Migrating to New Mac

[jkoffman]

Hi all,

I have gotten a new computer (finally) and I'm ready to start setting it up. Both the old and the new machine are Macs. I was running Catalina on the old machine, so this will be a big jump up, both in terms of OS and Dropbox app. I will not be using the Mac Migration tool, I will be building the new machine manually.

On the old machine I use the "backup documents folder" feature.

Is there any way to have the new machine share that folder so my documents are automatically synced between the two machines? My guess is no but figured I'd ask.

Also, is it still recommended practice to install the Dropbox app, exit it, manually copy over files from the old machine, then let it index/sync? With the new MacOS app will the entire Dropbox default to online only or will it start trying to sync everything?

Thank you!

[Nancy]

Hi @jkoffman, and thanks for posting on our forum!

Before looking into this further, can you please confirm for me what’s the exact OS version of your new device? 

Also, if I get this right, you’d like to have the backup of your old computer on the new one, but without having Dropbox sync everything from the start. ls this correct?

Let me know, and we’ll take it from there.

[jkoffman]

Thank you for the reply @Nancy !

The new machine will be running Ventura. I will update it to the latest release, though as the computer was just built it should be there already.

I have two questions basically.

1. Is it possible to use the Dropbox app feature that backs up the documents folder to keep the documents folder on two separate machines in sync. My guess is no as in Dropbox they're linked to a folder that references the individual computer's name. If I'm right I'll have to manually copy the documents over to the new computer and let it create a new documents folder backup that's correctly named for the new machine.

2. I keep several hundred gigs actively synced in my Dropbox folder. It used to be I'd copy that over to the new machine and Dropbox would index it, figure out what was current, then not actually re-download it all. I don't know much about the new app or any of the Apple silicon changes that have happened so I am not sure if that's still the recommended workflow.

Thank you!

[Jay]

Hi @jkoffman, it won't be possible to 'share' the Documents folder between the two machines, so there'd need to be a separate computer backup for the new machine.

The new version of the Dropbox desktop application for Mac OS requires that any new files added from other devices would download as online-only by default. To prevent any issues, I'd recommend not copying over the old files from the other computer and let the desktop app populate the files with online-only copies.

Afterwards, you can mark the files you want as available offline for them to download to your machine.