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Forum Discussion
What is the best way to upgrade to Mac Sonoma and Dropbox File Provider?
So been avoiding making any changes for over a year now since things have been working relatively well with the Old Dropbox on two Macs running OS Ventura 13.5, even with the issues around online-only files.
But really want to get my Macs on the current version (Sonoma 14.5), which I think means I have to upgrade to Dropbox File Provider.
Having read lots of horror stories, wondering is there's a simple tutorial for doing this with the least amount of headaches. Or any tips anyone who has done it can offer. Like should I upgrade the OS first, or upgrade to FP on the current OS first?
I am on a Dropbox Plus plan if that matters.
Thanks.
20 Replies
The Dropbox icon in the top menu bar is there. But previously when I opened a finder window for a folder there was a Dropbox icon at the top of that window where I accessed version history, and made folders online-only. I have since found I can access those choices by option-clicking on a folder, and I've tried to use the "make online-only" there but that is totally freezing up syncing too. So my disk is now so full I can't do anything, and its not letting me make anything online-only cause it freezes syncing. Totally has made a mess of my whole system, which is why I have avoided doing this for so long.
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey johnhalldesign, jumping in here as well, I hope that's alright.
Just wanted some clarification on something.
You mentioned that on the updated computer, the syncing icon gets stuck on "Syncing..", but then you also mentioned that the Dropbox icon is missing.
Are you referring to the Dropbox icon in your menu bar?
Would you mind sending some screenshots so we can have a visual of the issue?
So I did the first step of this—updating to File Provider—on one of my computers yesterday, and for the most part seemed to work, but I am encountering a few issues.
It went through the indexing stage, and then a sync stage, but then the top Dropbox icon got stuck on "syncing" although it was not showing any number of files or what was syncing. I left it overnight, but this morning it was still stuck on syncing. I finally restarted the computer, and it synced a few more files, and then finally the sync icon and message went away.
Did some testing of files on both Macs, and if I worked on a file on either, it seemed to sync to the other correctly, and all my files seem to all be there. But if I work on a file on my other Mac, while it does sync to Dropbox, and the updated Mac correctly, the sync icon again gets stuck again on the updated computer.
The other issue is I no longer see the Dropbox icon at the top of a finder window. I used this regularly, if I wanted to get to version history of a file, or if I wanted to make an entire folder local or online only. Not sure how I'm going to do those things that are a key part of my workflow. Is that supposed to know longer be there with the update, and where am I supposed to access the items I would have accessed there?
Thanks for any additional guidance.
- Jay
As it is, nothing will change on your machine. I just want to point out a change to the syncing on File Provider, as there are three statuses (aside from syncing etc). There is available offline, and online-only, which work like you have now.
Then there is 'Available', and that has no sync icon at all. Files that are available can be opened and downloaded, but if the Mac is running out of space, those are the files that would be made online-only. You can read up more about it here.
When switching to File Provider, make sure to mark the entire Dropbox folder as available offline, since files will return to being online-only if your Mac runs out of space.Thanks, one clarification on the above. Not sure I want to force EVERYTHING to be available offline, cause i may not have enough space for that. But I'd like things to stay as they are, so if they are local now, I'd like them to stay that way, but of they are currently online-only they can stay that way. Will that happen if I don't select the option to make the whole Dropbox available offline?
- Jay
That's correct, clicking that option will begin the migration. When switching to File Provider, make sure to mark the entire Dropbox folder as available offline, since files will return to being online-only if your Mac runs out of space.
A resyncing of files, or at least re-indexing, is expected, but shouldn't take too long.
Jay wrote:The best option then would be to first set up File Provider on your current OS, and then upgrade your OS, that way the changes aren't going to happen at the same time. after the upgrade
Thanks, so if I just click "get started" under that notice will it walk me through it automatically? Any specific issues I should watch out for, and will it need to resync my entire Dropbox on both computers? I try to keep the majority of files live on both computers rather than "online only", cause I'm kind of old school, and I have enough disk space.
- Jay
The best option then would be to first set up File Provider on your current OS, and then upgrade your OS, that way the changes aren't going to happen at the same time. after the upgrade
Jay wrote:Hi johnhalldesign, thanks for messaging the Community!
Just for clarification, are you getting the option to upgrade to File Provider on the current OS via the Dropbox desktop application?
This will help me to assist further!
Yes, I have the note that says "Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is Now Ready"
- Jay
Hi johnhalldesign, thanks for messaging the Community!
Just for clarification, are you getting the option to upgrade to File Provider on the current OS via the Dropbox desktop application?
This will help me to assist further!
