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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 ...
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  • 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. 

sgrab's avatar
sgrab
New member | Level 2
3 years ago

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.

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