Transfer Dropbox Backup to New Mac

[creblinho]

I recently bought a new Mac and used the Apple Migration Assistant to transfer all of my data from my old machine to my new one. This included the Dropbox folder and everything else. The migration went smoothly (in the past I have had issues migrating the Dropbox folder) and now I have all of my files on my new machine exactly as they appeared before. I used Dropbox Backup on my old machine, and so the Music, Movies and Pictures folders are stored inside the hidden folder titled "Mac" in the main Dropbox folder, and their original location is replaced with an alias.

I now would like to set up Dropbox Backup on my new machine to backup these folders exactly like it did on my old one. However, when I go into Dropbox preferences, it asks if I would like to backup my Mac and shows all of the unticked options for folders to backup.

I was wondering what the best way to setup Dropbox Backup on my new computer would be? Do I have to delete the backup, move the folders back into their original location and create a new backup? Or is there a way of telling Dropbox that this machine should inherit the backup of my old machine?

I am still currently in possession of my old machine so I can access things from there if necessary. I thought it would be best to wait and hear the correct way of doing this, since I have tried in the past to fix things very quickly myself making the situation worse, as I have seen other people with similar stories do.

[creblinho]

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?

[Hannah]

This is indeed a bit strange, @creblinho.

Is the Dropbox application still making updates, deleting files, etc. or did syncing finally become 'up to date' by now?

[creblinho]

It has stopped now and everything is showing as "up to date". Strangely, my Mac storage space is still showing approximately the same space remaining, but the hidden backup folder is showing as 100 GB less than it is supposed to be on my Mac (but still 250 MB on the dropbox website). I tried putting in some test text files into my backup up folders and it does seem to be syncing the new files correctly.

However, I think I am going to try and disable the backup and hopefully the issues with the drive will be sorted. I really like the backup feature but it seems a bit too unreliable, especially in that it actually moves the physical location of the folders into the Dropbox folder. It seems to work better when backing up external hard drive folders and it does not actually move the locations of those, so maybe I will continue to use it for that. But at this point I am thinking it's best to remove the computer backup and maybe find another way to backup to a cloud server. 

[creblinho]

I have just realised that the hidden folder at Dropbox/.dropbox.cache/old files is 200 GB of random files so maybe that is the deleted backup and the thing that is taking up all the hard drive space? I have disabled the backup, so what is the best way to clear the data in this folder? Can I delete it all or is some of it needed for normal Dropbox syncing?

If I need to delete the Dropbox folder, re-install and sync everything from the online server again, I am happy to do that.

[Hannah]

The Dropbox cache folder will get automatically cleared by itself, so I would actually suggest allowing that to happen, before you resort to deleting files.

Let's keep an eye on it and let us know what happens!

[creblinho]

Okay thank you, I will leave it for now and see if it clears. If I wanted to do a full re-install of dropbox however, would it make sense to uninstall everything associated with dropbox, delete the folder, re-install and then have the server sync and replace the folder?

[Jay]

Yes, that would be the best bet in this scenario. The optimal order to do so would be:

• Unlink your desktop app
• Uninstall the desktop app
• Follow these steps to fully uninstall it (and delete the Dropbox folder)
• Reinstall the app
• Allow all files to sync down from the site

If you need any further assistance, please let me know.

[creblinho]

Great many thanks, I will go through those steps and try to get things sorted again. Thanks to everyone for helping out.

[Mamede]

Hi Hannah,

I've just used the migration assistant from my M1 Mac to another M1!!! Both using Monterey and I have a few issues too.

At first it seemed incredbly ok, however, it starded doing another backup of an external SSD drive of mine, so I removed this back up for a while until I solve the basics.

I still have my old machine in hand working well. Can I just remove dropbox from it and keep running on the new Mac?

If so, what steps should I take to do so without loosing data?

Thank you very much.

Pedro

[Nancy]

Hey @Mamede! Sorry to jump in here. 

Just to clarify, do you have the Dropbox app installed on your new device, or are you planning to install it next?