I need to sync my Documents folder in real time with the rest of my computers

[jsauser11]

Howdy.

Installed desktop ver. 197.4.7571 on my Windows 10 desktop machine today, and made a mistake to set my online Documents folder to BACKUP. Now the files that are in that folder are on my Windows 10 desktop machine as they were before, but can not be accessed from my Win 10 laptop. I need them to be real time sync, so how do I recover those files in Backup back so that they are real time syncing on both my Desktop and Laptop machines?

[Nancy]

Thanks for posting on our Community, @jsauser11. 

Do you mean that you’d like to disable computer backup for your Documents folder? If yes, you can do so with these steps.

Also, when saying you’d like your files to be in real sync with the rest of your devices, were you able to accomplish this previously with computer backup, but the feature behaves differently now? If yes, then this may be due to the updated Dropbox Backup experience.

Keep me in the loop.

[Ravip]

I had this same issue once I opted into the Backup. Now I messed up all my main Macbook folders that synced immediately in Dropbox. Is there a way to revert this or reset this even if it means deleting dropbox and restarting it all?

[Megan]

Hey @Ravip, welcome to our Community!

When you say that you messed up your main macBook folders, can you clarify a bit more about this, please? 

If you wish to disable your Backup, have you tried out any of the steps mentioned here? 

Keep me posted, and I'll help in any way you need!

[robertwold]

Easy fix! Unlink "BACKUP" folder in Dropbox settings. Then set your online Documents folder for real_time sync and move files back to Documents. This will trigger syncing on both devices

[jsauser11]

OK.  I deleted the BACKUP, but now how do I go about getting the files in my Documents folder to re-sync in real time? I set Preferences>Sync to "Available offline", and Selective Sync to PC>Documents, save, but files in my Documents folder do not appear in Dropbox.

[jsauser11 · Accepted solution]

Worked it out. Moved my documents folder into the dropbox folder and now multi unit sync is back to where it was before setting up Backup.

[Ravip]

Did you end up disabling Backup permanently?

[jsauser11]

Yes I did.

[Ravip]

So for many years I've been using Dropbox with my Macbook and it synced my what I call "Main" folders like Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, etc... If I downloaded a document from the internet, I save it in my Downloads folder, and Dropbox would sync to the Downloads folder and I could access that file from the Dropbox desktop app, iPhone app, i.e. that downloaded file would be available across dropbox almost immediately.

In terms of folder structure, I had my Dropbox folder on my MacBook, which within Dropbox folder included a folder called "Mac" and within that was all my "Main" folders (again like the Documents, Downloads, etc). This was automatically setup when I first downloaded Dropbox. I'm assuming this was done at the root folder, and what I mean by root folder is that on Macbooks it goes like: "Macintosh HD/Users/ravi" and within ravi would be all my "Main" folders. Again everything synced perfectly and was accessible on Dropbox with multiple devices.

Now here is the downfall of all this- Dropbox kept sending me messages about turning on Dropbox Backup. So I rushed into activating Dropbox Backup. I didn't think much of it until, I was using Dropbox on my iPhone and my files disappeared. The "Dropbox/Mac" folder where all my "Main" folders were syncing had nothing in it. However when I opened my Macbook there were files in the "Main" folders. I reached out to Dropbox support and they reverted those files back so that it all matches, now the Dropbox/Mac has my "Main" folders in it, but one thing seemed off, those folders no longer had a icon on them:

Before:

After:

However one BIG caveat, I will never be able to go back to where the "Main"

Folders synced immediately to dropbox. Now what happens is that due to my Dropbox Backup, every 15 minutes, it backs up those folders and files. If I place a new file called "Test File" into my Macbook Downloads folder which is located at "Macintosh HD/Users/ravi". Dropbox Backup takes that folder every 15 minutes (Thats the fastest Dropbox Backup does it), and updates online as in the cloud, to my backup at https://www.dropbox.com/backups/... You would image that if I open up Dropbox on my iPhone, go to "Mac" where my main folders have been, go to Downloads you would expect to see the "Test File" and nope that's not where it updates. So now If I go to my backup at https://www.dropbox.com/backups/... and there I see my Downloads folder, and check inside that's where my "Test File" will be.

This is absolutely silly now, its one additional step now to access files and folders that I had readily access and updated versions to. 

If I got to my Macbook and go to my Dropbox/Mac now there are old files and nothing syncs into those when originally those synced with the "Main" files I was working with on my Macbook.

I have no idea what the solution is to revert back to the original functionality, I tried searching online and on the forums, I've tried to disable Dropbox Backups and do what @jsauser11 did and try to drag and drop my "Macintosh HD/Users/ravi" folders like Downloads into the "Mac" folder on Dropbox to see if it would resync and connect the synchronization that used to be there and that didn't work for me.

I don't know if there is another solution to this, one last thing I have not tried is to delete dropbox completely, and reinstall. But when I talked to Dropbox support they said it would not go back to my original functionality and that I am stuck with this. I think this is a huge oversight on how people have been using Dropbox, especially on Macbooks.