In transfer of files from Mac to PC via Dropbox, both have fully sync'd, but PC has fewer files

[JayDot]

Hello Dropbox Community, I was disappointed that I cannot even pay extra to get phone tech support from Dropbox, much less get it for a service I am already paying for. (sorry for that little rant, I mention it in case someone knows a way to do this).

My issue:

I'm migrating all my files from my Mac to a PC. On my Mac, I transfered a bunch of files to my Dropbox folder. It totals 332,352 "items" (which I presume to mean files, folders, and subfolders, though I haven't been able to verify this using Google) now in my Dropbox folder (approx 212GB). The Dropbox is linked to my new PC, which is where I'm trying to move my files. But when I open up the Dropbox folder on my PC, it only shows 280,004 files and 27,949 folders, for a total of only 307,953, of what I assume are the PC-equivalent of Mac "items." It's also 1.8GB less than the size on my Mac Dropbox folder, which reiterates my hunch that not all of my files and folders are being transfered.

Am I correct that not all my files are transferring and that some are getting lost? That would seem to be the case if Mac "items" are the equivalent of PC files/folders/subfolders. If they are getting lost, why are they getting lost, how to do I ensure a full migration of files, and how do I figure out which of the hundreds of thousands of files are not being transfered?

Thank you!

[Vernon]

Hi @JayDot,

Welcome to our community.

At first, i'd like to let you know that phone support is available for Advanced Business and Enterprise users. Since you are under a paid account though, you should have the chat option! Hope this helps.

Concerning the issue you are referring to, please have a look  here and see if any of the reasons provided applies to your case?

In addition to that, you can always look at the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and see if it is done syncing. When Dropbox is fully synced then you should see a tick followed by the words “Up to date” on the menu.

If you do not see this then can you please let me know what the message being displayed reads?

Please note that certain messages may change, and file numbers or sizes may increase or decrease while this process is occurring. If this is occurring, please include a description of this behavior as well as it may be helpful.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[JayDot]

Thank you Vernon. Both my Mac and my PC Dropbox icons indicate "up to date". I will try the "bad files check" function this evening and then post an update afterwards.

[Jay]

Yep, I agree with my esteemed fellow above, invalid characters are 99% the cause of files not syncing from Mac to Windows.

The most common cause is files or folders with the : or | characters, which can’t be supported by Windows. The checker will be able to tell you which items have these and any other dodgy characters that could affect syncing.

[JayDot]

Thank you both for your feedback. I have run the "Bad Files Check" program. It provided me with a list of 548 files and folders that are "incompatible files and folders". It seems bit misleading to me for the program to indicate that I am fully sync'd and "up to date" but without alerting the user, Dropbox actually fails to transfer some files so that it is not sync'd. Seems like Dropbox should alert the user that certain files were not transfered due to a problem, and then give you a list of files that were not transferred.

The problem is that the "Bad Files Check" program only identified 548 files and folders. However, there are 15,000 files and folders that were not transferred. First question: Am I correct to assume that for any folder that is not sync'd due to a bad filename, that all the files and subfolders within that folder are not sync'd? Second question: is there a simple way to go back on my Mac and make changes to these file/folder names to "fix" them in bulk (all at once) other than to go through them one-by-one and make changes?

For reference, only 2 of the 548 gave the error message "Filename ends with . or whitespace", while 546 gave the error message ""Filename contains an invalid character".

Thank you for your help! I may also post this in response to the other guy to make sure he sees it.

[Mark · Accepted solution]

Question 1) Yes. So if the folder is not syncing everything under that can, obviously, not sync either
Question 2) No. Sorry. You need to do it yourself.

😞

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