Transfer Dropbox Backup to New Mac

Hi creblinho, thanks for messaging the Community!

You could restore from a Dropbox Backup if the Dropbox desktop application detected it correctly.

Otherwise, you can disable the backup, move the folders back to their old location, and create a new backup on the new machine.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your response. The dropbox application is aware that the backup of my previous computer exists and it is all still stored online, but i don't think it has detected that this new computer should be identical to the old one. Are you saying I should press "restore from backup" in this following window:

The "Mac" computer is the old machine I migrated from originally (Mac (2) is just my MacBook Air) and it is also seeing my new machine as a new Mac titled "Mac". If I restore from this backup, will it not create two copies of the same folders in my dropbox folder?

The contents of this backup were imported from my original computer using migration assistant, so the folder structure is the same and the folder is hidden inside my dropbox folder as shown below:

I could disable the backup but would have to do so from my old machine. If I disable the backup from there and Dropbox automatically moves the folders back to their original place, what will happen to this backup folder as shown on my new machine? Will it dissappear too? Because so far, I think this is also the main place where all of my files (Movies, Pictures, Music) are stored for this computer.

Since you moved to a new computer, the Dropbox desktop application knows that this is a different machine, even if you used the Migration Assistant.

However, given that you've already used Migration Assistant, and that the files were transferred too, this may have unexpected effects which we wouldn't be able to determine. 

You could restore the backup to your current machine, though it would be at your own risk since I wouldn't be able to advise what would happen.

Okay thank you, in that case I will figure a way to move the files & swap the backup that minimises risk. For future reference, what would be the best way to migrate data onto a new machine when using Dropbox? Should I always leave the Dropbox folder unticked in Migration Assistant, and then restore my Dropbox files from online? Or is there another recommended way to do this?

In general, to avoid any potential conflicts or confusion regarding data, when moving to a new machine, we don't recommend using any non-Dropbox backup/restore process or service (such as Migration Assistant, Time Machine, or other services). This is because, in cases like your own, if the Dropbox Backup feature is enabled, this takes system folders and moves them into the Dropbox folder, which I'm not certain if those services copy across correctly.

The safest method is to restore from a Dropbox Backup (if there is already one on your account), which allows files to return to the same folders as before. The normal files in the Dropbox folder would also sync as per their normal process.

Okay thank you. I would still have to use migration assistant to copy applications etc, but maybe I can untick the Dropbox folder when migrating (although this has also caused problems in the past).

I ended up taking the following steps and some strange things started happening:

• Before going onto my old machine to remove the backup, I quit dropbox on my new machine and moved the folders from the backup location back to their original place (deleting the "Mac" backup folder in Dropbox). 
• I went onto my old machine and disabled the backup, which moved all the files from that machine to their original location.
• On my new machine, I relaunched Dropbox and started backing up and it created a new backup called "Mac (3)".
• It seemed to go smoothly and back everything up succesfully, but then randomly after it had finished, it started "backing up" again (which in reality it was actually deleting all of the files in the "Mac (3)" folder). The “GB remaining” figure was getting smaller and not bigger, and the completion figure was switching between 99% & 100%.

It seems to be deleting everything contained in my new backup for some unknown reason. Luckily, I did make a hard copy of all of these files before starting this. I have a screenshot of a recording I made while it was doing carrying out this process:

As mentioned, I have all of the files safely copied onto a separate hard drive. How can I put my files back into the folders and make sure it does not keep doing this?

The Dropbox app wouldn't be deleting files from backup and then deleting it from the computer. 

Are you sure it's not just completing the indexing and the uploading of the backup at the same speed (meaning it's finding new files and then uploading them just as fast)?

I do not know, all I know is that there are files going missing from my backed up music, movies and pictures folders, and they are showing up as deleted files when I look inside the folders of the backup on dropbox. And the backup that did originally say 170 GB or so now has a size of about 250 MB (it is still deleting, I thought I would just leave it for now rather than trying to interfere with it).

Below are some pictures to explain this better:

Firstly an example folder with detailed files hidden:

Secondly the same folder with the deleted files shown:

The backup which was around 170 GB initially:

The process in its current stage: 

 The final picture shows this weird behaviour I am seeing in the dropbox app. If you compare it to the image I sent earlier, you can see that the "remaining" number is getting smaller, while the app jumps between 99% and 100% done, while simultaneously deleting files.

One thing to note is that the available GB on my Mac is still showing the correct amount (I think) so it seems something is still taking up the hard drive space. And the files are showing up in the "deleted files" folder on dropbox.

Are these files being deleted from an older backup somehow, since your computer is still showing the correct space usage?

All of the folders are showing as empty in finder and when looking at the backup online (unless you click "show deleted files"). How do I access the new backup if these are being deleted from an older backup?