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
Ruthless_Rabbit
11 months agoExplorer | Level 4
Managing backed-up folders via Dropbox Backup outside root Dropbox folder
I'm a long-time user of Dropbox via my employer's corporate account. I have recently opened an individual (3 TB) account to back up my personal files (mostly pictures and movies, some documents) on my Mac.
I saw that there is a relatively new feature (Dropbox Backup) through which I can back up folders without moving them to the root Dropbox folder (as explained here). I liked that I could keep the default Mac Documents, Downloads, Pictures, etc., folders without moving them to the root Dropbox folder.
After syncing +2 TB worth of data I realized that I see those "backed-up" (not regular synced) folders not in my home dropbox.com page but rather in dropbox.com/backups. I also saw that those backed-up files do not show the regular syncing/synced icons in my Mac drive, nor the right-click functions. And dropbox.com/backups does not show any move or similar functions, it is very basic.
This is a dealbreaker for me. I'd rather move all the folders to the root folder and let them sync in the regular way, and be able to find them all together in dropbox.com. How can I do that without having to re-upload these folders to Dropbox? If I just move them in my Mac drive, Dropbox does not recognize them as already backed up and starts syncing them from scratch.
I could not find the answer in this community or elsewhere.
Thanks!
There isnt a way to get Dropbox to 'see' that they have already been uploaded I'm afraid. Backup and 'normal' syncing are two totally different things 😞
- MarkSuper User II
There isnt a way to get Dropbox to 'see' that they have already been uploaded I'm afraid. Backup and 'normal' syncing are two totally different things 😞
- Ruthless_RabbitExplorer | Level 4
Many thanks Mark. It is disappointing as it seems a pretty basic functionality for Dropbox to have, but thanks anyway for your help!
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!