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Forum Discussion

Periannath's avatar
Periannath
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Confusion to why unsyncing deleted files on Mac.

Context: I got a new Mac and transferred everything over using Mac migration, worked great. Dropbox was set up with the new computer, logged in and everything but didn't seem to be backing up on the ...
Delete
Desktop
Restore
Space and storage
Sync
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    4 years ago
    Periannath wrote:

    Yes, and I was expecting that. What I was not expecting is for all of those same files to be deleted off of my new Mac. What caused that?

    Then it gave me the option to keep the files on dropbox or keep them on my Mac. I chose to keep them on my old Mac, I no longer needed them in dropbox.

    ^ That's what caused it. Those files were synced to your new Mac. When you chose to keep them on the Mac, that removes them from Dropbox. Since they were deleted from Dropbox, and Dropbox syncs all changes to your computers, that deletion was synced to the new Mac and the files were deleted.

Periannath's avatar
Periannath
Explorer | Level 3

Yes, and I was expecting that. What I was not expecting is for all of those same files to be deleted off of my new Mac. What caused that?

Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
4 years ago
Periannath wrote:

Yes, and I was expecting that. What I was not expecting is for all of those same files to be deleted off of my new Mac. What caused that?

Then it gave me the option to keep the files on dropbox or keep them on my Mac. I chose to keep them on my old Mac, I no longer needed them in dropbox.

^ That's what caused it. Those files were synced to your new Mac. When you chose to keep them on the Mac, that removes them from Dropbox. Since they were deleted from Dropbox, and Dropbox syncs all changes to your computers, that deletion was synced to the new Mac and the files were deleted.

  • Periannath's avatar
    Periannath
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Okay, that's what I was maybe thinking but that just seemed so bizarre to me. The whole sync deleting feature of dropbox makes me incredibly uncomfortable. 

    Let me offer myself a solution I think will work and get feedback for it. 

    Unsync my new Mac, delete the files on Dropbox and my dropbox will be clean but I will not lose the files on my new Mac.

    Would that work? 

    Thank you!

  • Periannath's avatar
    Periannath
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Thank you, this answered my question! Still a bit scary, how syncing works, but I will just have to be careful.

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