I have my Dropbox files in three different locations. What will happen if I delete one of them?

[Dillipod]

I have dropbox file on three separate locations on one computer.  If I delete the older ones, will this delete the dropbox files on other computers linked to dropbox?

Or should I do something different, like rename?

[Jay]

Hi there, are you referring to a file or folder in your Dropbox account? Or are you referring to the actual entire Dropbox folder?

Let me know so I can provide the correct instructions!

[Dillipod]

Its the entire dropbox dataset, approx 42,000 files, 35mb

[Dillipod]

sorry that should be 35gb

[Jay]

Okay, so what I’ve gathered is that you have 3 separate Dropbox folders, each approximately 35 GB each.

You should be able to delete the Dropbox folders that don’t have any green ticks on them, since those are the folders that aren’t syncing with the desktop app.

You can check which folder is currently syncing from the app in the Sync menu.

[Dillipod]

Thanks

If I go to the app, and choose prefrences, then sync, it shows a location which I din't use before, but which dropbox is saving all files to (taking a long time, but I will live with that).

Once it is done I can delete the other locations on this computer.  I just hope it doesn't then delete the dropbox folders on other computers so I have to the download/sync again on each computer (4 computers).

Does that make sense? 

[Jay]

It makes sense to me!

Those extra Dropbox folders are just normal folders on your machine right now, since they’re not linked to the desktop app, so any other computers will be left alone with these deletions.

You could even delete them now if you wish, though I understand if you’d rather wait and let the one Dropbox folder finish syncing completely first.

[Dillipod]

Thanks Jay, I'll let it finish, its been running 4 hours now, 18000 files to go.  I hope it doesn't need to sync when its finished downloading!

If there's any problems, I'll let you know

James

aka

Dillipod 

[Jay · Accepted solution]

No worries, keep me posted!