Dropbox Migration to a New Mac With the New Cloud Storage Setup

[fssbob]

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 happen when I move to a new Mac in the future. In the past, the macOS transfer program would transfer all my files to the new computer's drive, and then Dropbox would reindex them (rather than having to redownload all the files from Dropbox). What will happen now with the new Dropbox setup?

Thanks.

[TilmanM]

Yes, thank you. This is what I am asking about, but I guess I'll be jumping through the hoops 🙂

[stephen_]

Hi fssbob. Thanks for your persistence with seeking clarification on this issue. Did you end up following the steps and all worked as expected? Deleting the Dropbox folder from the old Mac feels like a massive step, one that it's hard to go back from if things don't work out as expected. 

I just got a new MacBook, but I'm still "not eligible for the new Dropbox for macOS on File Provider". So, I'm still unclear on whether these steps apply to me, or whether I should continue to wait. Fun times! 

[fssbob]

Hi Stephen,

Yes, I followed the steps and it worked. Wasn't fun though.

When you say you're still "not eligible for the new Dropbox for macOS on File Provider", where and when do you see that message? My memory is that Dropbox first installs everything in the old location, and only then tells you it's ready to move the Dropbox contents to the new location, which might be the point at which it says you're "eligible". I discovered that one way to speed up that process was to use "Selective sync" to temporarily specify only one small Dropbox folder was to be added to my Mac. After it downloaded, Dropbox informed me I was ready for the new setup, and I clicked the "OK" button. It performed the move. And then I specified add the rest of my folders, at which point they were added in the new location.

The whole process appears to have been designed only to handle an existing legacy Dropbox user--not a user who is installing on or updating to a new Mac. I can't imagine how many users Dropbox has lost over the frustration in dealing with this fragile and obtuse process.

[stephen_]

Hello! I see that message when I go into my Dropbox preferences and click on the Sync tab. It's under a heading that says 'Dropbox folder updates'. I remember maybe a year ago I had an option for early access to the file provider update, but I was nervous about the impact on my workflow, so left things how they were. I decided I was finally ready to jump in, but no longer have the option to switch. 

I went into Selective Sync, and tried unticking an existing folder, and creating a new one to sync one file to, but the message under Preferences > Sync is still saying the same thing. Tried restarting the app too, but no difference. I'm just one user on this company Dropbox account, so I'm hesitant to try too many workarounds. 

My current MacBook (Intel) is fiiiiine, but the new one that became available (Apple Silicon) is appealing. As you mention, I used Migration Assistant to transfer everything from old to new, but when I opened Dropbox on the new one and logged in there were all sorts of unsynced files and permission errors and I had work deadlines to meet, so I shut it down and went back to my old MacBook. Now I'm hesitant to try again, because what if I unlink the old MacBook and remove the app, do the transfer and then discover the same issues are there. I can't just jump back onto my old Macbook like nothing happened. 

And now that I know I'm not using the "latest and greatest" Dropbox, who knows what other factors that introduces. Better just to play it safe, leave things how they are, and dream of how Apple Silicon could be speeding up my After Effects rendering. 🙂

Appreciate your time responding. 

[stephen_]

Hello @Hannah (and @fssbob)

So, after my previous failed attempt to transfer from my old MacBook Pro (2019) to my new MacBook Pro (2021), I followed your steps this weekend. I think they would benefit from a few more details, as I still had a few heart-in-mouth moments pressing delete, and some of the steps didn't align exactly with what I was expecting.

For example, after I had done the transfer, I installed the Dropbox app on my new MacBook Pro and the first message I got on opening was, "Your Dropbox account (1,343.2 GB) is too large to fit on this computer (617.9 GB remaining). To continue, choose which folders you want to sync to this computer. The rest of your files are available on dropbox.com."

[Choose folders] [Sync everything]

I had been hoping that it would just replicate the status of my old MacBook Pro — if a file was synced locally before, it would be synced locally now. And I was unclear exactly what was meant by [Sync everything]. Everything?? I thought there wasn't enough room? I wasn't sure what the consequences were if I was to click it. 

So I clicked [Choose folders] but all the folders were ticked, and the [Update] button was greyed out, so I clicked [Close], and the window disappeared and I got a message saying, "There's an issue opening Dropbox files while they're online-only. Right now, some apps on your Mac might have trouble opening online-only files. You can always open Dropbox files by double-clicking them in Finder. Everything else is working as usual, and we've got a fix in progress."

Which was fine, that's been the whole issue for many years. So I clicked [Got it] and then... nothing seemed to happen. I clicked on the Dropbox folder in the sidebar, and it was completely empty. I started to panic, but then a second later the folders appeared, although they were empty. So I clicked on the Dropbox icon up top and thankfully saw the status was syncing many thousands of files and it said it would take an hour or so.

So I let it do its thing and finally it said "All your files are up to date", but not a single file is synced locally. Every single file is online. And I'm now having to go through file after file, manually syncing files locally and repairing broken links. 

So I'm guessing I should have clicked [Sync everything]? Would that have downloaded onto my new MacBook anything that had been downloaded on the old one?

Apologies for the very long message. Thanks for your time. 

[stephen_]

@Hannah And for clarity, I should perhaps add I am running macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 and Dropbox v209.3.3602, and when I click Dropbox > Preferences > Sync, under 'Dropbox folder updates' it says, "You are not eligible for the new Dropbox for macOS on File Provider at this time."