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Forum Discussion
Change Dropbox folder location on Mac
Hi I have a Dropbox account with 1TB of space but the problem is I can't use it all as keep getting error message on my Mac saying not enough space? I am only using 1GB at the moment, the problem i...
JohnnyR wrote:
And even more annoying is that I can't manually copy the dropbox folder in Finder (which is a 1000 times faster) and just point Dropbox to that location. Why is that not allowed?
Because if you move/remove the existing folder while Dropbox is running, Dropbox could see it as a mass deletion which would then be synced to your account online, deleting all of your files. But, with a few extra steps on your part, that's actually very possible to do.
Uninstall Dropbox. Once uninstalled, rename the existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Reinstall Dropbox and use the options during installation to select the location for your Dropbox folder. As soon as Dropbox is done being installed, it will start to download the files from your account. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox. Move the content of your Dropbox_OLD folder into the newly created Dropbox folder. Resume syncing or relaunch Dropbox and allow it to index your files. This will take time, especially if you have a lot of files. Be patient and let it work.
Stefanie
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi Tim,
Dropbox can be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed. Also, for Dropbox to work best you should make sure that the drive is formatted as HFS (Mac OS X).
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the following steps:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and then click on the gear in the Notifications panel
- Select "Preferences" from the resulting Dropbox menu
- Under the “Account” tab, select a new location for the Dropbox folder by clicking on the drop down next to “Dropbox location:”
- Let Dropbox move your folder and its contents to its new location
NOTE: The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in.
A good alternative to moving Dropbox to an external drive is to take a look at our Selective Sync feature. Selective Sync is a feature that allows you to choose which folders to sync to a particular computer. It's a great option if you'd like to free up disk space without moving Dropbox to an external drive.
Please follow these steps to enable Selective Sync:
1) Right-click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar on the top of your screen
2) Click the gear icon
3) Select "Preferences"
4) Go to the "Account" tab
5) Select "Change Settings..."
By default, all folders in Dropbox automatically sync to any computer that's linked to your Dropbox account. If you'd like to prevent a folder from syncing to your computer, un-check the box next to the folder's name. Any folders you deselect will stop syncing to your hard drive, but will still be available through the website and on any other computer linked to your Dropbox account.
If you decide that you need the deselected folders back on your computer, go into your Selective Sync settings and check the box next to the folder's name. Dropbox will then sync the updated folder to your computer again.
To learn more about Selective Sync, please read this Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/175
I hope this helps.
Stefanie, This method probably works fine if you only have a few GB's to move. It failed twice on me after moving around 350 GB's of my 1.65 TB DropBox folder. This is especially annoying since it wastes a lot of time and you have to start over. I thought one of the main points of DropBox is to allow you to backup and keep available LARGE amounts of data---not just for newbies who have their first or second Mac and a few term papers to keep track of, but also longtime users like me who have personally owned 10-20 Macs over a period of several decades and have amassed lots of data. There seems to be little support for us! Anyone who knows of good strategies for managing large amounts of data and having it readily available using DropBox please reply and thanks in advance. PLEASE DO NOT SAY "WE DON'T RECOMMEND THAT"!!!!!!!! =: )
