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Forum Discussion
Transfer Dropbox Backup to New Mac
I recently bought a new Mac and used the Apple Migration Assistant to transfer all of my data from my old machine to my new one. This included the Dropbox folder and everything else. The migration we...
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi creblinho, thanks for messaging the Community!
You could restore from a Dropbox Backup if the Dropbox desktop application detected it correctly.
Otherwise, you can disable the backup, move the folders back to their old location, and create a new backup on the new machine.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
JayDropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffIn general, to avoid any potential conflicts or confusion regarding data, when moving to a new machine, we don't recommend using any non-Dropbox backup/restore process or service (such as Migration Assistant, Time Machine, or other services). This is because, in cases like your own, if the Dropbox Backup feature is enabled, this takes system folders and moves them into the Dropbox folder, which I'm not certain if those services copy across correctly.
The safest method is to restore from a Dropbox Backup (if there is already one on your account), which allows files to return to the same folders as before. The normal files in the Dropbox folder would also sync as per their normal process.
Okay thank you. I would still have to use migration assistant to copy applications etc, but maybe I can untick the Dropbox folder when migrating (although this has also caused problems in the past).
I ended up taking the following steps and some strange things started happening:
- Before going onto my old machine to remove the backup, I quit dropbox on my new machine and moved the folders from the backup location back to their original place (deleting the "Mac" backup folder in Dropbox).
- I went onto my old machine and disabled the backup, which moved all the files from that machine to their original location.
- On my new machine, I relaunched Dropbox and started backing up and it created a new backup called "Mac (3)".
- It seemed to go smoothly and back everything up succesfully, but then randomly after it had finished, it started "backing up" again (which in reality it was actually deleting all of the files in the "Mac (3)" folder). The “GB remaining” figure was getting smaller and not bigger, and the completion figure was switching between 99% & 100%.
It seems to be deleting everything contained in my new backup for some unknown reason. Luckily, I did make a hard copy of all of these files before starting this. I have a screenshot of a recording I made while it was doing carrying out this process:
As mentioned, I have all of the files safely copied onto a separate hard drive. How can I put my files back into the folders and make sure it does not keep doing this?
- Jay
The Dropbox app wouldn't be deleting files from backup and then deleting it from the computer.
Are you sure it's not just completing the indexing and the uploading of the backup at the same speed (meaning it's finding new files and then uploading them just as fast)?
I do not know, all I know is that there are files going missing from my backed up music, movies and pictures folders, and they are showing up as deleted files when I look inside the folders of the backup on dropbox. And the backup that did originally say 170 GB or so now has a size of about 250 MB (it is still deleting, I thought I would just leave it for now rather than trying to interfere with it).
Below are some pictures to explain this better:
Firstly an example folder with detailed files hidden:
Secondly the same folder with the deleted files shown:
The backup which was around 170 GB initially:
The process in its current stage:
The final picture shows this weird behaviour I am seeing in the dropbox app. If you compare it to the image I sent earlier, you can see that the "remaining" number is getting smaller, while the app jumps between 99% and 100% done, while simultaneously deleting files.
One thing to note is that the available GB on my Mac is still showing the correct amount (I think) so it seems something is still taking up the hard drive space. And the files are showing up in the "deleted files" folder on dropbox.
