Should I move files out of my Dropbox folder before cancelling my account?

[lindacue]

Prior to canceling my account, should I move my local dropbox files out of the local dropbox folder and put them in my documents folder on my Mac? 

[Daphne]

Hey @lindacue, thanks for reaching out to us here!

If you want to keep the files on your computer and remove them from Dropbox, you can indeed move the files from the Dropbox folder to any other location on your computer.

I'd just like to note, if any of your files are Smart Synced as "online only" with a grey cloud icon, then please make sure to make them Local first and allow them to sync.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!

[lindacue]

I have my cloud dropbox and my local dropbox folder. If I just leave my files in the local dropbox folder, will they still be fine when I cancel my dropbox account?

[Daphne · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to me @lindacue!

Your local Dropbox folder and account online should be the same, as the desktop app syncs any changes in one location to another.

When you cancel your subscription, the files in your account won't be affected but the app won't be able to sync if you're over the 2 GB free Basic storage limit.

You could leave the files as they are in the local Dropbox folder and even just unlink and uninstall the desktop app. The Dropbox folder will just be like any other folder on your computer then, with no link to your account online.

Keep me posted with any other questions!

[Mainah65]

I am don'e paying $700+ for drop box I haven't used in over a year.  How do I cancel Drop box BUT not lose my files? I need to move them to a local folder on my laptop.  HOW?   PLEASE I AM OLD, STEP BY STEP.. computer not mac. 

[Mainah65]

HOW DO I MAKE THEM LOCAL>?????  I am paying $700+ for drop box and don't even get a home page, just a page that opens to the files..>ZERO else.... and I cna't DO anything with them!  HELP!!   I want to MOVE them to LOCAL FOLDER on my computer ONLY.... NO DROP BOX.  WHY CAN"T I??? 

[Daphne]

Hello @Mainah65, I'd be happy to help out with this!

There's two methods I can suggest here for downloading your files locally to your computer.

The first is to just download the folders directly from the website, you can find the exact steps for this here.

The other option is to download the desktop app which will sync your files from your account online to a folder it creates on your computer. You can find out more info about this from here.

Also I'd just like to note, if you cancel your subscription then the files in your account won't be removed. Your account will simply be reverted to the free Basic account.

While the free account does have a space limit of 2 GB, if you have more data than this then again nothing will be deleted. You just won't be able to upload new files or save edits to the files in your account.

In this case, you can just download the folders directly from the web as mentioned above, and then delete the folder from your account online afterwards to free up some space.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions about this!