Can I link my old Dropbox folder again to my account after moving to a new device?

[LaEi]

I am a DropBox Pro user since many years. Lightning destroyed my W7 PC where I had a partition 😧 with a folder named DropBox. The folder was replicated and syncronized with the DropBox cloud.

Now I have a W10 PC without any partitions, only C:. My whole local DropBox folder content survived and is available here. I have installed DropBox but how do I now go about to synchronize files and folders between the cloud and the PC?

[Rich]

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@LaEi wrote:

I have installed DropBox but how do I now go about to synchronize files and folders between the cloud and the PC?

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If you've installed Dropbox, it should already be syncing your files and downloading them from your account online. Is that not happening? Is there anything in your local Dropbox folder (the new one created when you installed Dropbox)? What, exactly, is the issue that you're having?

[LaEi]

Thanks for your answer. Under "Users - Noname - Dropbox" I see what I believe to be links to my cloud files, but they are all marked with a gray X. After clicking on any of them the file loads and the corresponding X disappears. My DropBox contains 459 347 files so maybe it just takes a lot of time to resync? Is it possible to move the Dropbox folder from "Users - etc" to any other folder?

[Rich]

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@LaEi wrote:

 My DropBox contains 459 347 files so maybe it just takes a lot of time to resync?

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If your account contains a lot of files it will take a while to sync. Also, the performance of the Dropbox desktop app can decline if you have more than 300,000 files synced to your computer. This is a soft limit and depends highly on the hardware specifications of the computer running the app.

If you hover your cursor over the Dropbox icon in your system tray, it should indicate if it's still syncing.

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Is it possible to move the Dropbox folder from "Users - etc" to any other folder?

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It's possible, but if you're already installed the app and it's syncing your files, I wouldn't recommend it. Just let Dropbox work and it should finish syncing your files.

[Nancy]

Hope it’s OK to jump in too, @LaEi! Have you already logged in to the desktop app, after installing Dropbox on your new device? 

If not, and you wish to relink your old Dropbox folder to your current account, then you can do this while signing back in to the desktop app. Before selecting the option to create a new Dropbox folder, you should be able to see an “Advanced Settings” link; please click there and choose the location of your existing Dropbox folder. For example, if your Dropbox folder is located at “D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox”, choose “D:\OtherDrive\Folder”.

This way, the Dropbox app will only reindex your existing files and it won't resync everything from the start. Keep in mind though what Rich mentioned above about the 300k soft limit, as this could potentially cause syncing issues at any point (in which case, you can use selective sync to remove any folders you don't need synced locally on the app).

[LaEi]

Hi Nancy, and well come to the discussion.

First the current situation: Running W10 I see no DropBox in the system tray. All (?) my DropBox files are visible under c:/User etc..., but all files are still marked with an X, so not much seems to have happened since yesterday.

I am also a bit puzzled with the 300000 files limit. I have a 1 Tbyte flash disk so this should not be a problem?

Right clicking on any arbitrary file in the DroBox folder, I notice something called "Make available offline". Does this mean that the DropBox files are offline by default? Is this the reason behind the X marking? Making a file available does not make the familiar "synced" marking to appear though.

Then to the DropBox app. As far as I can discover, I have no DropBox app visible anywhere. Where should it be and what should it look like?

Clicking the DropBox link produces nothing on the screen. The link point to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe" /home

[Walter]

Hey @LaEi - could you send us a screenshot of the X marking you mentioned so that we can have a visual too?

Also, can you send us another screenshot showing your system tray? 

When it comes to making files online-only or available offline, you can have a look here.

[LaEi]

Here is a examples of the peculiar X markings. As can be seen, only files are marked this way, but not folders.

and here is what I believe is the system tray

The link regarding offline files states that these files are also locally stored, but it does not explicitly say whether they are synced or not, i.e. if I update one of these offline files, will that file be updated in the DropBox cloud also?

[Jay]

Hi @LaEi, the grey X marking are related to a conflict with OneDrive. Could you try quitting the OneDrive app on your machine to see if the icons change?

Additionally, the Dropbox icon is there in the system tray, showing the red 4 number on it.