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Moving from an old Mac to a new Mac are there step-by-step instructions somewhere?
I'm about to get a new MacBook Pro with the M1 chip. My current MacBook Pro is a mid-2012 (old-school) so it's been forever since I've had to set up DropBox on a new computer. Are there step-by-step ...
Hi 2HDD, thanks for using Dropbox and posting on our Community!
If you made sure that the app has finished syncing and it's up to date in your menu bar, you can simply quit the app and then uninstall it, if needed.
On the new computer, just download and install the desktop app and sign in with your Dropbox account.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks, Walter. But what I would really like is to download only the app, and then populate it with data transferred directly from my old computer, thus avoiding the download of any data while retaining all my locally-saved data. I pictured using Apple’s Migration Assistant (or something similar) to do this. Any thoughts? Thanks again.
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorIn that case, 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.
Since you'll be connecting with the same Dropbox account as before, Dropbox will detect the existing folder and will then prompt you to merge the Dropbox folder. Upon merging the desktop version of Dropbox will check the existing files and the server versions and update accordingly.
Please do note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder or on the web interface while the folder was "offline" will generate conflicted copies.
Let me know how you get on, Chuck!
Since you'll be connecting with the same Dropbox account as before, Dropbox will detect the existing folder and will then prompt you to merge the Dropbox folder. Upon merging the desktop version of Dropbox will check the existing files and the server versions and update accordingly.
Please do note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder or on the web interface while the folder was "offline" will generate conflicted copies.
Let me know how you get on, Chuck!
Thanks, Walter, that sounds good.
I have a similar related. I already migrated peer-to-peer on the new Mac - and during migration it already copied all my dropbox files. But when I signin to Dropbox, it gives me the option to restore from backup or skip ... so I try to restore ... it gave me some errors saying some files were not where they were supposed to be, e.g. Desktop, Download, Documents ... so I try again, and then SKIP. Now when I click to open the Dropbox app, it seems to show me a duplicate set of files that are in the Dropbox "Cloud" - how do I point them to the already migrated files? The new machine is a Macbook Air M2 with MacOS Venture 13.2.1
- Hannah
Hi, they already shared screenshots. I'm having the exact same issue.
- Jay
HI sgrab, are the three folders in their default locations on your drive according to Finder? Usually this would be /Users/Username/Desktop, and so on.
No. Here's what happened:
OLD MAC:
- I installed Dropbox and created a backup
- Dropbox moved around all my folders
NEW MAC:
- I bought a new Mac and set it up using the Apple migration tool (which copies all settings, file structure, etc. from the old computer INCLUDING the changes Dropbox has made)
- Dropbox asked me to backup my new system, but then is unable to because it has itself moved the files around on the old machine (the new machine being a copy of the old)
- Trying to fix this, I moved the folders out of Dropbox to their original location, which just duplicated the files and then dropbox created a SECOND backup of my new machine.
- Now I have the worst of both worlds... files are duplicated on two SEPARATE backups, and therefore there is no single source of truth to sync to all machines.
I'm going to try and do a factory reset on my new Mac, delete all online backed-up files, then re-do the migration from my old Mac. If this fails, I'm cancelling my Dropbox subscription and moving to iCloud.
