How to set up Dropbox on a new computer

[Chambo55]

Hi,
Is there a simple procedure for moving my Dropbox account and folders to a new computer without downloading the whole lot? It will be deleted from the old computer.

Cheers Kevin.

[Hannah]

Hey @Chambo55, thanks for the post!

The best way to set up Dropbox on a new computer is to download the desktop application and allow it to sync your files.

If you're on a paid account, you can choose to sync your files as 'online-only' through Smart sync during the installation.

That way, the application will sync placeholder files, instead of the actual files, which won't take long to finish syncing.

And then you can manually make the folders/files you need local and download only those.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[Chambo55]

Thanks Hanna,

I only have a mobile phone hot spot for internet access with a limited data allowance. I am trying to avoid downloading about 3gig of data. Will cost me a fortune in excess data. Must be a simple data copying process to get this done?

Kevin

[Hannah]

Sure thing, Kevin!

Well, you could make a copy of the Dropbox folder on your old computer, move it to the new one (perhaps with a USB drive) and name it 'Dropbox'.

And then during the installation of the application, you should be able to use the 'advanced settings' and choose the folder in question as the destination folder for your Dropbox.

I hope it works! Let me know if you come across any issues. 

[Chambo55]

Thanks Hanna,

Your second suggestion make a lot of sense, and is exactly what I did with my OneDrive folder without any issue. However, when tried with DropBox, would not work. It insisted on downloading the cloud files in order to transfer to the external HDD.

While DropBox has many good features, this shortcoming in making life quite difficult to do a PC upgrade. It is now making me lean toward going fully OneDrive to avoid this issue again in 3 years time.

[Jay]

Hi @Chambo55, if your files on your old machine are not already local, then moving the files to the external drive would force the files to be downloaded from the site, as this is the primary function of Smart Sync.

[Xavier10]

Do you have a friend with unlimited data who can then copy it to your phone?