Forum Discussion

workandsync's avatar
workandsync
New member | Level 2
29 days ago

Trying to move my Dropbox folder to a larger drive with the same drive letter, but I see an error.

I have a dropbox folder on drive D:

I want to replace drive D with a larger drive. I want to copy the dropbox folder from drive D: to the larger drive (temporarily assigned a different drive letter), then remove the old drive and assign the larger drive as drive D:

However, my first attempt to copy the dropbox folder results in an error dialogue:

1 interrupted Action

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive thiis error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x80070780: The file cannot be accessed by the system

[globe icon] Get started with dropbox paper

Try again, skip, cancel

I suppose I could unsync the folder, replace the drive, then re-create the folder on the new drive. But I don't want to go through the folder tree to select which file is cloud only and which one has a local copy.

What is the easiest way to do this?

OS: windows 11

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey workandsync! Welcome to our forum. 

    In general, the only steps we can provide, in order to safely move your Dropbox folder from one drive to another, are the ones outlined here.

    However, before moving the folder, I’d suggest making sure that your Dropbox app is up to date and not in the process of syncing any files.

    Let me know if you still get an error after that.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    workandsync wrote:

    An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive thiis error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

    Whichever file that was, it likely couldn't be copied because it was still open in an application. Make sure all applications are closed, including Dropbox, and try the copy again.

    If the larger drive was empty to begin with, the better method would be to clone the smaller drive to the larger drive, and then replace it with the same drive letter. Dropbox won't know the difference.

    workandsync wrote:

    But I don't want to go through the folder tree to select which file is cloud only and which one has a local copy.

    You really shouldn't mess around with the Dropbox folder when you have some files synced locally and some as online-only, or have some folders removed with Selective Sync. There's too much potential for things going wrong. If you have to move the Dropbox folder manually, you should only do it if your entire content is synced locally.