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Forum Discussion

gkmach1ne's avatar
gkmach1ne
Explorer | Level 3
7 months ago

Issues reinstalling Dropbox Backup from a Time Machine Backup.

Hi,

I'll start with a bit of background:

My 3TB fusion drive on my 2013 27" iMac failed recently so I replaced the HD with a new 1TB SSD.

When I try to recover from the latest backup (from a time machine back up on an external drive) it turns out the back up is too large for my new SSD (I think around 2.1TB of the iMac HD was being used).

The main culprit is Dropbox (1.8TB, even though I had previously set most of it to being online-only, to free up space) and if I uncheck the Dropbox box on migration assistant, everything is fine and I can reinstate Apps, Documents, Mail etc etc that were on the iMac before....EXCEPT dropbox and my Desktop, Downloads and Music (because these three folders were synced and backed up to dropbox).

Unfortunately I can't reinstall dropbox again because my download folder is non-existant so no destination for downloads to go to (there's simply a question mark in the place where it should be on the right of the dock), so I can't even download the installer.

It's quite nice having a completely clean desktop too but TBH I'd like to access the files that were on there.

Is my only option to get a larger external harddrive and make that the iMac's main drive? If so I've wasted time and money on the new SSD.

Any ideas of how I can solve this and get my Desktop, Downloads and Music folders back?

Thanks,

GK

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey there, gkmach1ne, thanks for posting here! 

     

    When you visit your Dropbox account online, are you able to see your Backup there? 

     

    You didn't mention anything about disabling it, so unless it's unlinked the content might still be there for you to access.

     

    I hope this clarifies! 

    • gkmach1ne's avatar
      gkmach1ne
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi Megan

      Thanks a lot for your response.

      Yes, I can see the folders in the online Dropbox. So the data is still there online.

      But I'm missing the folders from my Finder in the iMac. I think this is because I was using Dropbox backup. So when I am in Finder and click on either the Dropbox folder, Desktop folder, Music folder or Downloads folder I am met with a message that says: "Desktop" can't be found because the original item can't be found" (and the same for Music or Downloads).

      It seems I can't download anything either because Download is gone.

      I'd like to be able to have a Desktop on my desktop, downloads in Downloads etc. 

      Any clues?

      I'm maybe missing something obvious.

      Thanks

      GK

       

      • Walter's avatar
        Walter
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi there gkmach1ne - sorry to jump in here, but could you clarify your device's OS version and send us a screenshot of the desktop app's exact status as shown in your menu bar at the moment if you managed to install it properly on your computer?

         

        Also, instead of using the time machine backup, do you get the same results if you create a new OS profile? 

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