in Dropbox file win32api.cp35-win32.pyd and couldn't quarantine it, so I uninstalled Dropbox and re-installed it. The file is clean now, but I need Dropbox to use the folder it w...
desktop
Setting up the apps
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    8 years ago

    Hey there GollyRojer - sorry to hear about this.

    You should have gotten an "Advanced" option when re-installing our software on your computer normally which in turn would enable you to point your Dropbox Folder to your pre-existing one. Did you see that at all? 

    When you re-install the Dropbox software and you do not want to re-download all of your files from the server, you need to choose the "Advanced" setup option during the installation process. Then you need to choose the parent folder of the existing Dropbox folder as the location for this new install.

    Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there, if needed that is. Thanks! 

ItalianStallion51's avatar
ItalianStallion51
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

Problem solved through online chat.  My storage location was not on the C drive, so that may have complicated things.  Not sure.  Anyway, here are the instructions if you are re-synching to a folder in a drive other than "C":

 

"So in essence, the simplest process that you will be able to follow is, to rename the existing Dropbox Folder as (old) Dropbox. Allow the desktop application to create the new Dropbox Folder in the standard location, and pause syncing. If it creates that in the C drive, move that folder to the other drive, and then move the content from the old Dropbox Folder to the newly created one [that you just moved]. And resume syncing. The application will need to take some time to index those files, and compare them with dropbox.com, but it will not be fully re-downloading these files from the beginning."

 

I installed directly to the other drive from the beginning and dragged the files right in.  So far, so good.  Will update post if indexing fails.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!