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Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffBeta Build 147.3.4765
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JWL Photo wrote:This has worked for me in the past:
- Make sure everything is currently synced using your current stable build of the app.
- Backup anything on Dropbox that you can't afford to lose.
- Make sure you have "Early Releases" turned on in your online settings.
- Disconnect your current app/computer from your account by either:
- Signing out of the app on your computer OR
- Going to your account online and disconnecting your computer (device) from the account in the Security section of your settings (probably the better way to do it).
- Uninstall the Dropbox app from your computer (using an uninstaller like CleanMyMac is best).
- OPTIONAL: Trash the old Dropbox folder from Users/<YourUserID> (the new files will be in /Users/<YourUserID>/Library/CloudStorage, so the old files are just taking up space)
- Download the most recent beta "Universal Installer" from Desktop Client Builds
- Install the app and it should walk you through setting it up as a "clean" install and require you to sign back in. This will trigger a new synchronization of your (chosen) folders. You will have to download any that you want offline again, since they are being moved to CloudStorage (which is why I said you could remove your old folder that showed up under "Favorites.")
- Things should work at that point!
Thanks again for your really useful post above. For the sake of others who may pick up on it I would modify it slightly to strengthen the advice to delete the old Dropbox folder from ~/Dropbox. It isn't just a matter of saving space, but all the apps using Dropbox will continue to use that location which is no longer being sync'd by Dropbox. They need pointing at the new location and deleting the old location is moving likely to trigger the user to this essential step.
I think it is great that there is a path to seeing that the Dropbox folder moves from /Users/Name of User/Dropbox to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox.
However, the problem and it really isn't a problem in an as much as a function of the process outlined above and that is the way Dropbox Backup names the computer being backed up.
Put more directly: my feeling (having not tested this) is that if a user signed out and removed Dropbox and then did a clean install of Dropbox (stable version) when the user got to the Dropbox Backup (Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders) - the naming of that computer would go from My Mac (Name of Computer) to My Mac (##). And, maybe, that isn't a concern for some - but I wouldn't be satisfied with that as an outcome.
The saga continues.
