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Forum Discussion
Moving or Copying Dropbox To Another Computer
I just moved 80 Gbytes of Dropbox folders and files (not that much really) to my new computer. First I copied them to an external hard drive. Then I installed the Dropbox application on the new compu...
Hey jrlbell, there are some steps you can follow, so that the application doesn't sync your Dropbox files, but only indexes them.
This however would require to have your Dropbox files already on your new computer and not on an external drive.
These steps are:
1. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to "Dropbox (old)" or similar.
2. Install Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder.
3. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync.
4. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox.
5. Move only the content of "Dropbox (old)" into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.This should cause the app to index the files, instead of redownload them.
I hope this helps.
I guess I'm still looking for an answer to my original question which was, in a nutshell, how to move the Dropbox files and folders to the Dropbox folder on a new computer quickly, via external hard drive or a network share, without them being uploaded all over again? If this cannot be done, then maybe someone could confirm that it is not possible.
JB
Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey jrlbell, there are some steps you can follow, so that the application doesn't sync your Dropbox files, but only indexes them.
This however would require to have your Dropbox files already on your new computer and not on an external drive.
These steps are:
1. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to "Dropbox (old)" or similar.
2. Install Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder.
3. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync.
4. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox.
5. Move only the content of "Dropbox (old)" into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.
This should cause the app to index the files, instead of redownload them.
I hope this helps.
Hi Hannah,
Please note that my Dropbox on my new computer was not downloading files, it was uploading files.
What you outline is essentially what I did. I copied the files from my old computer to my new computer to a folder named, oh I don't remember, but let's say DB (it wasn't named Dropbox). I don't think it matters how they got there. They are obviously going to get there somehow, so in my case, I used an external hard drive to transfer the files. I had installed Dropbox previous to this transfer, so I paused Dropbox synchronization. I then copied the files from the DB folder on my new computer to the Dropbox folder on my new computer and resumed synchronization. Dropbox proceeded to upload every file. Not only that, but on my old computer, the files were downloading, even though they already existed, probably because my old computer thought the new computer was uploading new files and folders.
I don't know what to say except that Dropbox seems flawed in this respect.
So, I think you could just lock this thread here, because the files are all in sync now.
I'm still using Dropbox for "essential" files, but I've returned to keeping the majority of my files in non-Dropbox folders and backing up my data to an external hard drive. I'll probably keep paying for the 2Tb yearly subscription because that's the only way I can have Dropbox on more than, I think, three devices.
JB
