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

Forum Discussion

2HDD's avatar
2HDD
Explorer | Level 3
5 years ago
Solved

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 ...
desktop
Install
Mac
Setting up the apps
sync
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    5 years ago

    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. 

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
In 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!
ChuckS2's avatar
ChuckS2
Helpful | Level 5
5 years ago

Thanks, Walter, that sounds good. 

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!