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Forum Discussion

jsauser11's avatar
jsauser11
Helpful | Level 6
9 months ago

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

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?

  • 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.

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

    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's avatar
      Ravip
      Helpful | Level 6

      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's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        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's avatar
    robertwold
    Explorer | Level 3

    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's avatar
      jsauser11
      Helpful | Level 6

      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's avatar
        jsauser11
        Helpful | Level 6

        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.