You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

iain_mcguinness's avatar
iain_mcguinness
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Dropbox couldn't set up the folder

I'm trying to restore a back-up of one of the folders from my old laptop, onto my new laptop.

 

However, I get this message that Dropbox couldn't set up the folder:

 

"Move folder back to its default location, then try again."

 

The username of this new Windows 11 account is different to the username on the old Windows 10 account. It's the same Microsoft account.

 

How can I download these files?

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi iain_mcguinness, welcome to our Community!

     

    Could you walk me through the steps that you follow on your end, in order to restore your backup to your new laptop?

     

    I'm guessing that upon migrating to your new computer, your folder paths changed, probably because the device's name itself changed. This could cause issues with the computer backup feature and/or syncing as well.

     

    Can you please send us a screenshot of the error you get and one of the app's status as shown in your menu bar?

     

    Keep me posted!

    • iain_mcguinness's avatar
      iain_mcguinness
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi Megan,

       

      The steps I followed are as follows:

       

      I visited https://www.dropbox.com/backup/all , clicked on 'Manage back-ups,' and selected 'Open Back-up settings.'

       

      I then selected the old laptop's name (which is the same as the new one), and clicked 'Restore.'

       

      I clicked 'Restore' again on the next window, and then 'Confirm' on the dialog box.

       

      I then got the error shown in the third screenshot below.

       

      (The folder that I'm trying to download is actually the newest local version of my Google Drive, since Google Drive sync unfortunately stopped working on the old laptop.)

       

      Thanks,

       

      Iain

       

       

       

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi iain_mcguinness, generally, we don't recommend having folders from other cloud providers in the Dropbox folder to prevent situations like this from occurring.

         

        Have you already set up the Google Drive program? Could you try quitting it completely and then try restoring the folder again?

About View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!