How to migrate old folder location to the new one on Mac?

[MrMargaretScratcher]

So I'm in the same position I know a few other people have been in, in that since upgrading my Mac, and the OS, dropbox needs to be in users/Library/Cloudstorage/Dropbox. 

So Dropbox has made that folder, populated it with 'online only' folders, leaving all my files where they were previously. I've just been online with dropbox customer chat, trying to find out how to move everything across. 

From a quick experiment (But I'm willing to try again, for clarification), files manually moved across still show as online only, and I have to manually select 'make available offline' to get the green tick. I feel like it may also be re-downloading the files, which I don't want to happen (I have 1.6Tb of stuff there) 

I also don't want it to be re-uploading the files when I copy them in, it doesn't say it is in the dropbox app (It does if I make a change to a file before I drag it in - I'm guessing it's checking the modified date?) but I want to be sure...

I thought maybe if I uninstalled Dropbox, moved my old folders to the new location that is now mandatory on mac ( 

/Users/******/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox ) and re-installed, it might be clever enough to figure out that I want to keep the files and folders there and update the sync status, but no, it's moved them all into a folder with today's date on. Potentially a handy feature, maybe, but not what I wanted it to do.

I don't mind having to move location of my dropbox files, but I don't want to re-upload and/or re-download them. I have 1.6Tb of data

What is the solution?

[Megan]

Hey @MrMargaretScratcher, let's jump right into this! 

The first thing I'd like to check, is the app's current syncing status. 

It's a bit odd that the files were left exactly where they previously were, and they haven't yet moved, this is why I'd like to know the app's status, to check if it's maybe still syncing content there. 

You also mentioned that you don't want the app to re-upload the files when you copy them. Would you mind clarifying a bit more in regards to that? 

Where do you copy files from? 

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

[MrMargaretScratcher]

Syncing status is "Your files are up to date"

At no point during the install did the dropbox App give me an option to move files from another location, so not sure what you mean by "It's a bit odd that the files were left exactly where they previously were, and they haven't yet moved" - how would this work?

What I mean by I don't want to re-upload the files when I copy them, is if I manually move everything from my old Dropbox folder to the new one, which currently shows everything as online only, I don't want to have dropbox upload those files. 

[Hannah]

Hey @MrMargaretScratcher, sorry to jump in here.

Regarding the migration, everything should be done automatically.

If things went as they're supposed to, you don't have to manually move files from the old Dropbox folder to the new one; they'll be moved automatically, when the update is finished.

If it's finished and your files in the new Dropbox folder appear as online-only, you can manually make the ones you need available offline, by right-clicking on them and selecting the appropriate option.

Manually moving the files from the old Dropbox folder to the new one will only duplicate them.

Does the old Dropbox folder still exist in the old location?

[MrMargaretScratcher]

Unfortunately nothing got moved, so all my old files are in /Users/myUsername/Dropbox, and the folder has the dropbox logo on. 

I did try uninstalling and then moved these to the new /cloudstorage/dropbox location in the hope that that might work, but as I said, they were moved to another folder with the date, so I moved them back to where they were. 

[Jay]

Hi @MrMargaretScratcher, it sounds like there might be some conflict or permission issues with the other Dropbox folder. 

In order to prevent any further issues, I'd recommend marking the Dropbox folder as available offline, in order for them to download normally from the site directly.

[MrMargaretScratcher]

That's not really an acceptable solution for a couple of reasons:

1: There's 1.6Tb in my dropbox folder, which is going to mean a lengthy download, and more importantly means I need to delete those files which are already on my laptop in order to clear space.

2: I previously didn't have and don't want to have everything in my dropbox folder available offline,

Also, you say 'mark the Dropbox folder as available offline', but that's not something you can actually do as "/Users/myUserName/Library/Dropbox"  doesn't have the dropbox context menu in the same way that the folders contained within do.