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
Desktop Application Will Not Allow Existing Dropbox Folder to Be Used. Error: "The folder already contains a Dropbox directory."
I have been a happy user of Dropbox for years. Until recently . . .
Dropbox recently quit working properly. The latest issue today was that it failed to load the "platform plugin windows." The ...
You should not select the Dropbox folder but the folder you wish Dropbox to be placed in. Then it will be installed in that folder.
If its on a 2nd drive and not in a folder, simply select the Drive in the chooser window.
At least this is what I am thinking based upon your post. I made this same issue at first when trying to move Dropbox all those years ago.
The installer will let you choose the location. It on the last screen before it closes under the advanced settings. Many users myself included think Dropbox was already being installed in the default location at this point in the process but it was still waiting.
David, sounds like a real painful situation. I'm not sure I can resolve your issue, but just wanted to see if I understand your current situation.
It sounds like you recently reinstalled Dropbox and pointed it to g:\dropbox\dropbox. Forgetting the sync feature and cloud backup for a moment, is that the directory where you are keeping all your Dropbox files on your desktop? In other words, is that the directory where you had all your files prior to your latest install?
I can't quite tell from your last paragraph whether you have reinstalled yet one more time and pointed it this time to g:\dropbox?
There are a couple of possible approaches I can think of. (And don't completely discount the possibility of "moving" a large number of files. Given that they are all on the same drive, your file system should just be changing the directory pointer, not actually moving anything. So even though it sounds like a ton of stuff to move, it might not be that difficult in practice. One drive to another, yes a pain; one directory to another on the same drive, not so much.)
But before going there, I'm trying to make sure I understand (a) where you have your master Dropbox (meaning, which directory are all your files actually located in on your hard drive), and (b) which directory is Dropbox sync trying to point to?
(Finally, and this almost goes without saying and I apologize for repeating the annoying advice you've already hear a hundred times, but there is certainly wisdom in keeping a backup. In theory Dropbox should be able to recover your entire set of files to an earlier date, depending on your settings, but I've never felt comfortable enough with that option to avoid making my own additional backup.)
