Take Your Search Game to the Next Level with Dropbox Dash 🚀✨ Curious how it works? Ask us here!
Forum Discussion
Relinking Dropbox to PC After Dropbox Stops Syncing
Recently, my Windows sync stopped working ... stuck at thousands of files. It was still retrieving files on demand, but there was a backlog of files out-of-sync in the two environments. It had apparently been stuck for over a week before I took notice. In trying to correct this (ticket ##20764974), it went to second-level support and my final emailed questions were never answered so, after days of no follow-up, I had to push forward with a much longer
process. The agent had told me to unlink & relink my account. I already knew of dozens of files that were on my PC and not in the cloud, or had older versions in the cloud. What I had wanted was a clear answer as to what happens if the same folder exists in both places when, at the time of re-linking:
- If I mark that folder “Online Only”:
- A local file that has a name that is NOT in the cloud (e.g. it was created after Dropbox had stopped synching properly)?
- A local file that is newer than the cloud file of the same name (e.g. it was updated after Dropbox has stopped synching properly)?
- If I mark that folder “Available offline”:
- A local file that has a name that is NOT in the cloud (e.g. it was created after Dropbox had stopped synching properly)?
- A local file that is newer than the cloud file of the same name (e.g. it was updated after Dropbox has stopped synching properly)?
Without those answers, I had no faith that that this relink process would work to protect my data. So, instead, I moved all my local folders elsewhere, relinked to let all the cloud files come to the PC, then used an app to compare my local files to what Dropbox just brought down. I had to then decide, case by case, how to get Dropbox properly in sync.
I do respect that Dropbox support responds quickly to online chat, but I am quite disappointed when an issue goes beyond the basic skills of the chat agent and switches to email support. Each exchange adds 24-48 hours, if they respond at all (which they didn't in the end).
1 Reply
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi CraigJConrad, I'd be more than happy to help!
I was able to locate your ticket, and it seems that it has been on-hold while the team is working on resolving your problem.
Now, I apologize for the length of my response, however I want to make sure that I cover everything here.
In regards to your questions, whether you make the folders available "online-only" or "available offline" the same thing, that I am about to tell you will apply to both cases.
So, if you've made changes in your Dropbox folder and added or edited content, that hasn't been synced online, when you re-link the app, the logical and expected thing to happen is for the changes to sync from the app to your account online.
And vice versa, if you added content online, it should be added to your Dropbox folder as online-only or available-offline.
However, there are some rare cases, where the app decides to sync the older version (online) down to the app, and the documents there. Since we wouldn't want you to jeopardize your content, I would suggest that you make a copy of the files and folders that haven't been synced online, just so you can be safe.
If you have any other questions, let me know!
