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

Alex A.'s avatar
Alex A.
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

Why did the location of my Dropbox folder change?

Today I noticed that right clicking on files in my Dropbox folder (the ones pinned to my Finder sidebar) did not bring up the Dropbox menu options.

 

After further investigation I realized that Dropbox had moved my entire directory into /Users/library and displays this message, buried within preferences:

 

This version of macOS requires Dropbox folders to be stored here:

/Users/alex/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

 

I received no notice that this was happening. I have no idea when it happened and I have no way to know what version the files in the new directory are. What a mess!

 

Any advice on how to ensure my files are up to date and if it's safe to delete the old dropbox directory?

 

Thanks everyone

 

I'm on v147.2.4724 of the Mac client on a M1 Macbook with Monterey 12.3.1

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    3 years ago

    Hey willit63, welcome to our Community! 

     

    Feel free to have a look into this thread, which can answer why this change took place.

     

    If you have any questions, let me know. 

  • willit63's avatar
    willit63
    New member | Level 2

    Utterly unacceptable Dropbox moved the default location of the local sync folder and removed the option to move the folder to a custom location without adequate notification. Even now, the documentation on this isn't real clear and I've been unable to find a reasonable explanation for why this was done.

     

    What is the benefit of this change? Nothing I've seen so far. Only confusion and workflow disruption.

     

    I may be using Dropbox to sync file between devices, but they're still my files. It's not okay for Dropbox to move them around on my local drive without my consent.

     

    I was actually considering moving to a paid subscription. This incident has eliminated that possibility.

     

    This (along with using the lamest avatars in interweb history) is exactly how great companies fail.

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

      Hey willit63, welcome to our Community! 

       

      Feel free to have a look into this thread, which can answer why this change took place.

       

      If you have any questions, let me know. 

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

    Welcome to our Community, Alex A.!

     

    Just to have a closer look into this, can you please go to the Sync tab of your app’s preferences, and send me a screenshot of what you see there?

     

    Besides that, you should’ve received an email regarding Dropbox and upgrading to macOS 12.3 (if you can’t find it in your inbox, please check your spam folder, as well). 

     

    For more details, you can also open this link

     

    Let me know what you find.

    • Alex A.'s avatar
      Alex A.
      Helpful | Level 6

      Thanks Nancy! Please see attached.

       

      My main issue is understanding how to know where the latest version of my files are stored, in this new dropbox directory or in the old one.

       

      • voidheart's avatar
        voidheart
        Explorer | Level 4

        I am using the latest beta (v147.3.4761) on macOS 12.3.1, but my files are still saved in the old location under the home directory. Why is Dropbox not moving my files to the new location?

      • Mikael P.'s avatar
        Mikael P.
        Helpful | Level 6

        I have this exact problem. The default location will not work as I don't have enough space on that drive. Why cant we move the dropbox folder to another drive?

  • John S.192's avatar
    John S.192
    Explorer | Level 4

    nancy,  my files are not on dropbox once I uploaded to 12.3.1  some are showing zero kb.  but many are not even showing in the folder.  Please advise when an update is coming or workaround.  Your comment that Dropbox gave notice on 12.2.  My mac OS is more important than Dropbox.  if there is no fix how to export all my files to GDrive.  My hope of course is there is a workaround.  I even went on dropbox.com and many of my files and folders were not showing.

     

    John

  • johannes_b's avatar
    johannes_b
    Explorer | Level 4

    If this is the price for having on demand sync, I'd rather not have it.

    I'm perfectly fine with choosing In my preferences which folders to manually sync.

    I've started to use a Synology and there you still have the option to opt out of the selective sync.

    Since the selective sync doesn't play well with apps that reference other files it's useless to me anyway.

    best regards

    Johannes