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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Migration to a New Mac With the New Cloud Storage Setup
On my primary computer, I keep all Dropbox files in offline mode. I've updated to the new Dropbox setup that places the Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage. I'm wondering what will happe...
Got it! Thanks--that makes sense.
Can I suggest that your development people review this and see if it's possible to update the Dropbox application at some point in the future so these steps are no longer necessary. The way things worked BEFORE the current change was simpler and less time-and-bandwidth consuming: You just had to run the standard Apple migration, and and then connect the new computer to your Dropbox account (no reinstallation necessary). At that point Dropbox would update its indexing without requiring re-download of the Dropbox contents.
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi fssbob, thanks for messaging the Community.
To prevent any unexpected behavior, we'd recommend allowing the Dropbox desktop application to sync the files from the site directly when migrating to a new Mac.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
So what would be the steps? The standard Apple migration process will copy both the configured Dropbox application and ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox (along with its contents) onto the new Mac. Can you list the exact steps I need to follow after that.
Thanks.
- Jay
My recommendation would be to not migrate the Dropbox app, or the Dropbox folder itself, since that usually causes permission issues even today on the older version.
On the new Mac, you can reinstall the app from the site, sign into the app, and then let the files sync down from the site.
I don't think the Apple migration program lets you choose which apps and docs to migrate--I think it's all or nothing. I wouldn't want to sacrifice all my other apps and docs just to keep Dropbox from migrating.
This was easily handled with the older version just by letting Dropbox reindex the Dropbox folder.
Given how universal a problem this is, I think it might be useful for someone from Dropbox to work with it and create a help article or blog post on how to handle it after Apple's standard migration.
Thanks.
I'm hoping to see a response to this here since it's a universal issue that I think will be relevant to others (with the new Dropbox setup, how to migrate to a new Mac without having to give up the standard Apple update program just for the sake of Dropbox). But would it be better if I ask it as a support request instead?
Thanks.
